cfiles vs pointer
cfiles
github.compointer
github.comSide by side
| Figure | cfiles | pointer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.4 (#8) | 8.3 (#11) |
| Spec score · File managers | 7.9 (#18) | 8.5 (#8) |
| Dependencies | The README lists ncursesw, cp and mv, fzf, w3mimgdisplay or Überzug, mediainfo, atool, and poppler's pdftoppm as dependencies. | Rust and Cargo are required to build from source; optional runtime tools include bat, fzf, ImageMagick, pdftotext, git, xclip, locate, navi, and curl. |
| File operations | The selection list supports copying, moving, renaming, moving files to trash, and removing selected files. | It supports asynchronous copy and move operations and undo for delete, move, rename, copy, symlink, permissions, and bulk rename. |
| License | The software is licensed under the MIT License, which grants permission to use, copy, modify, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell copies subject to its terms. | The project is released under the Unlicense, described on the page as public domain. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Maker | The license file credits Manan Singh with copyright in 2018. | The repository credits Geir Isene as creator. |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Product | cfiles is a terminal file manager written in C with vim-like keybindings and the ncurses library. | Pointer is a Rust terminal file manager and feature clone of RTFM. |
Plans
In their own words
cfiles
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.
pointer
Pointer is a free, open-source terminal file manager for Linux and macOS. It presents files in a two-pane layout with configurable width ratios and border styles, plus previews with syntax highlighting for more than 20 languages and inline image display through kitty, sixel, or w3m protocols. Archives including zip, tar, gz, bz2, xz, rar, and 7z can be browsed and edited as virtual directories. File operations include asynchronous copying and moving, undo for several actions, and deletion with a flag-then-purge process and default confirmation. Pointer supports SSH/SFTP remote browsing, filename and content search, extension or regex filters, bookmarks, tabs, and file-picker mode. JSON-manifest plugins bind external commands to keys. The README describes OpenAI integration and Claude-powered descriptions and sessions. Linux and macOS binaries are listed for x86_64 and aarch64.