2019-05-01_Linux_Format

60 LXF249May 2019 6660May 219Notl0f9o

imagefilesfromwithintheterminalemulatoritself,

usingthew3mbrowser.Thew3m-imgpackageand

otheroptionaldependencieslistedontheproject’s

GitHubpagearereadilyavailableinthesoftware

repositoriesformostdistributions.

ToinstallFFF,opentheterminalandrungitclone

https://github.com/dylanaraps/fff.git,whichcopiesthe

FFFrepositoryintothecurrentdirectory.Tobeableto

accessFFFfromanywhereintheterminal,youmust

placethescriptsomewherein$PATH,suchasthe

/usr/sbindirectory.Youcanrunthesudocpfff/usr/

sbin commandtodoso.Alternatively,youcansource

thescriptfromyour~/.bashrcfile:

$ echo“aliasfff=”/path/to/fff-script””>>~/.bashrc

$ source.bashrc

Ofcourse,youcancreateamoreconvenientalias

ifyouprefer,suchasfmorevenf:

$ echo“aliasfm=”/path/to/fff-script””>>~/.bashrc

$ echo“aliasf=”/path/to/fff-script””>>~/.bashrc

$ source.bashrc

YoucannowlaunchFFFbyrunningthefff

commandfromtheterminal,orusingyouralias.

Ifyou’veeverworkedwiththepopularvitexteditor,

you’llquiteenjoynavigatingwithFFF.Inadditionto

vi-likekeybindings,theprojectalsousesthearrowkeys

tohelpyounavigatearound.Thekey()functioninthe

FFFscriptdescribesthevariousbindings.

hatsetsFFFapartfromotherfilemanagersis

itsnon-conventionaluserinterface...andits

name,ofcourse.It’snoteverydayonecomes

acrossatoolwithanexpletiveforaname,whichwe

won’trepeathereforobviousreasons.Youwillhaveto

pointyourbrowsertotheproject’shomepageat

https://github.com/dylanaraps/fffforthat.

FFFdoesn’texactlyhaveaninterfacetospeakof.

Insteaditprovidesadirectoryorfilelist,andletsyou

performvariousfileoperationssuchascopy,paste,cut

andsoon.Asashellscript,theprojectalsodoesn’t

havelargedependencies,andyoucansetitupon

anyLinuxdistribution–andevenBSDandmacOS–

withoutanyhassles.Forallofitsfileoperations,thetool

reliesonthecoreutilspackage.Youcanoptionally

installthew3m-imgpackage,whichwillletyouview

Discover a blazingly

fast file manager

Notallfilemanagerslookthesame,asShashankSharmadiscovered

whileworkingwithFFF–afilemanagerwritteninBash.

ShashankSharma

isatriallawyerin

Delhiandanavid

Archuser.He’s

alwayslookingfor

geekmemorabilia.

FFF

CommanD-lineFilemanagers

Text-basedfilemanagersaren’tnew;infact,graphicalmanagers

couldbeconsideredthenewkidsontheblock.Twoofthemost

popularfilemanagersforLinuxusers,MidnightCommanderand

Ranger,arecommand-lineutilities.UnlikeFFF,thesefeatureamulti-

paneinterface,andsomeevenmoreadvancedfeatures.

Forinstance,youcanuseMidnightCommandertorecoverdeleted

files,andsearchforfilesorthecontentofafileaswell.UnlikeFFFand

Ranger,however,MidnightCommanderusesEmacs-style

keybindings.AswithFFF,youcanalsocreatebookmarks,called

Hotlists,andcanalsoconnectwithremoteFTPclientsandbrowse

contentsofarchivessuchasRARandZIP–somethingFFFcan’tdo.

Ifyou’rerunningRangerorMidnightCommanderinaterminal

emulatorontopofagraphicalenvironment,youwillalsobeableto

useyourmousetonavigatearoundtheinterface,whichisanother

featurenotavailablewiththevanillaFFFfilemanager.

Anotheralternativeisvifm,whichasthenamesuggestsisanother

toolthatsupportsvi-stylekeybindings.AswithRangerandMidnight

Commander,vifmfeaturesamulti-paneinterface.Whileitdoesn’t

offertheadvancedfeaturesofMidnightCommanderorRanger,alot

ofpeoplewillappreciateitsundoandredofeature,whichcanbeused

formanydifferentoperationssuchascopy,delete,rename,move,

changepermissions,owner/groupchangeandsoon.

our

expert

tutorials

The search feature also produces real-time results, and is indeed fast

enough to justify the project’s expletive-riddled name.

W