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lf (as in "list files") is a terminal file manager written in Go with a heavy inspiration from ranger file manager. See faq for more information and tutorial for a gentle introduction with screencasts.

• Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, BSDs, Windows)
• Single binary without any runtime dependencies
• Fast startup and low memory footprint due to native code and static binaries
• Asynchronous IO operations to avoid UI locking
• Server/client architecture and remote commands to manage multiple instances
• Extendable and configurable with shell commands
• Customizable keybindings (vi and readline defaults)
• A reasonable set of other features (see the documentation)

• Tabs or windows (better handled by window manager or terminal multiplexer)
• Builtin pager/editor (better handled by your pager/editor of choice)
• Builtin commands for file operations (better handled by the underlying shell tools including but not limited to mkdir, touch, chmod, chown, chgrp, and ln)

See packages for community maintained packages.

See releases for pre-built binaries.

Building from the source requires Go.

On Unix:

env CGO_ENABLED=0 go install -trimpath -ldflags="-s -w" github.com/gokcehan/lf@latest

On Windows cmd:

set CGO_ENABLED=0
go install -trimpath -ldflags="-s -w" github.com/gokcehan/lf@latest

On Windows PowerShell:

$env:CGO_ENABLED = '0'
go install -trimpath -ldflags="-s -w" github.com/gokcehan/lf@latest

After the installation lf command should start the application in the current directory.

Run lf -help to see command line options.

Run lf -doc to see the documentation.

See etc directory to integrate lf to your shell and/or editor. Example configuration files along with example colors and icons files can also be found in this directory.

See integrations to integrate lf to other tools.

See tips for more examples.

See contributing for guidelines.