cfiles vs Rat Commander
cfiles
github.com
Rat Commander
rat-commander.comSide by side
| Figure | cfiles | Rat Commander |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.4 (#8) | 8.3 (#12) |
| Spec score · File managers | 7.9 (#18) | 8.8 (#2) |
| File operations | The selection list supports copying, moving, renaming, moving files to trash, and removing selected files. | It supports file copy, move, delete, permissions, ownership, symlinks, and directory creation. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| 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 licensed under GNU General Public License version 2, GPL-2.0-only. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | The README gives installation instructions for Arch Linux and macOS, and says other users can compile it with make and install with sudo make install. | The maker lists Linux, macOS, and Windows; its README notes that Windows lacks Drive Manager and Network Connections. |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Product | cfiles is a terminal file manager written in C with vim-like keybindings and the ncurses library. | Rat Commander is a self-contained, two-panel terminal file manager written in Rust with Ratatui. |
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.
Rat Commander
Rat Commander is a free, two-panel terminal file manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It brings file browsing and media viewing together with editing, archives, Git, remote filesystems, and system tools. Panels can show files as lists, trees, thumbnail grids, or interactive 3D views, and can be split vertically or horizontally. The built-in viewer and editor support syntax highlighting, search and replace, Markdown, tables, images, and in-place hex editing. Git tools cover tasks including staging, commits, branches, diffs, and history. Remote connections over SFTP, SCP, FTP, and FTPS let users work with remote filesystems in a local-disk-like way. ZIP, TAR variants, 7z, and other archives can be browsed and edited; RAR is read-only. QR codes support sending and receiving files over a local network. Linux disk tools can mount, format, flash, and image disks and USB devices. On Windows, Drive Manager and Network Connections are unavailable. Rat Commander is written in Rust with Ratatui and is licensed under GNU GPL-2.0-only.