Alternatives to clifm
A shell-like terminal file manager that works directly on the command line, without menus or panes. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
clifm
A shell-like terminal file manager that works directly on the command line, without menus or panes.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as clifm.
nnn
A terminal file manager of about 150 KB that starts instantly, uses under 4 MB of memory and needs almost no configuration.
nnn is a tiny full-screen terminal file manager with a large plugin repository, replacing the command-typing approach with terse keybindings.
ranger
A console file manager with vi keybindings and a three-column view showing parent, current and preview.
ranger provides a visual three-column view with vi keys and previews instead of working inside the shell prompt, and is written in Python.
Yazi
A terminal file manager where nothing blocks: every read, preview and copy happens asynchronously.
Yazi is a full-screen asynchronous terminal file manager with image previews and Lua plugins, and also runs on Windows and macOS.
Midnight Commander
Two-panel file manager for the terminal, with an editor and remote access.
Midnight Commander provides two visual panels with an editor and remote filesystem browsing, using function-key bindings instead of typed commands.
Vifm
A terminal file manager with a curses interface and Vim-like keybindings.
Vifm uses a curses interface with Vim keybindings and commands, offers Windows binaries, and is listed as not open source.
superfile
A terminal file manager with a modern, colourful interface, built in Go with themes and plugin support.
superfile swaps the shell-prompt workflow for a colourful themed full-screen interface with previews, fuzzy search and a trash can.
Joshuto
A ranger-like terminal file manager written in Rust with Miller-column navigation.
Joshuto is a Rust ranger-style file manager with Miller columns and optional fzf and zoxide integration, also available on macOS.
felix
A terminal file manager written in Rust with Vim-like key bindings and file previews.
felix is a lightweight Rust terminal file manager with Vim-like keys, file previews and YAML configuration, but it has a smaller feature set and is not open source.
Also worth comparing
These listings name clifm as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
lf
A fast terminal file manager in the ranger style, as a single binary with no runtime dependencies.
clifm works inside the shell prompt with typed commands instead of visual panes, supports plugins, and is Linux only under the GPL-2.0 license.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
far2l
A port of the Far Manager v2 dual-panel console file manager to Linux and macOS.
xplr
Explore files with a configurable terminal interface.
broot
Navigate large directory trees and find files in the terminal.
Walk
A minimal terminal file navigator that replaces cd and ls for browsing directories.
RnR
A command-line tool that batch renames files and directories using regular expressions.
