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on Gopher (inofficial)
URI Visit Hacker News on the Web
COMMENT PAGE FOR:
URI GNU Midnight Commander
vzaliva wrote 2 hours 48 min ago:
Tell me you are from USSR without telling me :)
Also tell me you are super-conservative, clinging to ossifed replica of
a tool from 1986.
P.S. Compare to some other tools from old times, e.g. `vi`. It was
wastly modernized as `vim` and still actively developed with new
features added.
29athrowaway wrote 2 hours 53 min ago:
Over the years, I went from mc to ranger to nnn to lf to yazi.
xyzelement wrote 3 hours 25 min ago:
Anytime I see this stuff, I get nostalgic for Norton Commander (it was
HUGE in the USSR when I was a kid learning computers in the late 80s
and early 90s)
But somehow the reality of how I - and I think most people - use
computers today is very different. I don't find myself navigating a
shallow directory hierarchy and making file operations too often. A
part of it is that all the stuff is in the cloud or at least connected
to applications (eg: I am more likely to navigate my coding projects
from an IDE than from Shell/MC)
And when I administer eg my home linux system, it seems more likely
that I jump to a random far-away directory or edit a specific file,
rather than navigating the filesystem MC stye.
I am curious how people are using computers today that MC-like
interface is still most suitable.
insane_dreamer wrote 31 min ago:
I use MC all the item for both work and personal (and was using NC
back in the day before MC). I find it much faster/more productive
than all the GUI file explorers I've tried.
Recursively find files -> Panelize alone is worth the price of
admission.
Multi-file select.
Two-panel for easy moving/copying files, including to
cloud/remote/ssh drives (just mount them).
Quickly go back to previously visited folders in your history.
Compare folders.
etc etc
> I jump to a random far-away directory
Esc-C and type in the path. I do it all the time in MC.
> or edit a specific file
Navigate to folder (above), type first letters of filename to find
it, press F4 to edit.
YeGoblynQueenne wrote 1 hour 37 min ago:
On windows I use mc to navigate around the WSL-2 file system.
On linux I use it to manage remote servers without a window manager
(by design, because I don't need one).
I also use it to pass files between my laptops over ssh, between
windows and/or linux.
0x457 wrote 2 hours 44 min ago:
I remember a time when FAR was one of the first things I install on
Windows.
forgotmypw17 wrote 3 hours 20 min ago:
I use Total Commander on Windows all the time. It is much better than
Explorer at so many things, such as:
- Actually letting you navigate the directory structure.
- Making WSL volumes easy to work with.
- Keyboard accessibility.
- Dealing with many tabs and bookmarks.
- A stable interface that doesn't randomly change without my consent.
- Many other things I'll omit for time reasons.
yzzyx wrote 3 hours 50 min ago:
I love mc, and mcedit is still my text editor of choice 99% of the
time!
dwaaa wrote 4 hours 0 min ago:
I need:
* grubvox colors ;)
* half vertical size of screen (similar norton commander) I can type
instructions and see output
* default change directory when leave a 'mc'.
* better way to change default program (for example image)
iLemming wrote 4 hours 36 min ago:
Those who still remember Norton and Far Commanders, can you recall this
favorite song of yours, once even featured in "Madagascar"?
,
I like to move it, move it!
,
Move it!
insane_dreamer wrote 6 hours 34 min ago:
Been using MC for over 20 years (and NC before it). Still haven't found
a better file manager (GUI or TUI), and I've tried many. I even use it
on my Mac.
I use it for SCP and S3 file management too (first mounting the folder
using sshfs or goofys).
esafak wrote 6 hours 57 min ago:
If you're stuck on Windows I recommend xplorer².
URI [1]: https://www.zabkat.com/
wmlive wrote 7 hours 13 min ago:
I'd wish there was a Midnight Commander available for Android that
would allow for being used during an adb shell or ssh session. Ghost
Commander doesn't cover that use case, sadly.
qiine wrote 7 hours 18 min ago:
always have it just in case, but its hard to beat dolphin breadth of
features.
also I use oil+fzf-lua more and more lately.
kayo_20211030 wrote 7 hours 22 min ago:
Greatest tool ever!
hollowonepl wrote 7 hours 29 min ago:
what's new about it? or is it just a reminder that `mc` still exists?
dim13 wrote 7 hours 28 min ago:
⦠since 1994
hollowonepl wrote 5 hours 11 min ago:
Thatâs what I know since 1994 as well. thus surprised itâs
published here with landing page only and no specific news. Unless
I missed one? Is there some 31 years celebration or sth? :)
gclawes wrote 7 hours 43 min ago:
Something feels strange reading the docs for mc in Material for MKDocs
glax wrote 8 hours 21 min ago:
I used Far manager( [1] ) a lot back in the days, clone of norton
commander. Got hooked to it, after joining the se-nse.net forum ( [2]
). Sadly it's been disbanded now
URI [1]: https://www.farmanager.com/screenshots.php
URI [2]: https://www.facebook.com/sensedotnet
andyferris wrote 8 hours 53 min ago:
I used to use XTree Gold, which was... golden. I always heard of
Midnight Commander but never really got around to using it. I should
probably fix that.
What I never got was why this style of TUI (MS edit.com, qbasic, etc)
isn't really carried through in modern tradition? I really enjoyed
these when when I was younger... yet even textual or ratatui apps don't
really bring this interface to the terminal. (Or why
screen-coordinate-based terminals aren't the norm to base TUI apps
upon... this aspect just seems "obvious" but in this aspect modern
terminal emulates seem lightyears behind MS-DOS, of all things).
Perhaps the rewrite of edit [1] will spawn a ressurgence of this TUI
style?
URI [1]: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/edit-is-now-open-so...
TomaszZielinski wrote 4 hours 35 min ago:
Yes, I also have fond memories of quite a few TUI apps for DOS. Not
sure if itâs pure nostalgia, it might be. But then it feels like
dark magic that you could have 40kB .COM or 100kB .EXE doing so many
things and looking so nicely..
jmclnx wrote 7 hours 1 min ago:
Same here, back then I found a little known file manager called
DM.COM. That was my # 1 goto in DOS for files. IMO, it is the best.
You can do this to get information on how to download it:
curl 'gopher://sdf.org/0/users/jmccue/repository/dm220.txt' >
dm220.txt
jbd0 wrote 9 hours 2 min ago:
I've been a mc user for many years, but lately I've been using dired in
emacs. It's quite powerful and intuitive to me.
MangoToupe wrote 9 hours 29 min ago:
I'm a little surprised graphical file management is so popular. I use
the command line for almost everything (ie using unix utilities to
manage files), and I am a little mystified as to what people do with
their computers such that file management is so time consuming it
benefits from stuff like this.
bvrmn wrote 9 hours 35 min ago:
I have fond memories for mc during my transition from Windows and
trying to replace DOS Navigator and Far Manager with something similar.
Started to use ranger a long ago though and never came back.
drillsteps5 wrote 7 hours 47 min ago:
Went through the same process but ended up with Far clone on Linux
called far-2l. Wouldn't say it's great (I miss many plugins) but it's
def good enough for me.
Aspos wrote 8 hours 14 min ago:
Far Manager works in Linux and Mac OS and works great.
candidtim wrote 9 hours 44 min ago:
Shameless plug: [1] I've been working on "F2 Commander" on and off for
a while now. At first, I wanted a TUI to view the contents of cloud
storage buckets (GCS, S3, etc.), but it quickly evolved into an
orthodox file manager. The funny thing is, the first version was in
Common Lisp, but then I discovered Textual and was instantly sold on it
- it's really fun to work with. The app scratches my itch, and although
most of the time I myself prefer just using the regular command line, I
open it up when I need to quickly navigate or move some files in a
complex directory tree. [1]
URI [1]: https://github.com/candidtim/f2-commander
URI [2]: https://textual.textualize.io/
protomikron wrote 10 hours 8 min ago:
It's an interesting file browser, the default "blue" colors gives
old-school vibes nowadays.
If you wonder how to quit (if started from a terminal):
It's `ESC 0`. Or "exit" like from a shell. Took me some time I have to
admit (q, ctrl-c, ctrl-q, F10, ESC all did not work).
kidsil wrote 10 hours 1 min ago:
F10 always worked for me, but some terminals use F10 for some other
functionality.
If that fails, you can click on "10 Quit" with the mouse (not ideal,
but an immediate solution).
protomikron wrote 9 hours 59 min ago:
Ah I see, thx, it's a pretty default configured "gnome-terminal",
which probably captures the F10.
ggaughan wrote 10 hours 45 min ago:
It uses F10 to quit so if you're in GNOME Terminal (e.g. Ubuntu) go to
Terminal Preferences|General and uncheck "Enable the menu accelerator
key (F10 by default)", or use Alt-0 to quit instead.
lofaszvanitt wrote 10 hours 53 min ago:
MC needs a shakeup from its current maintenance mode, since many
state-of-the-art features, especially around copying, should be added.
Unfortunately, not much has changed in the last decade.
nvtop wrote 10 hours 57 min ago:
I tried to love mc, but its ergonomics felt slightly off. Maybe it's
just hard to rewire my Norton / Volkov Commander / FAR Manager muscle
memory, I don't know
I ended up being on a Linux fork of Far Manager, which works
beautifully:
URI [1]: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l
rob74 wrote 10 hours 49 min ago:
While I use command line tools on Linux daily, using a console-based
tool that pretends to be a GUI tool is a bridge too far, so I prefer
GUI-based dual pane file managers like Double Commander or Krusader.
Of course mc and far can be used over an SSH connection, so they have
their advantages too...
DoctorOW wrote 10 hours 59 min ago:
Weird question, when you call yourself "GNU " does that just mean GNU
Public License, or is it more like "Apache " where there's an
organization attached?
schoen wrote 10 hours 14 min ago:
It's supposed to be the latter (approval as part of the GNU Project).
egorfine wrote 11 hours 29 min ago:
I have been using Norton Commander from early versions. Then Volkov
Commander.
Somehow during my 30+ years *nix career I never truly and actually used
mc. Seems like moving files around in shell is good enough.
lukaslalinsky wrote 11 hours 30 min ago:
I used Norton Commander from the early DOS days. I've gone through many
clones over the years. Eventually I was more OK with just using command
line for moving files around, but I still find myself starting mc and
moving things that way, because it's just so much easier. I'm so glad
it still exists and is maintained.
amelius wrote 11 hours 40 min ago:
How does it compare to Apple's Finder?
k__ wrote 12 hours 7 min ago:
I fondly remember my first PC, which only had DOS.
I came from C64 where I had GEOS, that allowed me to do anything with a
nice GUI, so it felt like quite the step back.
However, PCs were all the rage at that time, so I got one and thanks to
Norton Commander, I was able to use it with a nice(+ish) GUI too.
graycrow wrote 12 hours 24 min ago:
MC is a great file manager, but Far2l is even better.
bmn__ wrote 12 hours 29 min ago:
Lots of comments here review the (OFM) concept, not the particular
implementation.
I have plenty of criticism for MC, I wish it had the sufficient amount
of features so that it becomes a better representative of its genre and
I could start recommending it to other users. Krusader and Total
Commander are lightyears ahead, try these first.
KaiserPro wrote 12 hours 31 min ago:
I never understood the fervent love for midnight/norton commander. Its
not like its a new phenomenon. I remember people raving about it in the
late 90s too.
is it nostalgia, or is it really that useful?
mrweasel wrote 12 hours 6 min ago:
For some people it's just how they work. I did consulting for a
company, and the developer I sat next to on my visits used Total
Commander of all things. It was probably the first thing he'd install
on any new Windows machine. He never open Explorer, everything
related to files was done within the confines of Total Commander. For
those who got started with Norton Commander and moved to Linux/Unix
from there, Midnight Commander is probably just the tool they are
used to and it's completely ingrained in their workflows.
Personally I really want to like Midnight Commander, well I do like
it, I just don't use it that much. As someone else pointed out, the
keyboard shortcuts just doesn't work for me for some reason. I think
if you grew up using the F-keys a lot, then it probably makes total
sense.
KaiserPro wrote 11 hours 28 min ago:
I can;t really argue with the force of habit. I've installed vim
bindings to vscode, so I can see their point.
oytis wrote 12 hours 28 min ago:
MSDOS shell language was completely awful as I remember, so Norton
Commander came in really handy.
w4rh4wk5 wrote 12 hours 52 min ago:
I've always found Midnight Commander to be underrated, perhaps because
it "looks old". I still recommend checking it out if you want a
terminal-based file manager.
In case you do prefer GUIs, consider DoubleCommander.
neurostimulant wrote 7 hours 34 min ago:
It's not so bad once you change the skin to non-default ones. I like
the yadt256 skin.
blks wrote 12 hours 22 min ago:
For MacOS, I love Marta file manager.
snvzz wrote 12 hours 46 min ago:
Worker[0] is a mature double panel GUI file manager that's often
overlooked.
0.
URI [1]: http://www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/worker/
keyle wrote 13 hours 2 min ago:
I grew up using Norton Commander. It had everything I needed including
a decent editor!
I'm not sure if midnight commander was a complete rewrite.
unixhero wrote 12 hours 49 min ago:
It is a clean room imlementation and mostly feature complete with
more modern support such as SFTP, UTF-8 and so on.
atmosx wrote 13 hours 6 min ago:
I use midnight commander to transfer files between my servers using FTP
over VPN but supports multiple protocols. Great software, once you get
familiar with the shortcuts there's nothing like it. Clean, simple and
does the job. You can transfer in the background or foreground. It's a
pretty complete tool.
pmkary wrote 13 hours 9 min ago:
Miguel de Icaza Rocks So Hard. And whatever he makes rocks as much.
hxorr wrote 13 hours 9 min ago:
I am especially fond of mcedit, the midnight commander editor which can
be run independently. Very easy to pick up and use as a casual user as
opposed to something like vi
unixhero wrote 12 hours 39 min ago:
Yes its really great. You should check out Jed's editor on Linux and
MultiEdit on MSdos. It continues in the same spirit as MCView. Both
are definitely inspired by Turbo Pascal.
jwr wrote 13 hours 11 min ago:
Midnight commander is a great tool, although I think most younger users
do not realize that we lost something along the way. Norton Commander
was fantastically fast for common file operations not just because of
the dual-pane design, but because of several things working together.
Thoughtful design of software while thinking of hardware. To get the
most out of it, you were supposed to use the numpad on your keyboard.
And it should be the classic IBM PC numpad: large +, large 0, [num]/*-
in the top row. Then, you wanted your function keys as a top row above
your keyboard. Also, ESC was supposed to work immediately, not after a
delay.
I know many people think these things don't matter, because you can do
everything with MC (and more), but I disagree. In this case, every
fraction of a second matters. In the setup I described above, selecting
all files in the current directory and moving them to the directory in
the other pane is: one flick of the right hand (roll over + and Enter
on the numpad), F6 with the left hand followed by another Enter
immediately with the right hand. Now try to do that using the + that is
on your = key and tell me it's the same thing.
javier_e06 wrote 4 hours 6 min ago:
Ah Norton Commander. It sure throws me back to the Intel Pentium
days. Today for that left versus right birds eye view, just-do-it,
operations I use beyond compare.
homebrewer wrote 10 hours 34 min ago:
> ESC was supposed to work immediately, not after a delay.
It's not mc's fault, the Escape delay is added by the terminal
emulator, to correctly handle escape sequences. You can probably
configure it, but the most portable way that works everywhere is to
simply press it twice quickly. It's only barely slower than the DOS
way of doing it, and much faster than pressing and waiting for a
second.
couscouspie wrote 16 min ago:
I don't even understand the problem: ESC and the following key is
generally just an alias for ALT+key.
zahlman wrote 6 hours 19 min ago:
In gnome-terminal, I have yet to succeed in inputting an escape
sequence manually without the escape key being interpreted
separately.
ptspts wrote 8 hours 31 min ago:
This should have been solved in the last 30 years on Linux console,
X terminal emulators and through SSH.
tracker1 wrote 5 hours 48 min ago:
It's more of a "just in case" thing for the most part... the
actual risk of an escape as part of a sequence showing up over
TCP without the rest for over a fraction of a second today is
highly unlikely. That said, so many systems seem to add a delay
well over half a second like we're using dialup.
I'd probably tune the delay to 100-200ms if I ever really felt it
and have the option to change it.
mmastrac wrote 7 hours 29 min ago:
The kitty key protocol solves this, but your app and terminal
need to support it. Many do.
tremon wrote 11 hours 23 min ago:
"select all files" was just one key: * (actually, it was invert
selection -- so assuming no files were selected beforehand). Pressing
+ and Enter would select one file, then try to edit/run the next one?
Lex-2008 wrote 7 hours 24 min ago:
I believe pressing + should open "Select files" dialog prefilled to
select all files (and dirs), pressing Enter confirms it.
My Midnight Commander 4.8.33, however, remember previously entered
mask, and if no mask was entered - then it defaults to selecting
nothing :(
eviks wrote 11 hours 54 min ago:
> every fraction of a second matters
That was not true otherwise you wouldn't get stuck with the most
unergonomic keys mandating moving your hands off their resting place.
> selecting all files ... : one flick of the right hand
The common Ctrl+A is better, no flick, just shifting a single thumb
> F6 with the left hand followed by another Enter immediately with
the right hand
Or still same single hand Ctrl+Shift+X (or something even easier like
maybe X, X)
arevno wrote 8 hours 11 min ago:
> the most unergonomic keys mandating moving your hands off their
resting place
Touch typists always have to get their dig in.
I've been using vim for 5 years now and still use up/dn/lf/rt -
it's easier to find in a tactile manner with the right keyboard and
makes MUCH more sense to the brain than hjkl. It's like 80ms
travel, worst case.
Even the gaming community got this more correct with wasd, in terms
of key positions that make sense to the brain.
tracker1 wrote 5 hours 44 min ago:
In early, original Doom/Doom2 days, I'd use ctrl/shift as up/down
with zx mapped to left right... resting my left hand there felt
really comfortable and the actions were pretty easy functionally
without as much RSI strain. In the end, I gave up and went with
wasd as I got tired of changing settings for games all the time,
or having someone else use my computer and complain.
zahlman wrote 6 hours 14 min ago:
Even the gaming community got this more correct with wasd
esdf would be better (using stronger fingers). I don't like hjkl
either and would use ijkl if I were non-lazy enough to figure out
rebinding. I can remember many games for the Apple ][ used ijkm.
tremon wrote 2 hours 11 min ago:
Nobody has their index finger on the F when using wasd
navigation. The reason wasd was chosen is because of the
position of ctrl, alt and space (also common in games): with
the hand on esdf, the ctrl and alt keys are quite hard to
reach; but with the index finger on the D, the thumb can easily
switch between alt and space, and the pinky can access ctrl and
shift.
btw this is why vi used hjkl for navigation:
URI [1]: https://catonmat.net/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys
zahlman wrote 1 hour 26 min ago:
> Nobody has their index finger on the F when using wasd
navigation.
Yes, but they would while editing text, and the context of
this was the idea of drawing inspiration from other control
systems for a text editor UI.
The choice of key labeling on that terminal implies that
there was a pre-existing convention, but the article doesn't
go into any detail about that.
jack_pp wrote 6 hours 26 min ago:
gaming defaulted to wasd because you only use one hand.
hjkl makes a ton of sense considering the j key on all keyboards
has a tactile feel, it is way easier than arrows which are a
whole lot more than 80ms travel for the move + finding the home
row again.
but you're probably just rage baiting
Izkata wrote 7 hours 50 min ago:
Fun fact: hjkl are in the same order as the arrows on screen in
Dance Dance Revolution.
eviks wrote 8 hours 0 min ago:
> it's easier to find in a tactile manner
It isn't because your resting keys require NO finding, so will
always be easier.
> makes MUCH more sense to the brain than hjkl
> Even the gaming community got this more correct with wasd, in
terms of key positions that make sense to the brain
Don't repeat the ancient hjkl mistake? What does your brain say
to this simple counter? But more importantly, how does any of the
numpad+/F6 nonsense follow from the fact that you can improve
within the letters?
> It's like 80ms travel
I bet you didn't really time anything in real use, especially not
the return timing to go back to the base, which will take you
longer. But more importantly, go convince the "every fraction of
a second matters" guy first. To me the lack of design
logic/convenience is enough.
nottorp wrote 12 hours 56 min ago:
Stuff is still there as long as you get a proper keyboard.
Well, and monitor.
If you're slouching over your laptop for extended periods of time,
you have bigger problems than not being able to use numpad +...
Ambix wrote 13 hours 13 min ago:
Still my default tool to install on any remote server. My secret weapon
:)
xdkyx wrote 13 hours 14 min ago:
I used to install Windows Commander (later Total Commander) on every
system I have used, so much so that I bought the Total Commander
licence. However as time passes by I used it less and less, to the
point that currently I run it once a month out of pure nostalgia.
unixhero wrote 12 hours 48 min ago:
I still use it. Did you know it supports extensions? Such as being
able to explore SQLite files and so on. A Polish team has put
toghether as many extensions as possible into a self contained
installer-distro for Total Commander. It is called Total Commander
Ultima Prime. I enjoy it a lot.
URI [1]: https://tcup.pl
Perz1val wrote 13 hours 10 min ago:
Check out File Pilot
integricho wrote 13 hours 30 min ago:
For some strange reason I am attracted to try to use ZTreeWin, even
though I am using a dual pane manager as my daily driver, but there is
some nostalgic force driving me to try and force myself onto ZTreeWin.
I even bought the license for it more than 2 years ago, but still
haven't touched it in any serious capacity. I mostly lack the
convenience and speed by which I am able to accomplish tasks in my
existing (dual panel) orthodox filemanager, and at the same time I am
losing patience by learning every single thing in it from sratch. Does
anyone know of a good learning resource for ZTreeWin?
olaf wrote 13 hours 31 min ago:
I preferred snappy XTree
penetrarthur wrote 13 hours 32 min ago:
Total Commander is still the first thing I install on every fresh
Windows install for the last 20 or so years. Copy/move/delete etc keys
are the same as in mc.
lofaszvanitt wrote 10 hours 49 min ago:
The best are the youtube movies that try to explain to amateurs how
to use the horrible built in windows file manager WITH A MOUSE!....
while there is total commander.
YeGoblynQueenne wrote 1 hour 19 min ago:
Windows Explorer? It's not that bad. Granted, I only ever use it
with the keyboard. But then you can tile two windows side-by-side
(or four) and it's a bit like a commander of sorts.
The only time I ever have to use the mouse in WE is when I try to
move to the Quick Access side-bar: sometimes focus gets lost
somewhere around all the bloody menus I never use and I can't place
it where I want it. It's weird and I'm not describing it clearly
because it happens only occasionally and I don't understand exactly
how.
pilif wrote 13 hours 31 min ago:
They are the same because both projects are inspired by Norton
Commander for DOS which also used those keys.
0points wrote 13 hours 41 min ago:
I been using mc since mandrake days, coming from dos looking for a
norton commander replacement.
Still use mc in 2025 :-)
Aldipower wrote 10 hours 9 min ago:
I still remember how I installed Slackware in 1996 and then found
about Midnight Commander by accidentally typing in 'mc'. I LOLed hard
as I saw the name "midnight". Still using it today too!!
bronlund wrote 13 hours 46 min ago:
I still use both Midnight Commander and Total Commander daily. Those
are hard habits to kick :D For macOS, I use Forklift.
yuvadam wrote 13 hours 51 min ago:
For anyone looking for more modern terminal file managers: my favorite
is yazi since it has great preview capabilities out of the box and
requires zero config, but other alternatives are nnn, ranger, walk and
lf.
ramses0 wrote 8 hours 15 min ago:
...and a tip for `ranger`: `alias r='source ranger'`
See `cat "$( which ranger )"` for what it does, but TLDR lets your
shell `cd` (navigate) to the directory where you've navigated to
within ranger. (ie: you can use the alias `r` as a lazy man's `cd`).
It has to be done as a shell alias b/c `$PWD` is exclusively a shell
concept, can't be modified by a mere program that you're running
(thankfully).
Other useful bits are sometimes `F2` for interactive file-rename (eg:
backspace `.txt` to `.csv` or whatever), mark/tag support so `'d`
goes to `~/Downloads`, `'g` goes to `~/Git`, `'t` for `/tmp`, etc.
Overall if you're decent at vim there's a lot to love, and otherwise
the basics pretty much work like you'd expect with keyboard/gui
conventions (arrows, f2, etc).
haakon wrote 12 hours 22 min ago:
mc user for decades here. I spent a long time teaching myself yazi
and configuring it just to my liking, only to realize I don't really
use a file manager that much anymore. It's hard to compete with
shells for efficiency in most scenarios.
submeta wrote 13 hours 47 min ago:
Yazi is absolutely phantastic. It can be extended by own scripts. I
have configured it to jump to any folder via fzf, find any file in a
folder and subfolders via `fd`, and navigate to any folder/subfolder
on my system in seconds. I don't use my GUI finders on my Mac
anymore. Absolutely recommended.
witrak wrote 13 hours 52 min ago:
It seems nobody remembers the reason for the F-key assignment in the
original i.e. Norton Commander... The assignment was very logical and
easy to remember (and use) on the original PC keyboard, where F-keys
were located in two columns on the left edge of the keyboard: F1, F2,
then F3, F4, and so on. You can immediately see the advantages of the
F9 location (the leftmost key at the bottom) and of the proximity of
the Browse and Edit keys. I used my left thumb to press F10 - it was in
the correct place almost without palm movement...
Nowadays I almost don't use Mc (except for file manipulation) because
the Linux version has a serious weak point - it blocks the most
important keystroke in shell: Tab. It is of course traditionally
reserved for panel switching but this role could be deactivated when
instead a single command line zone MC would allow to have a multi-line
(in NC it was 3 or 4 line) zone for the shell scrolled display. This
way it would be possible to have the full-size panel display (with the
Tab switching panes) and one keystroke away reduced-size panels with
full functionality of the shell tab key in the alternative panel
mode...
Another disadvantage is the complicated way of changing settings
(especially the colors and file attributes display format) in practice
forcing trial and error mode... True, it's not needed often but
spending hours on it is rather deterrent.
thom wrote 13 hours 56 min ago:
I still have great affection for Midnight Commander, like Norton
Commander before it. I used to use the latter to initiate a parallel
cable connection to my brother's computer for Doom deathmatches, pretty
cool for a file manager.
For no good reason, here's a screenshot of both of them running side by
side on an iPad, which is a thing you can apparently do these days:
URI [1]: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYRYTq6WUAAt_1t?format=jpg&name=la...
reaperducer wrote 6 hours 51 min ago:
9%[___)
Dude, plug that thing in!
royskee wrote 2 hours 0 min ago:
I guess you're not familiar with the iconography, but the little
lightning bolt symbol in the battery icon means it is plugged in!
(edit: I tried to reproduce your "ASCII art" with unicode lightning
bolt but the formatting didn't survive)
thom wrote 4 hours 21 min ago:
The worldâs best portable Linux/DOS workstation!
Havoc wrote 14 hours 0 min ago:
Didnât realize mc was under gnu banner. Nice.
Iâve been trying to get used to ranger since Iâm learning vim
anyway
vim-guru wrote 14 hours 12 min ago:
Nostalgia!
However; dired (and wdired) is more powerful, so I won't be switching
back any time soon.
iLemming wrote 4 hours 23 min ago:
Yup, only Dired allows you to edit your file structure tree like
editing a wiki page and at the same time integrates well with source
control. Where else can you mark some files and dirs and see the git
log pertaining only marked items so easily? What else can easily
integrate with your video player for quickly reviewing a bunch of
vids? What else can you use to connect to a remote machine and keep
the same worfklows as if the stuff is on your local?
internet_points wrote 12 hours 33 min ago:
you need a new username =P
iLemming wrote 4 hours 30 min ago:
Why? Vim is not just a concrete set of products. It's also an idea.
One can perfectly remain a die-hard vimmer and use Emacs. That's a
fundamental truth unrecognized only by those who misunderstand
either Vim or Emacs, or both.
YeGoblynQueenne wrote 1 hour 16 min ago:
I have reasons to believe the comment above was tongue-in-cheek.
Specifically I believe this:
=P
Is a tongue-in-cheek emoticon, but I can see how it can be
mistaken for a mobius strip emoticon.
spapas82 wrote 14 hours 15 min ago:
In a restricted environment like a console only system these two pane
file managers are very useful. I was a heavy user of norton commander
(nc) back in my DOS days. Also these are useful on mobile.
However I rarely use them on a graphical environment like windows where
I can open arbitrary explorer windows and arrange them as I see like. I
guess it depends on what people have experience on...
hbbio wrote 14 hours 19 min ago:
I have been using mc for almost 30 years, and the original Norton
Commander as a kid before that!
Pleasantly surprised to see this topping HN today, and even more than
the project and its website are still maintained in 2025.
sedatk wrote 14 hours 21 min ago:
`mc` was a gateway drug for me to switch from DOS to Linux in 1995.
Because I hadn't been gotten comfortable with other text editors and
file management commands yet, mc and its own text editor (mc -e) had
felt very intuitive at the time. I felt at home. I was also amazed by
stuff like FTP VFS support. It was so complete and done right.
javaunsafe2019 wrote 14 hours 21 min ago:
We all know itâs a clone of the Norton commander.
reaperducer wrote 5 hours 11 min ago:
We all know itâs a clone of the Norton commander.
PathMinder pre-dates Norton Commander by two years:
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PathMinder
unwind wrote 14 hours 28 min ago:
I never used MC (not very much into TUIs) but ages ago I wrote a
graphical file manager in the same vein. For me the inspiration came
from Directory Opus [1] on the Amiga, which was just awesome.
When GTK+ was released in the late 90s, combining my love of C
programming with a newfound home in Linux and GTK+'s ability to make
complicated graphical interfaces resulted in a dual-pane file manager.
It was a great project.
[1]
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_Opus
zerr wrote 10 hours 35 min ago:
Funny that it is still available for Windows and costs 60 USD. I
wonder who buys such software nowadays.
ziml77 wrote 6 hours 28 min ago:
Me. I like it, so I pay for it. And there's plenty of time between
major releases so it's not like I'm rebuying it yearly.
Findecanor wrote 10 hours 46 min ago:
I find it a little sad that you haven't released a new revision since
2016 [0]. It has not declined in usefulness.
Edit: Incorrect:(I'd guess the biggest requested change would have
been to update it from using GTK 2 to GTK 3, but I can
definitely understand why someone wouldn't want to...)
0:
URI [1]: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gentoo/
unwind wrote 9 hours 56 min ago:
Wow, massive ego boost, thanks a lot!
I thought I had released the GTK 3.x version, but I guess not,
then. It might have been that there was something I just couldn't
get to behave right, gentoo is somewhat picky about its UI and
tries to make it do the right thing in ways that GTK sometimes
isn't ready for.
Today I guess the target would be GTK 4.x, I tried to align with
the latest main version back when I was maintaining it more.
Oh and 2016 makes sense, had my first kid in 2015 ... :|
Findecanor wrote 8 hours 59 min ago:
> thought I had released the GTK 3.x version,
My bad. You had. Sorry.
> Oh and 2016 makes sense, had my first kid in 2015 ... :|
Much congrats!
aquir wrote 14 hours 58 min ago:
After moving from Windows to MacOS mc is the closest to Total Commander
- the only software that Iâm still missing from MacOS. Reminds me to
DOS Navigator and Volkov Commander or even FAR
unixhero wrote 12 hours 38 min ago:
Midnight Commander is available under Brew. [1] The command to
install it is:
brew install mc
URI [1]: https://brew.sh/
reaperducer wrote 5 hours 14 min ago:
The command to install it is:
brew install mc
The Midnight Commander web site says to use
% brew install midnight-commander
hiccuphippo wrote 3 hours 19 min ago:
mc is an alias to it.
mark_l_watson wrote 9 hours 33 min ago:
Thanks, your comment was the one I was looking for, even though I
had guessed that âbrew install mcâ would work. I am curious how
mc will fit in with tmux and emacs-nw.
unixhero wrote 8 hours 45 min ago:
With tmux it is seamless, screen as well.
I don't know anything about Emacs =)
ioma8 wrote 14 hours 10 min ago:
Well while note open-source (but still free), Marta is the best MacOS
TotalCommander alternative:
URI [1]: https://marta.sh/
hdrz wrote 14 hours 31 min ago:
Try doublecmd[1], much better then tc, open source, updated
frequently, works on all platforms. Oh and written in object pascal,
which I like a lot!
[1]
URI [1]: https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io
TiredOfLife wrote 13 hours 31 min ago:
Tried it on linux. It crashed while moving folder. Like the main
thing it's used for.
kwanbix wrote 5 hours 15 min ago:
It works fine for me. When did you tested it?
Ringz wrote 15 hours 2 min ago:
If only you could redefine the keyboard shortcuts...
JNRowe wrote 14 hours 39 min ago:
You can, it even ships with two files you can use as examples in
mc.{emacs,vim}.keymap. The vim one has my favorite comment in a
config file:
[editor]
# No remapping, just use vim instead of mcedit
Given that you can specify the bindings config to use at startup with
--keymap you can even configure task specific sets of bindings. This
combined with extfs and custom menus makes it a great way to make a
personal interface to non-file data sources too.
Ringz wrote 12 hours 21 min ago:
Thanx! I completely missed that. Thatâs helpful even though a
âOperator Pending Modeâ is missing.
zaptheimpaler wrote 15 hours 8 min ago:
I've been using OneCommander [1] on Windows for a few years now, it's
great. Also dual pane with lots of extra features and active
development.
URI [1]: https://www.onecommander.com/
RachelF wrote 14 hours 56 min ago:
I think the best tool for Windows is Total Commander or TCUP if you
want the kitchen sink included:
URI [1]: https://tcup.pl/
mischief6 wrote 15 hours 15 min ago:
my one gripe after using mc for a few years is no parallel transfer
support. it slows down significantly when transferring small files
compared to one large file.
unixhero wrote 12 hours 35 min ago:
That I agree with. In Total Commander I typically do F5 copy and then
put it in the background F2. Then start another.
This isn't possible in MC. And also a concrete parallelization is not
available. This sounds like a feasible feature request to the
upstream MC project! I'm sure Gnu Parallel or just pure C code would
be able to handle parallelization of copy jobs.
EDIT:
Wait! It does have background transfer now. Which means my technique
of how I do it in Total Commander will work in MC now as well. It is
almost like having Parallelization.
axiolite wrote 15 hours 20 min ago:
I never could use mc. None of the keyboard shortcuts were at all
intuitive to me, who had been using many different GUI file managers
over the decades. Which is a shame, because I use SSH a LOT and doing
normal file housework via pure CLI is super tedious and error-prone...
Fortunately, I went looking more recently, and found the nnn file
manager, which works properly with the basic keyboard commands I would
expect, and really helped improve my workflow a lot:
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nnn_(file_manager)
11mariom wrote 8 hours 2 min ago:
Same feeling⦠but. For me fastest and easiest way to manage files
are coreutils (sometimes with help of rsync/zmv/zcp). And that way I
always have exactly same toolset no mather where I am logged in
(local pc, server, router, etc).
I'm using GUI File Manager only for multimedia (photos, movies, pdf
files).
varjag wrote 9 hours 30 min ago:
It's a heavily GenX-coded tool. If you never used Norton Commander
there's no point really.
rererereferred wrote 6 hours 19 min ago:
Midnight Commander was coded by a Gen Xer, but Norton Commander was
coded by a Baby Boomer ;)
badsectoracula wrote 7 hours 17 min ago:
Depending on where you're from you might have used another orthodox
file manager. For some reason they've been very popular in central
and eastern European countries.
For example i've worked three Polish gamedev companies and in every
single one of them most people (including people who weren't even
born in the days of Norton Commander) used Total Commander (it is
GUI-based but the shortcut keys and overall layout are almost the
same).
(FWIW Notepad++ was ubiquitous too)
ranger_danger wrote 14 hours 18 min ago:
> None of the keyboard shortcuts were at all intuitive to me
They're exactly the same as Norton Commander had been since the 80s.
spookie wrote 13 hours 10 min ago:
They probably weren't, huh... in front of computers when it was
more of a thing.
It sure is a generational thing, I have the same problem with
Emacs. But not with Vim.
buserror wrote 15 hours 6 min ago:
Same here, nnn feels so much lighter too. It also works out of the
box, no need to carry around "your" .rc file on dozens of systems as
you work
glimmung wrote 15 hours 23 min ago:
I just couldn't live without this thing. Well, I could but I would be
less productive and more grumpy.
Back in the mists of time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I
developed DataEase applications under MS-DOS there was a thing called
"Pathminder" [1] which was a very useful tool. Moving to Linux and
finding Midnight Commander felt like coming home...
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PathMinder
EbNar wrote 15 hours 34 min ago:
Great FM. I still use it consistently, especially when dealing with a
large number of files.
cyberax wrote 15 hours 37 min ago:
I still love FAR Manager: [1] (UNIX port: [2] ).
It now even supports true keyboard reporting (through Kitty TTY
protocol on compatible terminals) for SSH connections.
URI [1]: https://www.farmanager.com/screenshots.php?l=en
URI [2]: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l
cocodill wrote 6 hours 32 min ago:
the best norton commander of all
razodactyl wrote 15 hours 42 min ago:
xtgold?
lproven wrote 11 hours 54 min ago:
I always preferred XTree to Norton Commander, and I was a heavy
Norton user in the 1980s.
Delighted to find there are some Linux versions!
thristian wrote 14 hours 31 min ago:
You might be interested in YTree ( [1] ), UnixTree ( [2] ), or
linuXtree ( [3] ).
URI [1]: https://www.han.de/~werner/ytree.html
URI [2]: https://www.unixtree.org/
URI [3]: https://stahlke.org/dan/lxt/
faangguyindia wrote 15 hours 43 min ago:
most of the russian programmers i worked with use this. Not sure if
it's taught in university or something.
lproven wrote 12 hours 27 min ago:
Orthodox file managers seem to be very much a thing across the
Eastern Bloc.
I moved from England to Czechia in 2014 and was amazed to discover
almost everyone used them. My first job in a Windows company, it had
a site licence to Total Commander, and it was preinstalled on all
machines.
When I told them I found the Windows Explorer to be perfectly fine,
people genuinely gaped in amazement at me as if I said I chose to
type with my feet or something. But I do. It's very
keyboard-controllable, and was fast and efficient until MS started to
cram the ribbon UI into it. Since Windows 8 it's been destroyed.
lofaszvanitt wrote 10 hours 41 min ago:
Mazochist :)
lproven wrote 5 hours 27 min ago:
:-D I honestly don't mind it.
I used the Windows 3 UI, complete with File Manager, until 1996.
I didn't mind it at all. But I thought the Windows 95 Explorer
was an amazing tool when it was launched, and as soon as Win NT
got Explorer with NT 4, I switched to it.
I have never been unhappy.
I can tile 2 windows side-by-side in moments if I want that old
source-and-destination layout. It works absolutely great.
I tried Total Commander, and Midnight Commander too, and they
don't do anything I can't do in seconds anyway. I really don't
get it. It's not that I dislike them, but I am perfectly happy
with the replacement.
I am not saying anything is wrong with the OFM model but when it
went away in the OSes I used 30 years ago, I didn't miss it.
pantulis wrote 15 hours 43 min ago:
The killer feature in mc was the popup menu that you could configure to
run several commands on the selected files. And if memory serves it
could be customized on a global or directory specific way.
unixhero wrote 12 hours 37 min ago:
Which menu is that? I never tried it. Been an MC user since 1997.
pantulis wrote 5 hours 53 min ago:
It is bound by default to F2, look at the "Edit Menu File" section
here:
URI [1]: https://source.midnight-commander.org/man/mc.html
unixhero wrote 4 hours 14 min ago:
Thanks!
xenodium wrote 15 hours 8 min ago:
I didnât use mc much back in the day, but I do use Emacs dired a
ton these days. Specially for applying command line utilities to a
bunch of files.
URI [1]: https://xenodium.com/how-i-batch-apply-and-save-one-liners
kristopolous wrote 15 hours 42 min ago:
"was"? People still use it. Like a lot. I'm surprised
pantulis wrote 13 hours 21 min ago:
Good shout!
pabs3 wrote 15 hours 44 min ago:
This with the "Lynx-like motion" panel option and the "Quick view"
enabled is the best way to review a source tree. So much so that the
Debian ftp-masters use it and a plugin for doing license review of
newly introduced packages.
URI [1]: https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20191228133344.GA4943@Ma...
JdeBP wrote 15 hours 45 min ago:
The thing about Orthodox File Managers when they first came about, that
does not occur today, was the amount of time that had to be devoted to
explaining that particular features would not work on OS/2, Unices,
Linux-based operating systems, or Windows NT because only MS/PC/DR-DOS
let programs do things like directly manipulate stuff in some other
program's PSP or directly peek/poke video RAM or the keyboard buffer;
or that filenames did not necessarily have "extensions"; or that there
was more than 1 type of timestamp; or that links and symbolic links
existed; or that different people can have different local times on a
single machine; or that directories actually have sizes.
Today, the DOS Think is far less prevalent.
Midnight Commander's screenshots would have looked a little off to OFM
users with DOS Think. Today, it's the original MS/PC/DR-DOS tools that
will appear odd to novices. They did things like have a narrow 8.3
filename column, omit the dots, use graphics in the filename for system
files, use glyphs that one could only obtain through poking C0-range
codes into video RAM, change UI elements as one pressed and released
the Alt key, and so forth.
kqr wrote 15 hours 48 min ago:
For people on Android phones, Ghost Commander is neat.
For people who like the power of Emacs dired, there used to be Sunrise
Commander but last I looked it wasn't so actively maintained and had
some bugs, so I've sadly gone back to regular dired.
gedeon wrote 12 hours 53 min ago:
Total Commander for Android not bad either
xenodium wrote 15 hours 10 min ago:
Dired is awesome. Itâs replaced a bunch of my terminal usage
URI [1]: https://xenodium.com/how-i-batch-apply-and-save-one-liners
bmackenty wrote 15 hours 55 min ago:
Still used in Poland. I still manage some systems using mcedit.
latchkey wrote 15 hours 58 min ago:
Brings back memories. This is one of my older open source contributions
that's still visible. I helped port it to a/ux in the early 90's. Line
98: [1] It was originally written by Miguel de Icaza who became a
semi-famous for his work on Mono and others.
URI [1]: https://fossies.org/linux/mc/AUTHORS
mongol wrote 14 hours 54 min ago:
I think Miguel's greatest legacy is starting the Gnome project.
roywashere wrote 15 hours 37 min ago:
And who started Gnome Desktop! That always strikes me as funny. That
he made the ultimate tool for in the terminal, and then move on to
write a desktop environment
viraptor wrote 13 hours 14 min ago:
And now porting Godot to iPads as Xodot.
URI [1]: https://xogot.com/
mark_l_watson wrote 9 hours 10 min ago:
Wow, I have absolutely no need for access to a game engine but I
still will do the free trial. Some complaints about cost but $3
per week or $30 per year seems reasonable enough. I am a fan of
the Swift Playground.
Starting when I wrote the Chess program that Apple distributed on
their Apple II demo cassette tape, I have been interested in
writing games for fun. Unfortunately, while I can code, I need
artists and generally people with âgame design styleâ to do
anything decent - I had that when I worked at Angel Studios.
latchkey wrote 15 hours 33 min ago:
It was kind of the evolution of the time though. We were coming
from dumb terminals hooked up to VAX/VMS and Ultrix boxes with
kermit, to computers that had a tcp/ip stack and could actually do
graphics.
vsviridov wrote 16 hours 1 min ago:
I've been using `mc` for decades... In fact, in my early professional
days as a software dev, I've written entire systems with PHP using
`mcedit` (the built-in editor), because I didn't know `vim` then, and
`mcedit` had syntax highlighting...
YeGoblynQueenne wrote 1 hour 30 min ago:
Wait, what? I've never seen syntax highlighting in mcedit. I'd be
looking predominantly at Prolog files to be honest but those normally
have a .pl extension so I should at least be seeing Perl-like
highlights?
(pun totally coincidental)
Joel_Mckay wrote 15 hours 29 min ago:
Mostly used Notepad++ or SciTE ( [1] ) over the years, as the number
of languages/platforms I traverse made it a consistent option for
dealing with various document encodings etc.
I thought mc and mcedit was cool, but needed something small and
portable within a fairly locked-down environment ( "No [root] for
you!" as the admin would say.) =3
URI [1]: https://www.scintilla.org/
throwaway53021 wrote 10 hours 1 min ago:
Many years ago, I used UltraEdit. It was fast, light weight(ish)
and supported huge files.
lepicz wrote 16 hours 8 min ago:
Mouseless Commander :)
migueldeicaza wrote 10 hours 8 min ago:
Good memory!
kouteiheika wrote 16 hours 15 min ago:
I love Midnight Commander so much; I install it on every system I use.
It's so much more efficient/pleasant when in comes to navigating the
filesystem and doing basic operations, especially when you learn the
shortcuts and learn how to use it along with other command-line tools
(hint: if you press Ctrl+O in MC it will switch to a normal shell
command prompt it the directory you're in, and you can press Ctrl+O
again to get back to MC; this allows you to easily use MC for things it
is the most efficient for, and normal command-line for things where
that is better).
kees99 wrote 43 min ago:
> Ctrl+O in MC will switch to a normal prompt
Better yet! (one-line) shell prompt is always available and has some
nifty integrations via . For example, one has a bunch of files
visually tagged (selected) on current panel, and wants to tar them up
as "/tmp/foo.tgz". Well...
tar czf /tmp/foo.tgz
sixtyj wrote 57 min ago:
Awesome project from 90s, I remember it from 1992 at the university.
browningstreet wrote 5 hours 0 min ago:
Interestingly, the latest GNOME sorta supports something similar, as
a new feature:
> ..a âCtrl + dotâ keyboard shortcut for opening the current
directory in the terminal
URI [1]: https://9to5linux.com/gnome-49-brescia-desktop-environment-o...
pimeys wrote 4 hours 3 min ago:
Does it work the same as Dolphin where you get a terminal panel to
the same window with the Konsole settings of yours, and it changes
the directory together with Dolphin navigation?
Super nice especially when adding music to my library with Beets...
ferfumarma wrote 7 hours 28 min ago:
That hint is amazing! I tried it out and love that you can do this!
thendrill wrote 10 hours 12 min ago:
I have loved it since '99, when my friends used to tell me that to be
a linux admin you have to stay up late because midnight commander
works only after midnight ! Slackware 7 <3
lepicz wrote 4 hours 9 min ago:
it was not always named Midnight Commander, it was Mouseless
Commander
it was renamed somewhere around 1995
klodolph wrote 4 hours 43 min ago:
Right now, is it after midnight, or before midnight, where you
live?
dayvster wrote 10 hours 14 min ago:
My only issue with it is that it does not come with vim keybindings
by default, I love to have consistent keybindings across my system /
TUI tools
lozf wrote 2 hours 19 min ago:
You might like Yazi[0], although the layout is more "modern" (like
ranger / nnn etc.) uses tabs for multiple different views.
[0]:
URI [1]: https://yazi-rs.github.io/
dayvster wrote 52 min ago:
Oh thanks for the tip, appreciate it.
I see it can even do file previews with kitty which is perfect as
I already use kitty as my default terminal.
inglor_cz wrote 11 hours 13 min ago:
Same here. I wonder how much does it have to do with the fact that I
came of age during the MS-DOS era. The design seems just so sleek and
efficient to me.
amelius wrote 11 hours 50 min ago:
Can you reference the file that was modified latest by me? With one
shortcut?
Because that's what I miss most in my shell.
ghtbircshotbe wrote 7 hours 20 min ago:
Reverse shell command search for eg *.txt allows you to look
through the most recent text files you've explicitly referenced
jcynix wrote 7 hours 54 min ago:
You mean something like
print -rl -- *(om[1].)
in zsh?
amelius wrote 7 hours 51 min ago:
No, I mean globally (over all directories, starting from my home
directory).
And of course, if the latest file isn't what I wanted, then it
should be possible to easily go to the latest file before that.
cb321 wrote 3 hours 59 min ago:
It's 10x slower than a more specialized command [1] for me, but
adding recursion only requires adding one extra asterisk (`**`
instead of `*`) and maybe a D if you want to include dot files
or triple star if you want to follow symlinks:
$ date; print -rl -- **(om[1].D);date; newest -n4 -r0 $HOME
Wed Sep 17 12:48:53 EDT 2025
.config/mozilla/firefox/p9/bounce-tracking-protection.sqlite
Wed Sep 17 12:49:25 EDT 2025
/u/p9/.config/mozilla/firefox/p9/permissions.sqlite
/u/p9/.config/zsh/history
/u/p9/.config/mozilla/firefox/p9/places.sqlite-wal
/u/p9/.config/mozilla/firefox/p9/bounce-tracking-protection.sql
ite
*newest -n4 -r0 $HOME
Time: 1.882365 (u) + 1.318166 (s)=3.215131 (99%) mxRSS 139
MiB
Not sure how to change to get most recent 4 or whatever in the
Zsh style (since, you know, that'd be 10x slower..)
URI [1]: https://github.com/c-blake/bu/blob/main/doc/newest.md*
skydhash wrote 7 hours 7 min ago:
Then you need emacsâs dired. Thereâs a find command that
will do that. ;)
unixhero wrote 12 hours 57 min ago:
I think I love it more than you do. I am sure of it. It is ingrained
into my workflow and how I think about files.
pimeys wrote 15 hours 37 min ago:
I use it especially when moving files around in my NAS and it is
awesome.
For GUI file managers, I have to say you can't get better than
Dolphin. It has an integrated shell for the current directory, and
you can split the view. It can also directly open ssh and SFTP URLs.
For local things the combination of Dolphin and it's shell is
unbeatable.
professoretc wrote 2 hours 17 min ago:
I miss TkDesk, which I discovered many years ago when I was first
trying Linux, partly because it supports unlimited splits, not just
two. In fact, if I'm remembering correctly, when navigating to a
subdirectory the default was just to open it in a new split. You
ended up with splits containing the full path from wherever you
started to your eventual subdirectory (you could scroll the view of
splits horizontally once there got to be too many).
URI [1]: https://tkdesk.sourceforge.net/
akagusu wrote 4 hours 24 min ago:
Not only that, but if you want to move around a large number of
files, Dolphin is the only that get you covered without crashes or
slowing down
homebrewer wrote 10 hours 25 min ago:
I'm partial to pcmanfm-qt, which also supports splits, and has the
best "search in current directory" I've seen anywhere. You open a
directory, start typing, and it filters out matching files
fzf-style.
It doesn't simply select them like some other file managers do, it
searches within the name and not just the prefix (again, like some
other file managers), you don't have to press anything beforehand.
When you get used to it, it's hard to go without it. [1] For those
preferring lightweight environments, it has far fewer dependencies
than dolphin.
URI [1]: https://github.com/lxqt/pcmanfm-qt
bigwheels wrote 3 hours 15 min ago:
Wish there was a screenshot of the final product in this repo!
QT apps are non-trivial to build if you don't already have the
environment setup.
BTW, do you know if it can build for macOS, or is that a
non-starter?
graemep wrote 12 hours 15 min ago:
Konqueror (the old KDE file manager) lets you do multiple splits,
horizontal as well as vertical, and preview files in the file
manager.
Very nice, but no longer as well maintained.
bmn__ wrote 12 hours 50 min ago:
> you can't get better than Dolphin
Try < [1] >. Same KDE underpinnings, but orthodox interface.
URI [1]: https://krusader.org
rob74 wrote 10 hours 53 min ago:
I used Krusader for years, then (after installing Ubuntu instead
of Kubuntu) I discovered Double Commander ( [1] ), which is also
free software, but more cross-platform (and developed using Free
Pascal/Lazarus, which makes it old-fashioned in even more ways -
it even used to be hosted on SourceForge, but it looks like they
moved to GitHub now).
URI [1]: https://github.com/doublecmd/doublecmd
aidenn0 wrote 6 hours 21 min ago:
I just tried it now. Any way to get it to not show all of my
docker volumes as disk drives above the panes? There's hardly
any room for a file-manager below that.
rob74 wrote 5 hours 47 min ago:
Yeah, I noticed that too, but I have fewer docker volumes, so
it didn't bother me as much. As far as I can see, you can
only disable the "drive buttons" completely under
Configuration/Options/Layout/Show drive buttons". If you
should need it, there is also a "drives list button" which
shows a menu containing all available "drives".
overfeed wrote 13 hours 7 min ago:
> It can also directly open ssh and SFTP URLs.
I wish mc could browse remote URLs, and I'm tempted to author an mc
clone in Go to address this particular pain-point. Maybe some day
handcrafting bespoke rsync/rclone commands will frustrate me enough
to motivate me.
baumschubser wrote 12 hours 59 min ago:
In the Left/Right menu in mc, you can select FTP, SFTP and SSH
URLs to browse. Is this not what you mean?
overfeed wrote 1 hour 33 min ago:
That is what I mean. Glad to hear mc supports this already!
1718627440 wrote 12 hours 12 min ago:
And for other protocols like WebDAV you can mount them and then
traverse with mc.
unmole wrote 15 hours 12 min ago:
> and you can split the view
You could do the same with Nautilus. But in their infinite wisdom
GNOME developers decided to remove that ability.
tomrod wrote 5 hours 33 min ago:
The stories about GNOME dev make me sad. Not quite as bad as
resume-driven development changes to core tech products, but not
too far off either.
I like things that work. Somehow that makes me a luddite!
fithisux wrote 16 hours 24 min ago:
Fun fact, on Windows I stopped using File Explorer and use Midnight
Commander.
Now that I am more into the command line, I may need to give it a try.
lucas_membrane wrote 14 hours 12 min ago:
Fun fact (???) wayback about 40 years ago Central Point Software was
humiliating Microsoft with its suites of utilities for Microsoft's
OS's, which included file managers for Windows (and MS-DOS IIRC), and
was a top rated #1 best seller. Microsoft graciously offered to buy a
license for said software from Central Point, which they would make a
standard part of windows. This was the kind of deal that practical
realists tend to accept, even though it spells DOOM with a capital
3-finger salute. 'Tis great to see something as versatile as the
wheel and axle or the Oklahoma speed wrench still rolling along.
userbinator wrote 16 hours 24 min ago:
dual-pane file manager
For some reason, the technical term for these is Orthodox File Manager,
which I've always thought was an obscure cultural in-joke from the
countries where these were most popular --- Eastern Europe and the
former USSR.
This origin is elaborated at length here:
URI [1]: https://softpanorama.org/Articles/introduction_to_orthodox_fil...
throw0101d wrote 9 hours 9 min ago:
> This origin is elaborated at length here: [1] Also:
*
URI [1]: https://softpanorama.org/Articles/introduction_to_orthodox_f...
URI [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_file_manager
killerstorm wrote 11 hours 7 min ago:
I'd say "Orthodox File Manager" is a forced meme by the author of the
article. (Note that he links to his older article, etc.)
20-25 years ago when this kind of file managers were all the rage for
power users I was in a Fidonet/Usenet discussion group with the most
fanatical of these users, often sysadmins, plugin devs, etc. I don't
think "orthodox" was used as a term - sometimes it was used as an
epithet, maybe, sort of a joke.
But I guess Dr. Nikolai shows us that if you are really committed to
introduced a term you can do it, eventually :D
saulpw wrote 5 hours 17 min ago:
For better or worse, that's what they're called:
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager#Orthodox_file_m...
esafak wrote 7 hours 0 min ago:
Such a pompous name for a nice thing.
bluetomcat wrote 14 hours 29 min ago:
They were popular because there was no Unix culture in Eastern Europe
at the time. Pretty much any computer geek was a DOS user. To me
personally, it always seemed kind of lame because many of these
people would not bother to properly learn the shell language.
kqr wrote 15 hours 57 min ago:
The "orthodox" comes from a specific type of GUI, namely one that is
driven by commands under the hood. UI elements are merely used to
trigger commands that have the actual effect, and these commands
could just as well be executed by hand, or automated into more
complex commands.
This is an excellent way to build powerful UIs. It is what drives
things like Vim, and often why Lisp-based software is so hackable --
think Emacs, StumpWM, etc. Instead of writing plugins against some
small plugin API, you're wiring new functionality directly into the
application.
The article you reference goes into more detail, as you say.
Levitating wrote 11 hours 58 min ago:
Similar to the ELM architecture in a way? Except that the commands
are literal commands that can be executed outside of the standard
UI interaction.
faangguyindia wrote 12 hours 58 min ago:
Isn't this what tools like lazygit use?
kiliankoe wrote 14 hours 13 min ago:
Does Blender also qualify? It even shows you the name of the Python
function behind each UI element on hover, which is great for
discoverability when scripting. Or maybe it used to, can't see it
now.
spookie wrote 13 hours 17 min ago:
Still does if you enable dev mode, I think.
Klaster_1 wrote 15 hours 59 min ago:
At least in Russia, "orthodox" has an extra connotation that's not
strictly coupled to church, akin more to "one true way", as in
"orthodox way to learn a tech stack". With a negation, it becomes
something like "wrong" or even "heretical", as in "pizza with
pineapple".
bee_rider wrote 4 hours 43 min ago:
I think this is also the connotation in English. We got it from
Greek mostly, correct? I thought it meant something like
âright-belief.â
It can be contrasted against orthopraxy, right-practice, where the
actions are more important than the belief or intent.
Based on the other comments here, these orthodox file browsers are
based on a sort of underlying language, [1] > The "orthodox" comes
from a specific type of GUI, namely one that is driven by commands
under the hood. UI elements are merely used to trigger commands
that have the actual effect, and these commands could just as well
be executed by hand, or automated into more complex commands.
It⦠kind of makes sense actually, if we stretch the definitions a
bit, haha. The orthodox UI has some button, which is translated
into a sequence of commands that represent the actual user intent.
The alternative is just to have the button do the thing directly,
thereâs no description of the user intent other than what the
button does. It is quite a stretch but maybe we could call that the
an Orthoprax UI.
URI [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45271878
abcd_f wrote 12 hours 40 min ago:
This is incorrect.
ÐÑÑодокÑалÑнÑй doesn't carry these connotations at
all.
If anything, it describes something that is stuck in old ways
and/or pointlessly rigid.
bee_rider wrote 4 hours 57 min ago:
I find this whole thread a bit confusingâthe comment two up
describes âorthodoxâ meaning one-true-way as a Russian thing,
but this is also part of the connotation in English.
You describe it as not having this âone true wayâ
connotation, but as having this pointlessly rigid connotation. In
English, I think it has both connotations. Although, almost any
phrase which has an implication of âone true wayâ can end up
with a double meaning of âpointlessly rigid,â right? (It is
context dependent, of course).
rswail wrote 14 hours 52 min ago:
The English word for that is "canonical".
tremon wrote 11 hours 27 min ago:
To me, "canonical" feels more descriptive whereas "orthodox" has
a prescriptive connotation. But I'm also ESL, so not sure if
that's just me or common in any/all English-speaking countries.
schoen wrote 10 hours 16 min ago:
They're both derived from religious terms or religious
metaphors.
For me (native U.S. English speaker) the religious reference in
"orthodox" is more transparent and that in "canonical" is more
obscure, so "canonical" sounds more technical or more neutral
somehow.
rswail wrote 6 hours 51 min ago:
Agreed, but "canon law" has always meant church law.
Canonical is derived from that, and it's got similar
connotations of "reference design" as the use of "orthodox"
here.
andrewshadura wrote 15 hours 40 min ago:
What you're describing is the meaning of the word in English. I
suspect using the word пÑавоÑлавнÑй with this meaning
started as a joke transplanting the English meaning of the word
onto the corresponding Russian word.
rob74 wrote 11 hours 2 min ago:
Actually, it's the meaning of the word in Greek:
> "what is regarded as true or correct," from Late Latin
orthodoxus, from Greek orthodoxos "having the right opinion,"
from orthos "right, true, straight" + doxa "opinion, praise".
( [1] )
But, when referring to dual-pane file managers, it's probably a
mix of both meanings ("one true way" and "old-fashioned").
URI [1]: https://www.etymonline.com/word/orthodox
kgeist wrote 14 hours 49 min ago:
"Orthodox" in Russian is "pravoslavny", literally "right faith"
(pravyj = right, correct). I think it also contributes to the
meaning. "The right way".
blks wrote 12 hours 23 min ago:
Yes and no. Orthodox church is called
âпÑавоÑÐ»Ð°Ð²Ð½Ð°Ñ ÑеÑковÑâ, yes, but the
word âоÑÑодокÑалÑнÑйâ still exists to
describe e.g. orthodox jews.
The word âпÑавоÑлавнÑйâ in a meaning of some
object/technology/way being good and true only started being
used in Internet culture during 00s, and it still used, but as
a slang/joke.
rusk wrote 14 hours 0 min ago:
Means the same thing in Ireland too! My understanding is it
derives from greek for âordinary teachingâ we also use the
term heterodox for a cultural setting that encourages different
types of thought.
The term Paradox is a challenging or somewhat contradictory
idea.
We also use the term orthodox for a right handed boxer.
âSouthpawâ is non-orthodox left handed.
gschizas wrote 13 hours 40 min ago:
Greek here:
Orthodox = orthos + doxasia
Orthos = straight/correct
Doxasia = belief
orthodoxos = correct belief
riffraff wrote 16 hours 27 min ago:
When I was young and incompetent mc was the only way I knew to remove
files starting with a dash :)
fuzztester wrote 7 hours 47 min ago:
On Unixen? Use:
$ rm -- -filename
where -filename is the file starting with a dash, and -- means "end
of the command-line options".
muppetman wrote 15 hours 56 min ago:
Hahah same!!!!
sigttou wrote 16 hours 39 min ago:
Brings back great memories, used to be my default diff viewer for
several years.
worldsayshi wrote 9 hours 39 min ago:
How does it compare to meld?
inoffensivename wrote 16 hours 41 min ago:
Can I get it in a Docker container?
Vaslo wrote 13 hours 41 min ago:
I have it in a Docker container in UnRaid to move all my Media
around. Itâs great.
sira04 wrote 14 hours 36 min ago:
docker run --rm -it -v "$(pwd):$(pwd)" -w "$(pwd)" nixery.dev/mc mc
batrat wrote 15 hours 14 min ago:
why bother? I use mine in my AI powered, headless, kubernetes cluster
EbNar wrote 15 hours 33 min ago:
I guess so, but what would be the use case for it?
balamatom wrote 15 hours 45 min ago:
Yes. Probably even a distroless one.
p0w3n3d wrote 15 hours 50 min ago:
It would be like having `ls` in a container
esafak wrote 6 hours 58 min ago:
The joke has to be more accessible to land ;)
kqr wrote 15 hours 50 min ago:
I think this is one of the cases where Nix would be easier. To try it
out without polluting your global namespace, nix run nixpkgs#mc.
BlaDeKke wrote 15 hours 57 min ago:
This is not a chat client.
serf wrote 16 hours 20 min ago:
unraid has a docker container for Krusader - same thing different
flavor, why not.
qalmakka wrote 16 hours 25 min ago:
Lol. Realistically speaking, you'd have to bind mount your entire
home for it to be usable then
fulafel wrote 15 hours 43 min ago:
Maybe you're just looking to shell around in your container
deployed in a pod somewhere.
jalk wrote 14 hours 47 min ago:
That should be doable with `kubectl debug ...` - e.g. attach an
ephemeral sidecar container with mc to already running pod.
And you would ofc. configure that in K9S as a plugin to easily
launch it :)
Nursie wrote 16 hours 49 min ago:
I haven't used this for a long old time. Back in the day it was the
only way to recover your university dissertation when you'd rm -rf'd in
the wrong directory.
Go on, ask me how I know ...
I've not had much cause to use it since then though.
ksynwa wrote 15 hours 52 min ago:
mc can recover deleted files?
Nursie wrote 15 hours 43 min ago:
Back in the 90s it certainly had some features that made it easier
to do so, yes. On ext2 file systems (no journaling or other
advanced features) it had some method to browse unlinked inodes
that were still on disk so you could recover them. Theyâd then
show up in âlost+foundâ.
If you were quick and unmounted as soon as you had realised what
youâd done, and the space had not been re-used for anything, you
could often get the file back because rm just unlinked the inodes
on ext2 IIRC.
I imagine that the commands it used under the hood were accessible
to anyone with the right know-how, but at the time thatâs not
something I had, and all the guides started with âuse midnight
commanderâ so I did :)
(Saying âonly wayâ to recover might be a stretch, itâs true)
danielktdoranie wrote 16 hours 31 min ago:
Okay, Iâll bite mate:
How do you know?
antonvs wrote 16 hours 12 min ago:
They rm -rf'd the wrong directory, lost their dissertation, and
used mc to recover it.
Nursie wrote 16 hours 8 min ago:
Yeah, the answer was there in the question really :)
That was not a good day, about a week before submission was due.
I unmounted the disk the second I realised what I'd done and
started to look for guides on finding lost ext2 inodes. MC to the
rescue!
shmerl wrote 16 hours 51 min ago:
Very cool successor of Norton Commander idea.
auselen wrote 15 hours 57 min ago:
I remember asking to my friend how do you use âncâ in Linux and
he answering âtype âmcââ.
ilvez wrote 16 hours 42 min ago:
Volkov Commander anyone?
tyfon wrote 15 hours 5 min ago:
I still use volcov commander on my dos machines :)
And MC on the *nixes of course.
lepicz wrote 16 hours 3 min ago:
volkov was a great virus detector
its size was right at the edge of segment (64k) so when a virus
appended to the .com binary, volkov stopped working
selcuka wrote 15 hours 6 min ago:
Unfortunately there were also badly written, overwriting viruses
that destroyed the host.
I made a COM-to-EXE convertor back in time so that I can compress
them with LZEXE (I don't remember anything about it, but I guess
I just prepended an empty relocation table). It would have been
interesting to incorporate that functionality in a virus.
JdeBP wrote 16 hours 37 min ago:
If we're going to individually name every Orthodox File Manager, we
are going to take some while. (-:
xiphias2 wrote 16 hours 11 min ago:
You mean like FAR commander? ;)
machomaster wrote 12 hours 57 min ago:
Dos Navigator.
lepicz wrote 12 hours 46 min ago:
m602
gschizas wrote 13 hours 25 min ago:
FAR Manager. They went civilian :)
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