Top 4 Open‑Source Terminal File Managers for Linux: Features, Commands & Usage

nnn

nnn (pronounced “n³”) is a lightweight, zero‑configuration terminal file manager. It runs on Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, Cygwin, Windows Subsystem for Linux and Termux. Core capabilities include multiple navigation modes, batch renaming, disk‑usage analysis, file selection, application launching, and a plugin system that adds previews, diff view, uploads and a dedicated NeoVim integration.

ranger

ranger is a VI‑style console file manager built with curses. It presents a three‑pane layout: the left pane shows the parent‑directory tree, the middle pane displays the current directory, and the right pane lists the files within the current directory. It ships with the “rifle” launcher, which automatically selects the appropriate program for each file type.

cfiles

cfiles is a terminal file manager written in C using the ncurses library. It adopts Vim‑like key bindings and provides a minimal, fast interface for navigating and managing files.

dfshow

dfshow (Directory File Show) is a Unix‑style terminal file manager derived from the 1986 DF‑EDIT editor and released under GPL‑v3. It consists of two utilities: show – behaves like ls, listing directory contents, creating or removing files/directories, changing permissions, and searching within files. sf – displays the contents of a file.

Typical usage examples:

# show <directory_name>
# sf <file>

The <directory_name> argument can be any directory the current user can access. The <file> argument can be any readable file; if omitted, sf prompts for a file name.

References

nnn – https://github.com/jarun/nnn

ranger – https://github.com/ranger/ranger

cfiles – https://github.com/mananapr/cfiles

dfshow – https://github.com/roberthawdon/dfshow