Finally, I got to file manager on the UNIX system. I've thought a lot about what to use since many good terminal file managers exist—for instance, Midnight Commander, Vifm, Ranger, NNN, etc. In the beginning, I used Vifm, and it has many features. However, after I tried to use Ranger, I entirely switched to it.

We will discuss the whole flow I use on a regular basis.

Tmux + Ranger

I use Kitty+Tmux, and now I use Ranger. Typing ranger in the terminal every time can be annoying. So, I've added keybindings to open Ranger app without typing it every time. I have two keybindings.

Open ranger in the current pane:

bind f send-keys "ranger" C-m

Open ranger in the new window:

bind F new-window -c "#{pane_current_path}" 'ranger'

Ranger

External configuration

I like to keep all my configurations in one place. This helps me have the same configuration in one place, and once I want to switch to another laptop or PC, I grab the configurations that were done previously, which cover all my needs.

When Ranger app starts, it reads the configuration from ~/.config/ranger/rc.conf
I keep my external ranger configuration in ~/my-configs/ranger/rc.conf
So my ranger config (~/.config/ranger/rc.conf) has only one line:

source ~/my-configs/ranger/rc.conf

Leader mapping

Before we start with mappings and configurations, I want to mention that I'm using ; as a leader mapping. Therefore, whenever I want to add a new mapping, I'm not afraid that I'm going to override some existing mapping.

Run shell command (;ss)

To run shell command, I have the following mapping:

map ;ss console shell%space

To run shell command, and see the output:

map ;sw console shell -w%space

to exit hit Enter

Directory and file operations

Add file (;af)

map ;af console shell touch%space

I prefer using the shell touch as you can create multiple files simultaneously.
Like this:

shell touch a.txt b.txt c.txt
# or
shell touch {a,b,c}.txt

The commands above will create multiple files. If you use touch without shell Ranger will create a single file with spaces.

Add directory (;ad)

map ;ad console shell mkdir -p%space

You might notice that I'm not using regular mkdir, but mkdir -p. p flag allows me to create multiple directories in one go. If we enter a/b/c, the a, b, and c folders will be created.

Adding multiple files or directories

If you want to add multiple files or directories, a shell command is used. Once you press ;ss, you can enter multiple file or directory names, and they will be created in one go.

Delete file or directory (;dd)

map ;dd eval fm.execute_console('delete %s')

Important to note that this mapping works in single mode when you just press ;dd on some file and when you select multiple files and press ;dd.

Rename file or directory (;r)

map ;r  rename_append

Copy files or directories (ya)

If you want to copy single or multiple files or directories, click ya on each file you want to copy and move to the folder you want to paste the copied items and hit pp.

But afterward, you need to unselect the items you copied before. To do this, hit uy.

As it was bothering me to hit all the time uy, ud, or uv I modified my paste to unselect everything after I've pasted the files or directories.

map pp chain paste; uncut; mark_files all=True, val=False

Cut files or directories (da)

It's a pretty similar situation with cut operations. You click da to mark it as cut, then pp to paste the files or directories.

Display hidden files (;.)

map ;. set show_hidden!

Open current directory in finder (;o)

map ;o shell open .

Copy full path to clipboard

To copy the full path to the clipboard I don't use custom mapping. Consequently, I'm using the default mapping yp.

Archiving and compressing

Zip (;az)

My mapping:

map ;az chain console shell zip -r .zip %s; eval fm.ui.console.move(right=13, absolute=True); mark_files all=True val=False

To archive and compress, I'm using zip command. Select the content you want to archive using visual mode V or space, and then hit ;az and enter the archive name.

Unzip (;au)

My mapping:

map ;au eval fm.execute_console('shell unzip %f')

To unzip, hit ;au, and the archive you're under will be unarchived.

Giving permissions (;ax)

I like to have a hotkey to give script permissions.

map ;ax chain eval fm.execute_console('shell chmod 755 %s'); mark_files all=True val=False

Tabs

I'm using standard ranger mapping to work with tabs.

Marking

For marking files or directories, I'm using the same default mappings.

Toggle views

The mapping below will allow you to switch between different views:

map ;mu set viewmode=multipane
map ;mi set viewmode=miller

Themes

In general, there are a few themes available:

• default
• jungle
• snow
• solarized

But you can install custom themes or even develop your own. I'm using Zenburn theme.

It's pretty simple to install it, here is the script:

cd ~/.config/ranger
git clone https://github.com/ranger/colorschemes.git

and update your config:

set colorscheme zenburn

Filter

If you have too many files, you can use these mappings to filter and reset the filter.

map zf console filter%space
map uf eval fm.execute_console('filter ')

Search

To search, hit / and type the folder or file name you're looking for, then Enter and you'll jump on the first match.

Clear all selections

If you marked files for cutting or copying operations, filtered, or you just selected items with visual mode and want to reset any of these operations with one key, here is the mapping:

map ;c chain uncut; mark_files all=True val=False; eval fm.execute_console('filter ')

Marks

In my opinion, marks are probably one of the best features in Ranger that lets you navigate through the folders with the speed of light. I don't have any special mappings for that, only defaults. First, you mark a folder with m + letter, and this is it. Now you're ready to jump to the folder you marked at any time with ' + letter.

To jump between the last two marks press ''.

Integrations

Neovim

If you're not using Neovim yet, I really recommend it. To me, it's number one. To open Neovim in the current directory, hit ;n, here is the mapping:

map ;n eval fm.execute_console('shell nvim')

GDU - Go DiskUsage()

GDU is a fast disk usage analyzer written in Go.

map ;u eval fm.execute_console('shell gdu')

FZF

Plugin

Nothing special during FZF installation, navigate to Ranger plugins folder, which is located at ~/.config/ranger/plugins, and clone the repo.

cd ~/.config/ranger/plugins
git clone https://github.com/cjbassi/ranger-fzf.git

Right now I'm using commands from commands.py, but previously I used the following mapping:

map ;f eval fm.execute_console('fzf')

Commands

There is another option for using FZF with Ranger. You can add commands.

Here is the source code: Ranger File Manager - Find and Locate using Fuzzy Finder (fzf)

After adding the commands.py file, I changed the mapping to:

map ;ff fzf_select
map ;fl fzf_locate

• fzf_select: Uses the find command to search for files and directories within the current directory.
• fzf_locate: Uses the locate command to search for files and directories indexed by the system's locate database, typically across the entire filesystem.

Z Jumper

One of the best terminal apps is z jumper. I use it all the time, so I've also decided to integrate it.

I have this mapping:

map ;z console z%space

to install, navigate to the plugins folder, and clone the repo:

cd ~/.config/ranger/plugins
git clone https://github.com/rupa/z.git

When I installed the Z jumper Ranger plugin, I had issues. After I debugged the plugin, I figured out that the plugin tries to find the _Z_SRC variable, which is responsible for the z.sh script. So I added this line to my `.zshrc` file export _Z_SRC=$HOME/.z.sh.

Devicons

Devicons plugin adds icons to your files and folders.

cd ~/.config/ranger/plugins
git clone https://github.com/alexanderjeurissen/ranger_devicons.git

Additional resources

• Ranger
• Ranger Official User Guide
• Tmux wiki
• Neovim
• Z Jumper GitHub
• FZF GitHub
• GDU