I had mc on my $20 second hand 286, there are some newer takes on the classic, ranger and nnn come to mind, support for images on the terminal with sixel is pretty neat!
https://github.com/ranger/ranger
https://github.com/jarun/nnn
In Building a TUI is easy nowranger
ranger
Python2016–2026
ranger / ranger
ranger
A VIM-inspired filemanager for the console
42Distinct people
43Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
17.5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A VIM-inspired filemanager for the console
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I love ranger: https://github.com/ranger/ranger It is a file manager inspired by vim and midnight-commander.
skdd8 used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- jarun/nnn · linked in 4 of the same discussions
- gokcehan/lf · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- midnightcommander/mc · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year43 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-09-23 17:27:21 UTC to 2026-02-15 19:51:01 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Ranger 1.9.4
Ranger is a console file manager with VI key bindings. It provides a
minimalistic and nice curses interface with a view on the directory hierarchy.
It ships with rifle, a file launcher that is good at automatically finding
out which program to use for what file type.
For mc aficionados there's also the multi-pane viewmode.
This file describes ranger and how to get it to run. For instructions on the
usage, please read the man page (man ranger in a terminal). See HACKING.md
for development-specific information.
For configuration, check the files in ranger/config/ or copy the
default config to ~/.config/ranger with ranger --copy-config
(see instructions).
The examples/ directory contains several scripts and plugins that demonstrate how
ranger can be extended or combined with other programs. These files can be
found in the git repository or in /usr/share/doc/ranger.
A note to packagers: Versions meant for packaging are listed in the changelog
on the website.
About
Authors: see AUTHORS file
License: GNU General Public License Version 3
Website: https://ranger.fm/
Download: https://ranger.fm/ranger-stable.tar.gz
Bug reports: https://github.com/ranger/ranger/issues
git clone https://github.com/ranger/ranger.git
Design Goals
An easily maintainable file manager in a high level language
A quick way to switch directories and browse the file system
Keep it small but useful, do one thing and do it well
Console-based, with smooth integration into the unix shell
Features
UTF-8 Support (if your Python copy supports it)
Multi-column display
Preview of the selected file/directory
Common file operations (create/chmod/copy/delete/...)
Renaming multiple files at once
VIM-like console and hotkeys
Automatically determine file types and run them with correct programs
Change the directory of your shell after exiting ranger
Tabs, bookmarks, mouse support...
Dependencies
Python (>=2.6 or >=3.1) with the curses module
and (optionally) wide-unicode support
A pager (less by default)
Optional dependencies
For general usage:
file for determining file types
chardet (Python package) for improved encoding detection of text files
sudo to use the "run as root" feature
python-bidi (Python package) to display right-to-left file names correctly
(Hebrew, Arabic)
For enhanced file previews (with scope.sh):
img2txt (from caca-utils) for ASCII-art image previews
w3mimgdisplay, ueberzug, mpv, iTerm2, kitty (or other terminal supporting the Kitty graphics protocol), terminology or urxvt for image previews
convert (from imagemagick) to auto-rotate images and for image previews
rsvg-convert (from librsvg)
for SVG previews
ffmpeg, or ffmpegthumbnailer for video thumbnails
highlight, bat or pygmentize for syntax highlighting of code
atool, bsdtar, unrar and/or 7zz to preview archives
bsdtar, tar, unrar, unzip and/or zipinfo (and sed) to preview
archives as their first image
lynx, w3m or elinks to preview html pages
pdftotext or mutool (and fmt) for textual pdf previews, pdftoppm to
preview as image
djvutxt for textual DjVu previews, ddjvu to preview as image
calibre or epub-thumbnailer for image previews of ebooks
transmission-show for viewing BitTorrent information
mediainfo or exiftool for viewing information about media files
odt2txt for OpenDocument text files (odt, ods, odp and sxw)
python or jq for JSON files
sqlite3 for listing tables in SQLite database (and optionally sqlite-utils for fancier box drawing.)
jupyter nbconvert for Jupyter Notebooks
fontimage for font previews
openscad for 3D model previews (stl, off, dxf, scad, csg)
draw.io for draw.io diagram previews
(drawio extension)
Installing
Use the package manager of your operating system to install ranger.
You can also install ranger through PyPI: pip install ranger-fm.
However, it is recommended to use pipx instead
(to benefit from isolated environments). Use
pipx run --spec ranger-fm ranger to install and run ranger in one step.
Check current version:
Installing from a clone
Note that you don't have to install ranger; you can simply run ranger.py.
To install ranger manually:
sudo make install
This translates roughly to:
sudo python setup.py install --optimize=1 --record=install_log.txt
This also saves a list of all installed files to install_log.txt, which you can
use to uninstall ranger.
Getting Started
After starting ranger, you can use the Arrow Keys or h j k l to
navigate, Enter to open a file or q to quit. The third column shows a
preview of the current file. The second is the main column and the first shows
the parent directory.
Ranger can automatically copy default configuration files to ~/.config/ranger
if you run it with the switch --copy-config=( rc | scope | ... | all ).
See ranger --help for a description of that switch. Also check
ranger/config/ for the default configuration.
Going Further
To get the most out of ranger, read the Official User Guide.
For frequently asked questions, see the FAQ.
For more information on customization, see the wiki.
Community
For help, support, or if you just want to hang out with us, you can find us here:
IRC: channel #ranger on Libera.Chat. Don't have an IRC client? Join us via the webchat!
Reddit: r/ranger
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
43 sourcesI've been pretty happy with Ranger (https://github.com/ranger/ranger)
In Shunpo: Minimalist bash tool to make directory navigation a little bit fasterI used to use ranger, but have since switched to yazi[1] for speed and out of the box image support. (Ranger can do the same, but I think you have to set the preview_images_method[2]).
[1] https://yazi-rs.github.io
[2] https://github.com/ranger/ranger/blob/bd9b37faee9748798f3970...
In Command Line Tools I Like (2022)I love ranger: https://github.com/ranger/ranger
It is a file manager inspired by vim and midnight-commander.
In Command Line Tools I Like (2022)Would a commander type TUI work for you?
https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc
https://github.com/ranger/ranger
https://github.com/jarun/nnn
There's also superfile and broot. Personally I feel like they try to do a little too much, but that doesn't mean they won't work for you:
https://github.com/yorukot/superfile
https://github.com/Canop/broot
In Show HN: Facad – A colorful directory listing tool for the command lineNot quite an answer to your question, but I think what you’re getting at is, “I want a better way to visualize the file structure.”
I agree, the table of contents style is not well-suited. As part of my coding workflow, I recently started opening a terminal and running ranger inside it, and just tabbing over to that terminal to navigate the left-to-right directory structure. So have VSCode open, and open a split terminal window with the regular terminal at top, and Ranger running in the bottom pane. Midnight Commander would work as well - any TUI file explorer really.
I also have started including a “code map” in the architecture.md files of my projects. You can get a nice output by running `tree -L <levels>`, to load a markdown-embeddable tree diagram of the file structure, however many <levels> deep. I add the output to my markdown, and
Read the rest
add a comment after each file/folder explaining what it’s for (in less than 10 words each)
Ranger - https://github.com/ranger/ranger
Midnight Commander - https://midnight-commander.org/
Came to post zoxide. Also if you use `ranger`[1] (vim inspired file manager) then you might like to add the `ranger-zoxide` plugin[2].
1. https://github.com/ranger/ranger
2. https://github.com/jchook/ranger-zoxide
In Z – Jump aroundThis looks cool, though I already use https://github.com/ranger/ranger for this.
In Antonmedv/walk: Terminal file managerhttps://github.com/ranger/ranger
https://github.com/jarun/nnn
https://github.com/gokcehan/lf
https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc
In Ytree; a Unix FilemanagerRanger: A Vim-inspired terminal file manager
1 points · Open discussionranger is
> a VIM-inspired filemanager for the console
https://github.com/ranger/ranger
In Nix-melt – A ranger-like flake.lock viewerRanger: A Vim-inspired filemanager for the console
1 points · Open discussionNo pictures, you say?
Check out timg [1] to display videos and images in select terminals, or ranger, a file manager with image [2] & video [3] previews!
[1] https://github.com/hzeller/timg/
[2] https://github.com/ranger/ranger/wiki/Image-Previews
[3] https://github.com/ranger/ranger/wiki/Video-Previews
In Things I've learned building a modern TUI frameworkLooks great! I was thinking of a rusty pet project for the same thing :)
I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but Ranger is a great alternative tool, it can even be integrated into vim
[0]: https://github.com/ranger/ranger
In Show HN: tere – A Faster Alternative to cd+lsHow does nnn compare to ranger https://github.com/ranger/ranger ?
In New(ish) command line toolsShowing the 15 most recent of 43 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.