clifm - The command line file manager

Oct 28, 2022 · 2 min read · file manager cli  ·
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clifm is a CLI-based, shell-like, and non-curses terminal file manager written in C: simple, fast, extensible, lightweight and rich of features.

The main characteristincs of clifm is that the interaction happens through commands inserted in the command line REPL (read–eval–print loop), as in a traditional shell. For this reason, despite the project defines clifm as a CLI file-manager, considering the features and how they are implemented, clifm looks half-way between a file-manager and a shell.

clifnm provides some original ideas on how to manage files and directories from the command line. A major feature is the use of entry list numbers (ELN's) for identifying the items in the directory, so that files and directories can be identified with their number instead of their file names. Thanks to this feature, regular file management commands, such as ls, cp, mv, rm etc. can use the numbers instead of filenames.

clifm makes extended use of colors and icons to identify different types of files. It supports autosuggentions, file tagging, plus bookmarks and workspaces to move around the file system.

Another useful feature is that every time the user moves to a new directory, the list of files is displayed automatically without the need to issue any command, which reflects the typical behavior for most users.

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