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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What's the point of terminal file managers (mc, ranger, nnn, etc)? (self.linux)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by tatterdemalion to c/[email protected]

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Who are these for? People who use the terminal but don't like running shell commands?

OK sorry for throwing shade. If you use one of these, honestly, what features do you use that make it worthwhile?

EDIT: Just to clarify, my point is I would almost always reach for fzf, fd, or rg before trying to manually search through a directory in a file manager.

EDIT2: A few people mentioned selecting files in a TUI. I don't find it any harder to select files using autocomplete. It might even be faster to start typing a name than it is it "scroll" through a list of files.

EDIT3: Here's a neat tool that can add some flexibility to your shell workflow: https://github.com/urbanogilson/lineselect

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you looked into Autojump? It works with bash and zsh and is even faster than using a terminal file manager if you've already visited the directory before

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I still kinda don't see the point. Like, typing cd /usr/share/xsessions is not that much slower than j xsessions or however it would work. Also, how does it actually work? What if I visit both $HOME/backgrounds and /usr/share/backgrounds very often?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It's for when you have really nested directories. It happens especially when you're working in a file space used by others. I used to have a folder I would often reach called /media/nas/documents/personal/school/foo/bar/foobar2001/projectA

I ended up going back to that project so many times, I could just do j projectA and get there from anywhere. "Why not use a symlink?" I hear you say. Well it's because I often have to go to projectB or another which was in another really nested dir. Or I needed to jump to another directory which was equally as nested, and only had to use it frequently for like a week or so. Making and deleting symlinks all the time wasn't practical. Not to mention some software doesn't properly follow symlinks

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

What I usually do for that sort of thing is define some variables that go to my most visited.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Aliases? That could work quite well imo, and I have some to launch my most frequently opened config files, such as my qtile config

alias qtile-conf="nvim ~/.config/qtile/config.py"