RTFM - Ruby Terminal File Manager

Version 5 is a complete rewrite of RTFM using rcurses as the underlying library. With this, RTFM gains more stability, higher quality code and more features.

Among the new version 5 features are an optional trash bin, advanced OpenAI integrations, plugin architectures for keybindings, user defined features and file viewers. You also get better feedback, better visuals, more error capture. Plenty.

The major feature additions in v5 are marked in bold italic.

RTFM is a terminal file manager jam packed with features.

Apart from viewing and manipulating directories, you get syntax highlighting of file content, image and video thumbnailing in the terminal, OpenAI integration, system info panel, git status, fzf and navi integration and much, much more.

Note: RTFM (Ruby Terminal File Manager) works best with the (u)rxvt, xterm and Eterm terminal emulators.

RTFM is one of the most feature rich terminal file managers. Some of the features are:

• RTFM parses your LS_COLORS to ensure color consistency with the terminal experience
• Images are shown inline in the terminal (can be turned off)
• File contents is shown with proper syntax highlighting
• Item's meta data is shown at the top
• Easily browse file content (pdf, MS/OpenOffice, etc.)
• Move around the file systems using arrow keys or VI keys
• Copy, move, rename, symlink and delete files easily
• Simply use 'r' in your terminal to launch RTFM - and exit into the directory where you ended RTFM
• Toggle the use of a "trash bin" to move dirs/files there instead of deleting
• Easily copy an item's path to clipboard or primary selection
• Order items the way you want, see only files of a certain type
• Filter out all files not matching a regex pattern
• Mark files and directories and do group actions on them
• Bookmark directories for easy jumping
• Follow a symlink to where it points with one key stroke
• Highlight files and directories matching a given pattern
• Find items using locate and jump directly to the desired item
• Find items and jump there using fuzzy search (with fzf)
• Execute any shell command from inside RTFM - incuding other curses applications
• navi integration for easier command executions
• Easily unpack or create archives
• Show git status for the current directory
• Show comprehensive system info (processes running, disk space, dmesg, etc.)
• See if a directory (with sub dirs) has changed using cryptographic hashes
• Integration with OpenAI to get an executive summary of file content
• OpenAI chat integrated; Discuss files, content, commands with OpenAI
• Possibility to change top line background when matching a path
• Theming of pane colors

The idea came to mind as I was working on a complete LS_COLORS setup with a corresponding ranger theme. But making a separate theme for ranger to mimic a massive LS_COLOR setup is rather stupid. File managers should parse LS_COLORS as default rather than implement their own themes. This became an itch that I kept scratching until I could happily replace ranger two weeks later. But, coding RTFM based on the old curses library was clumsy, inefficient and painful. So I decided to create rcurses - a complete curses library written from scratch in pure Ruby - and from v5 and onwards, RTFM is based completely on this modern curses implementation.

RTFM is a two-pane file manager. You navigate in the left pane and the content of the selected item (directory or file) is shown in the right pane. The right pane is also used to show information such as the currently tagged items, your (book)marks, output from commands, error messages, etc.

When you start RTFM, you can supply a directory path as an argument to let RTFM start up in that directory. When you exit it exits into the current RTFM directory.

You can run any command in the bottom "command bar" and have the output presented in the right pane. History of commands are preserved like in your shell.

You can install RTFM by cloning this repo and put the file rtfm in your "bin" directory. If you do, you need to install rcurses first.

Or you can simply run gem install rtfm-filemanager.

There are two basic prerequisites needed: x11-utils and xdotool. On Ubuntu these would be installed via apt install x11-utils xdotool.

Content of text files are handled by cat - or by bat if you want beautiful highlighting. Other files are shown via external programs (Debian/Ubuntu family of Linux distros command in last column):

Install rtfm from scratch with all of the above on Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ruby-full git libncurses-dev x11-utils xdotool bat pandoc poppler-utils odt2txt docx2txt unzip gnumeric catdoc w3m imagemagick ffmpegthumbnailer
sudo gem install rcurses
git clone https://github.com/isene/RTFM
cd RTFM
sudo cp rtfm /usr/bin/

Or with a simpler gem install:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ruby-full git libncurses-dev x11-utils xdotool bat pandoc poppler-utils odt2txt docx2txt unzip gnumeric catdoc w3m imagemagick ffmpegthumbnailer
gem install rtfm-filemanager

RTFM uses w3mimgdisplay (part of the w3m package) to show images in the terminal. Some terminals have an issue with this - either the images don't show, the previous image is not cleared (new image overlaps the previous) or they show for only a flash or a few seconds. The table below shows how the most popular terminals fare with this. An "O" indicates that the terminal is OK, while an "X" indicates that it fails:

These are the set of keys to move around and do actions within RTFM:

       Format | rwxr-xr-x or 755 or rwx (applies the trio to user, group and others)

The first time you run RTFM, you are greeted with a welcome message. RTFM will add a simple function to your shell (bash, zsh, fish, maybe others) that will let you launch RTFM via the one key command r. It also lets RTFM exit in the directory you are currently in (inside of RTFM) rather than where you launched RTFM.

With this, you can jump around in your directory structure via RTFM, exit to the desired directory, do work in the terminal and go back into RTFM via r.

If you want to launch rtfm straight into a specified directory, do this instead: rtfm ~/mydir/subdir

When you first exit RTFM, it will write your (book)marks and the set of tagged files to .rtfm/conf. This ensures your marks and tagged files are persistent. It also means you can launch rtfm tag a bunch of dirs and files, drop out back to the terminal to do some work, back into rtfm and resume to work with your previously tagged items.

You can also set persistent variables in the config file manually:

To have long info per item: @lslong = true (this is otherwise set to false)

To show hidden files: @lsall = "-a" (this is otherwise set to "")

To set a specific order for ls: @lsorder = "-S" (to order by size).

To revert your ls order: @lsinvert = "-r"

To set any additional 'ls' switches, set the variable @lsuser. To not list any files containg the word "test", you could do this:

@lsuser = "--ignore=test"

To suppress image viewing in the terminal: @showimage = false

To suppress showing any content in the right pane: @preview = false

To change the default width of the left pane: @width = 5 (experiment with numbers 2-8).

To toggle borders in RTFM: @border = 1 (any number 0-3)

To have some commands already prepared for the command history, you can set:

@history = ["cat /home/me/MyTodo.txt", "neofetch --stdout"]

To open files with run-mailcap instead of open-xdg set:

@runmailcap = true

To use the trash bin: @trash = true

To change the list of "whitelisted full-UI programs", change the variable @interactive. This is a comma separated string listing all programs that can be run from within RTFM's "command mode" (via the key :). Programs such as htop, vim and all shells will take over the terminal when they run and need explicit permission via this variable to be able to "replace" RTFM in the terminal. When you exit such a whitelisted program, RTFM resumes control. If you try to run such a program while it is not whitelisted, it will hang the terminal. To add a program to the whitelist inside RTFM, press the + key. All ususal shell comands that do not take over the full terminal such as ls, touch, neofetch, etc. will run just fine in command mode without being whitelisted. You can also explicitly run a program as interactive by prefixing the command with a single § - e.g. : §saidar. Programs added to @interactive will open as interactive also when opened via xdg-open or runmailcap (when you press RIGHT on a selected item).

All the variables above that you manually add to the top of the config files are undisturbed by launching and exiting RTFM.

You can structure the config file the way you want. Let your OCD make it pretty.

You can use W inside of RTFM to write all the parameters mentioned above to the config file - instead of adding them manually. Example: You press + to add emacs to your list of whitelisted interactive programs. Then you would want to press W to update @interactive in your config file so that emacs is permanently whitelisted as an interactive program for you.

To exit RTFM without writing any changes to you marks or list of tagged items, exit with Q. They will then remain the same as when you launched RTFM for that session.

The top line shows information about the currently item in the left pane. When you are at a file, the information is pretty self explanatory:

Path: /home/geir/RTFM/README.md (-rw-r--r-- geir:geir 2023-04-25 11:49 16K)

This shows the full path of the selected file as well as the permissions, ownership, timestamp and the size of the file. When you are at a directory in the left pane, you get two numbers in brackets. The first number is the number of regular dirs/files in that directory. The second shows the total number of entries, including the hidden directories and files:

Path: /home/geir/RTFM (drwxr-xr-x geir:geir 2023-04-29 01:55 4,0) [4 8]

Different file types may have extra self explanatory information included in square brackets at the end of the top info line. Image files will have the size of the image included while pdf files will have the number of pages. More file specific information will be included when I feel like adding such.

You can customize the background colors for the top and bottom lines/panes.

Bottom color is by default 238. Change it by setting @bottomcolor to your desired colors in your .rtfm/conf.

You can also set the background color at the bottom when you enter command mode (via :) by setting @cmdcolor and the Ruby mode (via @) by setting @rubycolor.

Background color for OpenAI chats (invoked with Ctrl-a) is set with @aicolor.

You can set the variable @topmatch in your .rtfm/conf so that it will change the background color of the top line/pane when you are in a directory matching a pattern.

Example:

@topmatch =  [["passionfruit", 165], ["kiwi", 50], ["", 238]]

With this, the background color of the top line/pane will be set to 165 if you are in a directory path that includes "passionfruits". The last pair is the default background color when no match is found. If you don't set this variable in your .rtfm/conf, rtfm will set this value to:

@topmatch =  [["", 238]]

Make sure to have a default value set as the last pair in @topmatch.

Upon first running RTFM, a few files are created in the .rtfm/ directory.

One is preview.rb, the other is keys.rb.

You can add new "previewers" to show files with extensions that is not previewed by default in RTFM. The preview.rb explains how you add thesea:

# ~/.rtfm/preview.rb
#
# Define one handler per line in the form:
#
#   ext1, ext2, ext3 = command with @s placeholder
#
# @s will be replaced by the shell-escaped filename.
#
# Lines beginning with # or blank are ignored.
#
# Examples:
#   # plain text, Ruby, Python, shell
#   txt, rb, py, sh = bat -n --color=always @s
#
#   # markdown via pandoc
#   md = pandoc @s -t plain
#
#   # PDFs
#   pdf = pdftotext -f 1 -l 4 @s -

Likewise, you can add or rewrite any keys in RTFM and add new functionality to RTFM by following the instructions in keys.rb:

# ~/.rtfm/keys.rb
#
# Override or add key bindings simply by assigning into KEYMAP
# and defining the corresponding handler methods.
#
# Syntax:
#   KEYMAP['X'] = :my_handler
#
#   def my_handler(chr)
#     # anything you like - use @pB, @pR, Dir.pwd, etc.
#     @pB.say("You pressed X!")
#   end
#
# Examples:
#
#   # remap 'C' to show config
#   KEYMAP['C'] = :show_config
#
#   # add a new binding: 'Z'
#   KEYMAP['Z'] = :zap_all
#   def zap_all(_chr)
#     @pB.say("ZAPPED!")
#   end

Here is another example of what you could add as a plugin:

KEYMAP['C-G'] = :git_update

def git_update
  @pR.say("Updating...")
  message = @pCmd.ask('Commit message: ', '')
  shellexec("git add . && git commit -m '#{message}' && git push")
  @pB.full_refresh
end

With this, you can mold RTFM to fit your needs better.

When writing plugins, there are a few variables you should know:

Here are three importan hook-ins to use with your plugins:

• Use command when you need to capture output as a value (and optionally handle stderr yourself).
• Use shell for fire-and-forget side-effects where you don't care about stdout but still want error reporting.
• Use shellexec when you want both stdout and stderr printed into RTFM's Right pane automatically.

• What it does: Runs bash -c cmd, captures both stdout and stderr, enforces a timeout.
• When to use: Programmatically grab output (and optionally errors) of a shell command (e.g. building directory listings or previews).
• Key points:
  • By default prints stderr into the Right pane and returns stdout.
  • return_both: true returns [stdout, stderr] instead of auto-printing errors.
  • Times out after timeout seconds, killing the process if necessary.

• What it does: Fires off cmd via system, redirecting stderr into a log file (default: $TMP/rtfm_err.log), optionally in the background.
• When to use: Run side-effecting commands (e.g. xdg-open, mv) where you don't need stdout but still want error reporting.
• Key points:
  • If background: true, runs cmd &.
  • Any stderr output is read from the log and shown via @pR.say.
  • Doesn't return command output, errors only.

• What it does: A thin wrapper over command(cmd, timeout:, return_both: true) that always prints both stdout and stderr into the Right pane.
• When to use: Run a command and echo both its stdout and any errors back to the user—e.g. interactive grep, locate, or other one-off shell tools.
• Key points:
  • Internally calls command(..., return_both: true).
  • Prints stderr first, then stdout.
  • Doesn't return anything to the caller.

Here's a screencast for an early version of RTFM, but it shows the basic stuff:

I don't expect this program to be used by others. I do this for my own enjoyment and because I want a file manager that fits my needs better than any others I have found. If you come up with a feature request I feel is cool, I may include it. Bug reports are always welcome.

A note to developers: You can hit the "@" key to enter the Ruby debug mode where anything you enter in the bottom command bar will be sent to the Ruby eval() function and output to the right pane. You can for instance issue puts @searched to see the currently active search pattern.