cfiles vs Newt

cfiles is a free terminal file manager written in C with ncurses and vim-like keybindings. It targets a ranger-like interface while remaining lightweight, fast and minimal, and runs on Linux and macOS. Navigation uses h, j, k and l, with shortcuts for top, middle, bottom and page scrolling. The f and F keys search with fzf, while S opens a shell in the current directory. File selections can be copied, moved, renamed, sent to trash or removed. Preview support covers images, media information, archives and PDFs through external dependencies. Users can save bookmarks and run executable scripts from the configured cfiles directory. Dependencies include ncursesw, cp and mv, fzf, w3mimgdisplay or Überzug, mediainfo, atool and pdftoppm. Überzug cannot preview MP3 album art and has nonfunctional arrow-key scrolling; w3mimgdisplay previews may disappear after terminal resizing or workspace changes. Trash deletion requires a specific directory, and configuration falls back to $HOME/.config when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset.

Newt is a free, open-source file manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its two-pane interface handles local and remote filesystems, connecting through SSH, containers, Kubernetes pods, and WSL distributions. Remote sessions can run file operations, searches, terminals, and mounts on the remote host. Users can view, copy, move, delete, or edit files, and pack or reveal them. ZIP, TAR, compressed TAR, and CPIO archives can be browsed as directories, including nested and encrypted archives; ISO 9660 and UDF images can be browsed without extraction. S3 filesystems can be mounted, with range reads for large images. Recursive filename and content searches stream results into a pane linked to the files. Common actions have direct key controls, with configurable bindings and mouse controls also available. The backend uses Rust, while the interface uses React and TypeScript and packaging uses Tauri. Source code is available under the GNU GPL v3. No free-tier limits are stated.