paras-commander

README

Paras Commander

A Linux terminal twin-panel file manager inspired by Midnight Commander and fzf, written in Go using a TUI.

⚠️ Not yet stable Use at your own risk.

Features

• Practically everything is based on fzf style searching. Filelist navigation, keybind help, etc.
• All jobs are queued into background by default.
• Jobs view with queue management and transfer graphs.
• Gitignore and git statuses using eza notation.
• Copied / moved files are indicated with an icon for visibility.
• Integrated disk usage scanning and reporting.
• Integrated directory comparison.
• Integrated find duplicates utility.
• Supports selections across multiple paths.
• Selections can be stashed and restored (1 slot).
• Integrated mass rename.
• Rename supports slugify and clean.
• Read bookmarks from ~/.fzf-marks and gnome gtk files. Writes bookmarks to ~/.fzf-marks.
• Find files / paths recursively. Can handle at least 2 million files.
• Meta column(s) can be used to provide data from external commands.
• Execute command for selected files.
• User menu for commands. Supports interactive, background and worker pools.
• SFTP remote panel browsing. Parses ~/.ssh/config for quick access.
• File chooser mode (--chooser-file) for editor integration (e.g. Helix).
• Subshell, ability to send selected filenames into the subshell.

Outscoped compared to MC

• No EXT2 recovery.
• No shell link.

Requirements

• Go 1.26+
• Linux
• NerdFont or something similar, no fallback implemented yet.

Install

Install the pc binary into $GOBIN if that environment variable is set; otherwise into $(go env GOPATH)/bin (often ~/go/bin). Put that directory on your PATH.

go install github.com/paranoidi/paras-commander/cmd/pc@latest

To install from a specific version tag or commit, replace @latest with that ref (for example @v0.1.0 or @main).

Build

go build ./cmd/pc

This produces a pc binary in the repo root.

Run

After a local go build (binary in the current directory):

./pc

Open a directory in the primary (left) panel:

./pc /path/to/dir

Open a file in fullscreen preview (Esc returns to its parent directory with the file selected):

./pc README.md

Open two directories (primary, then secondary). If exactly one argument is a file, that panel opens the file's parent with the file selected and Quick View is enabled on that panel; both arguments being files is an error.

./pc ~/projects ~/Downloads
./pc README.md ~/Downloads

Missing paths exit with an error. Path arguments cannot be combined with --chooser-file (use --select there instead).

With test helpers (Dev pulldown menu for status toasts):

./pc -dev

After go install, with your Go bin directory on PATH:

pc

File chooser (Helix)

Inspiration taken from yazi, the filemanager you should check out.

pc --chooser-file=/path/to/output-file [--select=PATH] [--no-carousel]

• --chooser-file — when you press Enter on a regular file, pc writes its absolute path (with a trailing newline) to this file and exits. Directories are opened as usual; only files complete the pick.
• --select — open at a file or directory and highlight it (e.g. Helix %{buffer_name} for the active buffer). For a file, pc opens its parent directory with that file selected. If the path does not exist yet, the parent directory is opened and the basename is selected when present in the listing.
• Carousel view on the left panel (parent | current | child columns) is on by default in chooser mode. Pass --no-carousel to use a plain single-column list instead.
• Quick view (Shift+F3) is on by default in chooser mode so the inactive panel previews the highlighted file.
• Quit without selecting leaves the output file unchanged — clear it before each invocation.

Example Helix keybinding (requires a Helix build with command extensions):

[keys.normal]
C-p = [
  ':sh rm -f /tmp/pc-chooser',
  ':insert-output pc -select "%{buffer_name}" -chooser-file=/tmp/pc-chooser',
  ':sh printf "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',
  ':open %sh{cat /tmp/pc-chooser}',
  ':redraw',
]

Test

go test ./...

Lint

Requires go-task. Install tools into ./bin, then lint:

task setup   # install golangci-lint, errcheck, ineffassign, gocyclo into ./bin
task lint    # golangci-lint (includes errcheck, ineffassign, gocyclo)
task errcheck
task ineffassign
task gocyclo

Or, if golangci-lint (v2) is already on your PATH:

golangci-lint run ./...

Configuration

Paras Commander reads a TOML config file. On first run a default config is generated. Themes live in the themes/ directory.

See docs/config.md for the full list of config.toml keys, defaults, and descriptions.