ranger

It provides a curses‑based interface that displays a directory hierarchy in one or more columns, allowing navigation and common file operations such as creating, copying, moving, deleting and renaming files. The built‑in file launcher automatically selects an appropriate program for each file type, and previews of selected items are shown when supported. Keyboard shortcuts follow VI conventions, and the program can change the invoking shell’s working directory after exit.

The tool is aimed at users who prefer a terminal workflow and want a lightweight, extensible file manager with familiar Vim‑style key bindings. It supports UTF‑8, tabs, bookmarks, mouse interaction, and can be configured via files in a user’s `~/.config/ranger` directory. Optional dependencies enable richer previews for images, videos, archives, code, PDFs and other formats.

Ranger is written in Python and targets easy maintenance while keeping the feature set focused on fast directory navigation and file handling. It runs on any system with Python (2.6 / 3.1 or newer) and the curses module, and can be extended through scripts and plugins found in its repository.