What is Reddit's opinion of
nnn?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
You will be demanded to fix your software. You will be shouted. Sometimes, the line may be crossed, and you will be abused. “How dare you not (use your free time to) fix this ultra high priority bug that is affecting me?” or “This is an absolutely basic feature! How is it not implemented yet (by you on your free time)?!” or even “You made me move to Software Y, and you need to win me back” are going to be realities you will have to face.
Very very true. I face this one every week with nnn (https://github.com/jarun/nnn). There are so many users who love the simplicity. But I find at least one asshole every week with the question - why is nnn not like file manager X?
I had been writing a file manager called nnn for 2.5 years now. It's available on several distros and is quite popular among terminal lovers (it can also be setup easily as the default file manager on Linux or macOS desktop). It's full featured and is very lightweight and fast as the original goal was to write it for the Pi.
If you are on Android, nnn works great in the Termux environment on Android too!
Home: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
I am looking for some contribution with setting up Arch Linux wiki and Wikipedia page for nnn. The content is already available.
>You claimed you'll participate in nnn for a month
this is refering to no nut november
>while I've used nnn for years
this is referring to nnn the terminal based file manager(A.K.A n^3)
In case you haven't come across <code>nnn</code> earlier, it's a blazing fast terminal file manager with seamless GUI integration and tons of features.
I thought the patched Nerd Font support would be of particular interest to this sub. There are several other visual improvements in this release.
New in v3.5 "Freddie"
- support Nerd Font patched icons [
make O_NERD=1] - compile-in Alexey Tourbin's QSORT macro
- auto-generate static binaries with icons support
- audit and adapt all plugins for macOS
- enhance plugin
dupsto delete duplicates interactively - plugin
autojumpnow supportsjumpandzoxide - support
gio trashto Trash [export NNN_TRASH=2] (#740) - quit program on double
Escin normal mode (#775) ^Spacereplaces^Kfor range selection/clear selection- show selection symbol (
+) next to filename in detail mode (#741) - error & quit on
Qif no selection, else pick to stdout - repeat
^Tto cycle sort by time, size and clear - option
-Uto show user & group info in status bar - option
-Jto disable auto-proceed on select (#713) - option
-Dto show dirs in context color withNNN_FCOLORS - honor option
-Cfor context colors - show indicators if more entries above/below listing (#744)
- show missing utility name in flash msg (#753)
- exit
preview-tabbedon^C(#727) - invoke GNU sed (gsed) on macOS (#728)
- fix HW cursor moves to wrong line (#735)
- fix rollover bug with multiline scroll (#743)
- fix input stream not listed with
-s/-S(#777) - fix locker not being invoked
- make target
upxfor additional binary compression - compress auto-generated static binaries with upx
- make variable
O_NOSSNto compile out sessions - make variable
O_NOUGto compile out user & group info
> You allocate a buffer for the size of the directory, and then call the getdents64 system call directly.
From man getdents:
DESCRIPTION These are not the interfaces you are interested in. Look at readdir(3) for the POSIX-conforming C library interface. This page documents the bare kernel system call interfaces.
More information here from another utility that's faster than ls and POSIX-compliant.
I don't actually have much loyalty towards any one file manager, but have you taken a look at nnn? You seem to both have similar goals, I wonder if there's things you could learn from each other.
Thanks for building OSS :)
My intention wasn't to start a comparison with other file managers in this thread but it's a bitter fact I face this question frequently. I would point out at inception nnn and ranger differed in their target audience and that stays through their course of development till date.
I wrote nnn because I wanted something that responds fast on the Pi I was setting up for my kid (as his media center). I picked noice which is very rudimentary and started adding features. In the course of development (most of which I was doing on my laptop and was compiling with native gcc and testing) I noticed it gives a solid performance on the laptop, on Termux env on my Android device and so on... and it because a desktop software too. nnn will remain lean, expose features you really need for quick workflows and work on all kinds of devices.
ranger, on the other hand, is written in python so it knows it has enough memory and processing power to pull any feature it wants on the desktop.
To give this freedom (to run anything) to users who are on the desktop, I did choose a middle ground here from a design perspective - I started supporting user-scripts. And as of today there are many of those including user contributed ones. So it wouldn't be technically correct to say nnn can't be extended. If you need something nnn doesn't provide natively, just drop your script and you are good to go (at the speed of ranger which is also a python script)!
A video to demonstrate how the terminal file manager `nnn` (https://github.com/jarun/nnn) integrates with native Android apps and the vim editor on Termux.
​
Device details:
​
Android v8.1
Octa core (2 GHz, Quad core, Cortex A73 + 2 GHz, Quad core, Cortex A53) processor
6 GB RAM
Try termux-adb with nnn. Disclaimer - never tried termux-adb myself.
Also see termux-setup-storage.
I'll try them all, especially if anything close to the quality of CHADTree :) just installed CHADTree and can toggle between NERDTree to compare. Initial impression is that I'm impressed it does feel more responsive than NERDTree. I like the look of the features / keybinds - file management has similar ideas to https://github.com/jarun/nnn which I also like. Definitely a nudge up from NERDTree. Need to learn the new keybinds since my fingers are bit NERDTree trained ;) Need to fix the theming a little since doesn't feel tuned for dark background, but enough docs / configuration options for me to work that out.
News
- Introducing nlay - a highly customizable bash script to handle media type
- nnn is on Homebrew now (for Mac users)
- RPM packages for CentOS 7 and Fedora 24 generated on release
What's in?
- Search-as-you-type
- Unicode support
- Option
-Sto start in disk usage analyzer mode - Show media information (using mediainfo)
- Use readline at change directory prompt
- Jump to prev directories using
cd .....(with.as PWD) - Jump to initial directory using
& - Show help, mediainfo and file info in PAGER
- Several optimizations
Homepage: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
OK, this must be THE coolest utility I have tried recently!
I am surprised, [nnn](https://github.com/jarun/nnn) is my regular file manager. Thanks for the quality of your software.
What's in?
- Show directories in custom color (default: enabled in blue)
- Option
-eto use exiftool instead of mediainfo - Fixed #34: nftw(3) broken with too many open descriptors
- More concise help screen
Homepage: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
Features: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#features
Yes, because there is a difference between being paranoid and being careful. Even the performance of which (which is written in C) is better than several shell counterparts.
More data: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/issues/375
Author of file manager nnn here. While one of the major design goals of the utility is performance on low-end devices (including mid-range Android phones) and it does very good there, there are times I have felt better rendering performance of the terminal could have enriched the user experience. And in many cases it seems like the config or the code is much more important in that respect. For example, I agree with you stterm is really smooth and I found the much advertised kitty surprisingly slow when it comes to rendering images on a device without a dedicated GPU.
Icons support is available in just-released nnn v3.4. It's a compile-in feature (make variable O_ICONS=1).
Instructions for Termux here: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Advanced-use-cases#enable-file-icons
Here's how it looks: https://i.imgur.com/s2XYry9.png
There is a known issue with rendering letters at the moment that we are trying to address.
Here's a video of terminal file manager <code>nnn</code> running in the Termux environment on Android. nnn integrates seamlessly with native Android apps and terminal utilities on Termux.
One of the primary goals of nnn is to deliver performance on low-freq low-power devices like the Pi or handhelds. As you'll notice in the video it can handle intensive performances like on the fly filtering, disk-usage analysis etc. easily even on these devices.
Device details:
Android v8.1 Octa core (2 GHz, Quad core, Cortex A73 + 2 GHz, Quad core, Cortex A53) processor 6 GB RAM
For maintainers, GCC 9.0 will be an optional package on Ubuntu 19.04. Till it's released, you can still test compile your project on CircleCI. Refer to the project [nnn](https://github.com/jarun/nnn) for sample CircleCI config.
> The comment for renaming seems to be ^R
That's right. You can also edit the directory in vidir.
> When renaming i can't use the backspace key
Which version are you trying? I think it's not working as the keycode for 127 is not handled in the rename prompt. I can add a quick patch.
> what would be really nice is a ctrl-p like feature
You can integrate fzy for a fuzzy search in the directory tree. There's a sample script available here: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#sample-scripts
The vim plugin was pushed today: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#work-faster-at-rename-prompt
Would love some feedback from the community to improve it further. Currently it opens nnn in the directory where vim was opened. Can someone add an option (setting + keybind (Leader N) + command (:NP)) so it can be opened in the directory of the currently opened file?
I must admit my knowledge of vimL is limited. In fact this is the first time I am tinkering with it.
I think what you really are trying to figure out is this. This would define if you want a blazing fast and bloat-free C utility with minimum dependencies to navigate your files or stay with a more featured Python utility (I mean ranger here).
> As an example, wouldn't it be easier to just ctrl - c and ctrl - v a file versus typing the copy and paste command? Or just plain drag and drop?
Because you also need to manipulate (open, close, position) windows using mouse clicks. For most of my file management I use terminal file manager (does a lot more than that) nnn - single window (only the terminal), easy navigation with arrows and no need to keep switching between the mouse and the keyboard.
lsblk and pmount combined together can be very handy to (un)mount drives manually from the terminal. I prefer it because some of my 2TB disks have multiple encrypted partitions and I don't want popups appearing for each volume when I connect them. You can have a simple script to automate this. Here's an example script.
Cool feature!
Is it inherited from bash? If yes, why not have a way to fall into the bash prompt directly?
File manager nnn allows the same. Or, is it more driven by the fact that clifm shows the prompt all the time?
On the contrary, it's extremely easy to maintain. No need of ctags/cscope. Just plain vim. Link time optimization comes for free. Because of the quality of nnn, most of the code is highly stable so we seldom change those anymore. Most of the work goes into writing new features. See the review for icons and you'll know what I am talking about.
It comes up in external discussions (like this) but none of the devs ever bothered to bring it up.
Set up something very similar with file manager <code>nnn</code> and vim. Added a plugin with the hotkey n (for *n*otes):
export NNN_PLUG='n:-_vim /home/user/Dropbox/Public/Docs/Notes*'
Now when I press Alt+n inside nnn, the Notes directory opens in vim where I can edit existing ones or, add new notes. nnn comes with a vim plugin too for picking files.
I have a full time job and a 6 yr old. But I try to spend at least 2 hrs a day on my projects. But there are other people in the team who pitch in frequently.
You'll find more info on performance here: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Performance
> PS: I also briefly tried nnn, but it's way too primitive for my tastes.
You might be on an earlier version. nnn adds many new features in each release. Here's the list of nnn features: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#features
Also release v2.5 adds support for plugins making it easy to extend. There are 20+ plugins available already.
As I said, I got lost in the menus when I tried it as an end user. I found it difficult to find the menu (and memorize the location) to open a file in a different application. I did try the help and found informative but very very lengthy with so many sections.
> So, if this is the only advantage...
I am not an mc user, but to be fair I am sure there would be pros and cons. Picking any utility is a matter of personal choices. There may be a feature in mc you may need to use daily for a very specific workflow and it may not be available in nnn. So there's no reason to claim things. I can confirm nnn is way faster and uses much less memory and that's about it.
The best I can do (without being pushy) is to suggest you to go through the list of features, give it a shot with a open mind as just another new utility and decide whether to switch.
You will be demanded to fix your software. You will be shouted. Sometimes, the line may be crossed, and you will be abused. “How dare you not (use your free time to) fix this ultra high priority bug that is affecting me?” or “This is an absolutely basic feature! How is it not implemented yet (by you on your free time)?!” or even “You made me move to Software Y, and you need to win me back” are going to be realities you will have to face.
Very very true. I face this one regularly with <code>nnn</code>. There are so many users who love the powerful features of the utility behind a simple interface. But I find at least one nagging asshole every week with the question - why doesn't nnn look/behave like file manager X in this workflow?
Ask them to contribute the feature back and you get - I don't have time/expertise in C.
> Instead of spawning nested shells with "!", wouldn't it be better to simply cd into the directory from nnn and after that quit nnn and go back to the shell?
Try cd-on-quit.
What's in?
- Use the desktop opener (xdg-open on Linux, open(1) on OS X) to open files
- Option
NNN_USE_EDITORto open text files in EDITOR (fallback vi) - Bookmark support (maximum 10, key
b) - Navigate-as-you-type mode (key
Insertor option-i) - Subtree search: gnome-search-tool, fallback catfish (key
^/) (customizable) - Show current directory content size and file count in disk usage mode
- Add detail view mode as default, use
-lto start in light mode - Shortcuts
F2and^Lto refresh and unfilter Note: if filter is empty,Enteropens the currently selected file now - Help screen shows bookmarks and configuration
- Show a message when calculating disk usage
- Show the spawned shell level
- Linux only: use vlock as the locker on timeout (set using
NNN_IDLE_TIMEOUT)
Homepage: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
What's in?
- Use the desktop opener (xdg-open on Linux, open(1) on OS X) to open files
- Option
NNN_USE_EDITORto open text files in EDITOR (fallback vi) - Bookmark support (maximum 10, key
b) - Navigate-as-you-type mode (key
Insertor option-i) - Subtree search: gnome-search-tool, fallback catfish (key
^/) (customizable) - Show current directory content size and file count in disk usage mode
- Add detail view mode as default, use
-lto start in light mode - Shortcuts
F2and^Lto refresh and unfilter Note: if filter is empty,Enteropens the currently selected file now - Help screen shows bookmarks and configuration
- Show a message when calculating disk usage
- Show the spawned shell level
- Linux only: use vlock as the locker on timeout (set using
NNN_IDLE_TIMEOUT)
Homepage: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
Features: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#features
Note: Though the flair is Linux, nnn works on both Linux and OS X.
News
- Introducing nlay - a highly customizable bash script to handle media type
- nnn is on Homebrew now
- RPM packages for CentOS 7 and Fedora 24 generated on release
What's in?
- Search-as-you-type
- Unicode support
- Option
-Sto start in disk usage analyzer mode - Show media information (using mediainfo)
- Use readline at change directory prompt
- Jump to prev directories using
cd .....(with.as PWD) - Jump to initial directory using
& - Show help, mediainfo and file info in PAGER
- Several optimizations
Homepage: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
For Linux it is xdg-open. Different *nix operating systems can have different default openers. To have a uniform experience, you can try a terminal file manager like <code>nnn</code>.
Yes. replace && with ;.
Seriously now, If you want to automate a marginally more complicated task
- Write a script. Do it properly.
If you just want an easy interactive experience, use an interactive program. IIRC nnn has excellent renaming features.
Thunar does not necessarily "come with" Void Linux, it's part of the XFCE desktop ;)
I enjoy <em>nnn</em>. Personally I find it a bit all over the place setupwise, but once configured it's a sweet little file manager. Not sure but it probably has some way of setting up the tabs like you want them.
> By command-line "keyboard-friendly" tools I mean tools such as FZF, FD and TMUX
I came across your comment and this has been on my never-ending "To Do".
I finally got around to installing and learning to use fzf, and I figured out how to map fzf to use fd instead of find, and I even went and got bat :) such nice colors - WHOA!!!
I tried nnn for a day but quickly went back to ranger because I really like the multi-column layout. A shame - I really liked nnn. According to this comment from the Owner
> nnn will never have multi-tab or multi-pane
Along the way, I swapped Alacritty in favor of Kitty, and it's been an awesome experience!
SO. # THANK YOU for your comment, really got me going
If you are adventurous, try a terminal file manager like nnn. You can select files from multiple locations (using Space) and move all of them in a go.
The procedure to setup remote mounts is a one-time activity and explained in details here: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Basic-use-cases#remote-mounts
There are a loads more, more then you can even imagine. I like ranger and nnn. This other fellow I follow all the time really likes lf. So pick any of these three and I think you'll be OK with your CLI terminal choice.
https://vitux.com/how-to-install-ranger-terminal-file-manager-on-linux/
You need to reduce the number of services those start automatically. Disable those you don't need. Use lightweight tools as the memory consumption varies widely among utilities of the same category as well.
There are often links under the section called 'assets' that you.. just click and download. :) example at the bottom of the page here.
https://github.com/jarun/nnn/releases
Assuming the git repo actually has prebuilt binaries. Not all do.
nnn author here. Previews with ueberzug (on tmux) is the best experience. However, I think there are still issues with ueberzug on macOS.
Last time we checked (read the comments from here): https://github.com/jarun/nnn/issues/895#issuecomment-803576485
I am not on macOS myself. is there a terminal in macOS with good native support for image previews?
Some packagers install them. However, we prefer a manual because technically the plugins have their own dependencies.
Anyway, the installation is simple: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/tree/master/plugins#installation
Well, I guess you installed it and looked at the help alone, if you reckon is a tad too technical for you, I'd suggest - actually this is good advice for any program - to take a look at the relevant website, most often than not you find great help, as in this case, I may be wrong but I guess you haven't gone through the whole of the main page:
You'll find not only a good introduction and few things to do straight after installation, but also the creator's video taking you on a tour of the program. Also, after that, scroll to the bottom of the page and he linked plenty of other videos and tutorials, make sure to watch them all if you don't feel confident, most of them link to their config files.
Also, you can find many other config files for nnn on github, as you'll discover by just watching those videos. Well, maybe it doesn't work for you but, personally, I first like to "see" what the program can do and only then I look at how the user has set up their conf files to reach that particular state/goal.
Said that, you really need to put aside some time both to learn new programs and experiment, especially because the definition of "basic" is personal: basic could mean just with the most needed shortcuts, or similar behaviour to other file managers (in that case "basic" for a ranger user is very different than "basic" for a mc user and so on...), try a few "basic" config files and see which one you like better, familiarize with the workflow and then start tinkering. Do that on test files and folders, making sure that, for every day normal use, you'll keep using your old file manager instead. Always best to be safe than sorry.
try upmv (relevant discussion)
nnnonly stores the current filter so that's not possible
Author of nnn here. As goes your requirements:
> Core feature set to quickly cd into deep directories, search for a file within a dir, preview text files. Opening files with the right editor is optional as I figure I can just cd there and run the command I want.
nnn has them all. I personally prefer the type-to-nav mode. You should check it out.
> Minimal: I don’t want to have a on of other features that I won’t use packaged in with the software. Also the fewer deps the better.
It comes in a 100KiB binary and you can reduce that further IF you are adventurous. Visit the wiki. ncurses is the only dependency.
> Easy to learn: kind of goes hand in hand with the above but also includes keyboard shortcuts
You should really remember the arrows and tabs. The rest are a <kbd>?</kbd> away at runtime. We also have an extensive wiki.
> Easy to configure: I can’t remember which program it was but one required me to compile it with different flags. That would be a deal breaker for me. Also would prefer there to not be 1000 options for me to toggle and test
There are only 12 config options and you probably need to touch 4 or 5. Most of the config and program options have sane defaults.
> Speed/performance
If you haven't come across nnn earlier, it's a tiny and extremely fast file manager. While it works very well on the desktop, a primary development focus has been to maintain performance on low-end and mid-range devices (like the Pi and Android smartphones) with limited resource. So despite having tons of features, nnn still remains a very performant file manager. More details here.
I assume you have visited: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Basic-use-cases#detached-text
For zero-sized files you will have to edit them because xdg-open (and wrappers) handles zero-files very differently on different systems. You can set your $VISUAL to your custom opener for that purpose. In the above link it's ewrap.
Author of file manager nnn here. This is really promising and something I had been looking for a long time. A few more enahncements would be really useful for users who deal with images regularly and would want to get a little more in-place e.g. showing names and renaming files. I added a request on image viewer viu to have collage support but I don't see it going anywhere. Another great addition could be showing thumbnails of videos (not sure if I missed that).
You can click to navigate in nnn. The latest release has abundant colors and icons too!
> type a command at a prompt to navigate
> but I'm talking about a gui driven approach instead of TUI
These are a little contradictory. However, nnn doesn't want you (or newbies) to type commands at all.
> finder
You can integrate fzf within nnn. But what's even better, you can find/grep recursively in the current dir from nnn and list the results in nnn: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/tree/master/plugins#send-data-to-nnn
Refer to the examples for fd and rg.
In addition, I personally use the launch plugin as a program launcher.
I'm currently considering either nnn or lf as my file manager for a more performant alternative to ranger.
- Previews are important (seeing contents of a directory when the cursor is on it) and it looks like nnn recently supports this. I've just tried
preview-tuiand performance seems to be pretty bad--there's 1-2 seconds delay to show the contents of the directories as well as the contents of text file.
In comparison, lf's previews have no delay whatsoever and at most there's a 1 second delay when loading a massive media directory.
Is anyone else experiencing this? The previews are running on my alacritty terminal and I've tried to get tmux working (it is installed) to see if it would make a difference, but it refuses to use it for some reason. I'm on Arch Linux.
- Because lf has ranger-style multi-column display, traversing through directories 1 step at a time seems to be more fluid. Knowing the contents of the parent directory and the subdirectory of the current directory seems essential--is there a way reason why nnn avoids this seemingly superior design? I know nnn has some strict philosophy to keep it the Unix way (to be fair, lf does too) and I'm asking this as a humble noob.
I want to give nnn a real shot as it seems significantly more popular than lf, which itself is not that important but it looks like the framework is better designed and more plugins are available as a result. Also, nnn is in the default repo and I would need to compile lf every time there's an update on Arch (not that big of a deal).
/u/sablal
Yes, there are multiple previewer mechanisms which includes previewing in the same window: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Live-previews
To change the default applications follow this: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Troubleshooting#wrong-file-opener
As trash-cli is safe (files are not wiped from your system, you can recover them) we don't show any confirmation. Many users find too many prompts obtrusive. As you have to enable trash-cli explicitly you are already familiar with the behaviour. In fact, even trash-cli itself doesn't have any interactive mode.
Feel free to ask any questions you have.
You will find this section useful: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Developer-guides#make-options
Say you want to compile out the built-in batch renamer. The corresponding make option is O_NOBATCH. So you compile nnn with the following command:
make O_NOBATCH=1 strip Note that the defaults are very carefully selected so you may probably not have to use make options when you are just getting familiar with nnn. Same goes for configuration variables.
Feel free to ask if you have any follow-up questions.
To cut to the chase, nnn.vim is the go to plugin for nnn users for picking files in vim (and use several other nnn features available within vim).
I haven't use Floaterm myself, so can't compare. Please go through the list of nnn features to have an idea.
With reference to my post here, if you are
- planning to add better features in nnn by contributing, you are welcome to do so
- showcasing your favourite project so potential contributors are deterred from actively pitching in, FYI this is not a competition
- suggesting we stop developing the nnn.vim project because there are other plugins to select files, I don't think that's reasonable or relevant
Build from source for the newest version, unless you happen to be using Debian Sid or Ubuntu Rolling Rhino, in which case it should already be in your repositories. You can manually install by downloading the right version for your OS from https://github.com/jarun/nnn/releases/tag/v3.4 and then running "sudo dpkg -i /path/to/downloaded-file"
> last time I checked it needed more mouse clicks.
That's false information.
- mouse support was introduced in nnn v2.5 only a year back (release ntoes)
- I compile and use nnn without mouse support till date
Also, one of the main reasons I chose to write a new file manager was mc is highly menu driven. It literally shows pop-up menus for every option.
In case you haven't come across <code>nnn</code> earlier, it's a blazing fast terminal file manager with seamless GUI integration and tons of features.
New in v3.4 "Emilia"
- icons with icon-specific colors (thanks @KlzXS)
- enhanced
NNN_COLORSwith xterm 256 colors support - new colorscheme with
NNN_FCOLORS(file type specific colors) - switch
-Cto force earlier colorscheme (dirs follow context color) - updates for Haiku (thanks @CodeforEvolution)
- fix XFS navigation issue (thanks @ucs1)
- optimize archive extension matching on file open
- show location in context color
- support
host[:dir]format for remote mounts - clear selection after copy
- support traversal on file/dir creation
- show selection in reverse in status bar
- show status bar indicator
Hwhen hidden files are listed - show and confirm archive command output
- support cd on quit in picker mode
This is still on master but thought of sharing as an early preview. The default colors can be overridden by env variable NNN_FCOLORS. More details here.
The earlier colorscheme can also be enforced with the program option -C.
This is still on master but thought of sharing as an early preview. The default colors can be overridden by env variable NNN_FCOLORS. More details here.
The earlier colorscheme can also be enforced with the program option -C.
This is still on master but thought of sharing as an early preview. The default colors can be overridden by env variable NNN_FCOLORS. More details here.
The earlier colorscheme can also be enforced with the program option -C.
I can recommend nnn as a very sleek command line-based file manager. It's available in the Ubuntu repos (do the apt search command to find it).
Homepage (with info on how to configure it) here:-
thank you for the reply and thanks for the great program
and for anyone who might have the same problem and is a linux noob like me: you gotta add terminal -e (replace "terminal" with your terminal name) to the Exec= line in your version of the nnn example on this page https://github.com/jarun/nnn/blob/master/misc/desktop/nnn.desktop
Yes, nnn integrates seamless with GUI apps. Is that the question or am I missing something?
For desktop integration notes, head here.
> If you use ssh to get to other computer file systems
SSH is as easy as typing the remote host name in nnn.
However, nnn has gone beyond SSH and the rclone integration literally lets you mount any cloud storage you have at the same ease - type the host name. Details: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Basic-use-cases#remote-mounts
Very interesting project! I found multiple utilities I starred and/or installed right away.
Could you please add nnn? We generate a static binary with every release.
Funny to see these features when nnn is notorious for closing any feature requests or discussions.
Here's a response on preview request on github [1]:
> You are asking for file previews for which the design decision is very clear - there would be no file previews. The reasons are stated. > Also, I think what you are aiming at is to get all ranger features in nnn. I believe you should stick to ranger. We are pretty clear that we don't want any unnecessary feature bloat. There are thousands of nnn users out there who do not want these feature bloat.
and then last comment in the thread two weeks ago:
> previews are available in master.
I'm glad to see the change of mind but this whole scenario quite funny. Personally I'm not a fan of such hostile communication/direction and is the reason why I don't use nnn.
Ranger might be older project but the community is much more welcoming and friendly.
Indeed, there are multiple mechanisms those work pretty well. We have recently been working on previewing hovered files in the file manager using various methods, including kitty. The results are promising.
Indeed, there are multiple mechanisms those work pretty well. We have recently been working on previewing hovered files in the file manager using various methods, including kitty. The results are promising.
Same here. My initial idea was to try the <em>**nnn</em>* terminal file manager instead of a GUI file manager as a new approach to more keyboard driven apps on my new laptop running OpenBSD with cwm, but I'm not entirely convinced that I'll be able to handle this is a convenient way (currently coming from Gnome with Nautilus). So QtFM in addition may be the solution, especially for the typical drag & drop file management.
It's a actually a nice one-liner!
It would be great if you consider adding some interesting/cool ideas from existing file managers e.g. like these.
Also, why rofi and not fzf?
What are the benefits over file edit based bulk rename approach? We wrote our own last month to drop dependencies. Initally we thought of regex and then finalized over file based for people who are not too familiar with regex.
In my search for a good multiplexer to go with nnn, I have tried dvtm and tmux. dvtm is extremely light but it appears there's no way to open a new command in a new pane from within a session. This is where tmux trumped.
So if I want to open 2 panes, I run
dvtm n n # n is aliased to nnn + some program options
But if I want to open text/image files detached in a new pane, my custom opener calls:
tmux split-window -h "vim \"$*\""
Can 3mux do both for me?
- present a lightweight multiplexer
- support options to open split windows and run acommand
In my search for a good multiplexer to go with nnn, I have tried dvtm and tmux. dvtm is extremely light but it appears there's no way to open a new command in a new pane from within a session. This is where tmux trumped.
So if I want to open 2 panes, I run
dvtm n n # n is aliased to nnn + some program options
But if I want to open text/image files detached in a new pane, my custom opener calls:
tmux split-window -h "vim \"$*\""
Can 3mux do both for me?
- present a lightweight multiplexer
- support options to open split windows and run acommand
I have done it the other way round using nnn. I have my code in Windows and I have bookmarked the root directory in nnn. In WSL I can easily access the files and edit them in vim.
Thanks for sharing! Yes, one utility for each file type is a bit high. Currently I use <code>nnn</code> because it has very few dependencies. Admittedly my Linux laptop is a little old and so far I am very happy with the performance.
However, I have a newer Mac where I can try this. Are these available on Homebrew?
> synchronised registers
nnn uses the same selection file for selection. You can access the selection from multiple instances of nnn
> previewing directories with a custom command (in my case it is always "git log"; seeing git log for a directory is very important to me)
Pretty simple: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/tree/master/plugins#running-commands-as-plugin
> custom view (specifically, "most recently committed files", and also sometimes most recently modified files)
Press t followed by t to sort by mod time. You can also use access time.
> ad hoc custom commands (add one that I need for a week or two, then delete it)
Again, the link I shared above explains how to set custom commands.
I am not familiar with vifm as nnn is my daily driver. I have heard good things about vifm too. You can take a look at the nnn features here: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#features and have an idea of the similarities and differences between the 2 file managers.
In v3.0, press Enter on the file and it will show you options. The basic formats are recognized by default. You can also add more formats using config NNN_ARCHIVE. See: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki/Usage#configuration
I have atool installed and I use:
export NNN_ARCHIVE="\.(7z|a|ace|alz|arc|arj|bz|bz2|cab|cpio|deb|gz|jar|lha|lz|lzh|lzma|lzo|rar|rpm|rz|t7z|tar|tbz|tbz2|tgz|tlz|txz|tZ|tzo|war|xpi|xz|Z|zip)$"
axel https://github.com/jarun/nnn/archive/master.zip && unzip nnn-master.zip && cd nnn-master && sudo make strip install
Dude, make up your mind, do you want to use wget or axel?? JUST USE GIT CLONE. YOU ALSO DON'T NEED UNZIP THEN
The GUI has its own place. Speaking of the CLI, sometimes remembering long commands can be an issue. That's where terminal file managers come in. <code>nnn</code> for example, can do 24 out of the 32 items in the list with simple leypresses.
I agree remembering long commands can be an issue. That's where terminal fiel managers come in. Terminal file manager <code>nnn</code> can do 24 out of the 32 items in the list without having to type commands.
Vim is hyper configurable. You can easily get it to do whatever you want however you want.
But using Vim plainly, without modification, and getting to know the Vim language will serve you better. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't modify Vim to work best for you.
Personally, I hate netrw. Not sure what it is, it's just a pain in the ass for me to work with. For others, it's the best file manager there is.
My favorite alternatives are <code>nnn</code> and <code>fff</code>. Both are fabulous, are incredibly lightweight, function almost the same as netrw, and make it easy for me to work with Vim.
It's a win-win, IMO.
For a start, nnn doesn't have any menus. So you don't need to touch your mouse. Please take a look at the list of features (https://github.com/jarun/nnn#features), give it a spin and see if it suits you.
Thanks for sharing! Love to see awesome C projects. Reminds me of my 2.5 years of lone work behind <code>nnn</code>. Keep rocking and don't get discouraged by unjust criticism or overwhelmed by nonsense feature requests. Remember that you are doing it for free spending your time.
You can try nnn: https://github.com/jarun/nnn
Steps:
- brew install nnn
- Go to your HDD
- Press
.to show hidden files
BTW, nnn works with FreeDesktop Trash specification if you have <code>trash-cli</code> installed and export the config:
NNN_TRASH=1
Does this extend ncuses or is a full rewrite? How about wchar support? How is the print performance against regular printf? It looks promising. Can try this with nnn if performance betters.
Using obfuscated names with numbers makes the process harder. One can edit ~/.ssh/config to use simpler host names. I generally use names according to the services the remotes provide, e.g., like texaslab, homemedia etc. If the names of the servers or cloud services are not so difficult to remember (more examples - phone, dropbox, box etc.), try this.
I think file manager nnn simplifies this as much as possible. The plugin <code>nmount</code> toggles mounted status for external drives in a REPL.
nmount can be run with a customizable keypress from nnn. You don't need to type anything other than the device name which is listed for you.
I don't think the expectation that someone can do an ELI5 the differences between 2 full-featured utilities for you is correct. Both have their own advantages. To have an understanding yourself please head to the respective Wikis:
nnn Wiki - https://github.com/jarun/nnn/wiki
nnn plugins doc: https://github.com/jarun/nnn/tree/master/plugins
ranger Wiki - https://github.com/ranger/ranger/wiki
xfce4-terminal with multi-tab in drop-down mode (my laptop stays on for weeks and I prefer having the contexts intact). For the rare instances I need a vertical split, I use <code>nnn</code> with <code>dvtm</code>. Still, iIt's rare because my file/dir diffs are in vimdiff.