cfiles vs RTFM
cfiles
github.comRTFM
github.comSide by side
| Figure | cfiles | RTFM |
|---|---|---|
| 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) | 8.2 (#13) |
| Spec score · File managers | 7.9 (#18) | 8.6 (#6) |
| File operations | The selection list supports copying, moving, renaming, moving files to trash, and removing selected files. | It supports bulk file operations, pattern-based bulk rename, optional trash with restore, and undo for common operations. |
| 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 repository identifies the license as Unlicense and describes the software as public domain. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Maker | The license file credits Manan Singh with copyright in 2018. | The repository names Geir Isene as author and links to his personal website. |
| 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 installation instructions list Ubuntu/Debian, Arch Linux derivatives, and macOS. |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Product | cfiles is a terminal file manager written in C with vim-like keybindings and the ncurses library. | RTFM is a feature-rich terminal file manager written in pure Ruby. |
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.