Last reviewed
Ranger
This isn't what I use anymore. I personally found ranger heavy and slow, and I moved on to lf and then yazi, which is what I use now. Ranger is still maintained and still very capable though, so these notes should still be useful if you use it. See my comparison of Linux file managers for how the options stack up.
What is Ranger?
Ranger is a command line file manager with a three-column layout: the parent directory, the current directory, and a preview of whatever is selected. It's written in Python, can preview many types of files, and is customized through config files and Python commands.
The trade-off is that because it's written in Python, it can hang on long tasks and feels slower than newer file managers written in Go or Rust.
Get Ranger here.
sudo apt install rangerbrew install ranger- github
Information about using Ranger you might find helpful.
A lot of the keybindings are vim like, so things like moving, copying etc are just what you would expect if you are used to vim. For example to quickly switch between multiple directories you can use vim-marks, or in ranger more like favorites, by saving a directory with m f where the "f" can be any single letter character and then going back to that save quickly with ' f.
some useful keybindings that I find useful and are not especially Vim like
r— open with dialogo— opens a sort by dialogS— opens a terminal in the current directory
Bulk rename
- mark files you want to rename
:bulkrename— ranger's bulkrename command- this opens up the file names in vim (by default)
- operate on the files
- save and quit
- ranger will use the list to formulate a bash script to rename the files and presents it for you to confirm.
Filter
- turn on:
zf + regex - turn off:
zf enter— essentially a blank filter
Marking
- pressing space on the current file/directory
:scout -mr regex— marks all files in current list that match the regex after you press enter
