Common Operations

Common Operations

Table of contents

• ELN's
• Navigation
• Opening files
• Basic file operations
• Trashing files
• Selecting files
• Tagging files
• Searching files
• Bookmarks
• File details
• Basic usage examples

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ELN's

The expression ELN is crucial for clifm.¹ It stands for Entry List Number and could be used for any operation involving file names in the current directory. For example, given the following list of files:

we see that the ELN corresponding to the Documents directory is 5. So, we can change to this directory either using its file name or its ELN: Documents or just 5. TAB completion is available to automatically expand a given ELN into its corresponding file name (minimizing thus the chances of inadvertently operating on the wrong file(s)).

Entering Documents is thus equivalent to entering just 5: both will cd into the Documents directory.

Of course, any file operation (be it internal or external) could be used instead. For example:

s5

to select the directory

r5

to remove the directory

NOTE: In the case of internal commands, ELN's could be written fused to the command name, as in this case (s5 indeed is equivalent to s 5). However, this does not apply to external commands.

or, using now a shell, external command:

diff 5 6

to compare two files, in this case Documents and Downloads directories.

ELN ranges are also understood:

s 1-5 9-12

to select all files from 1 through 5 and from 9 through 12. Or,

file 3-7

to run file(1) over files from 3 through 7.

The second field of the range can be omitted (since version 1.15.11), in which case the ELN of the last listed file name is assumed. For example, provided there are 100 listed files, s1- will select all files (this command is equivalent to s1-100 or s *).

Since ranges, just as ELN's, could be a bit tricky, TAB completion is available to make sure that this particular range actually includes the desired filenames.

¹ As far as I know, the first file manager to implement this notion of ELN (though not called as such), was nffm. The project is sadly no longer maintained.

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Completions and suggestions

For file names and ELN's, and ELN ranges TAB completion is available. The procedure is as straightforward as well known:

5 -> TAB -> Documents

Doc -> TAB -> Documents

If the auto-suggestions system is enabled, Documents will be automatically printed (by default in an underlined cyan color) next to the current input string as you type. If the typed string refers to a file name, the suggestion will just complete the input string. When it comes to ELN's (like the 5 above), the file name corresponding to this ELN will be printed as follows:

5_ > Documents

where the underscore represents the current cursor position.

To accept the given suggestion, press Right or Ctrl-f: the text typed so far will be automatically replaced by the corresponding suggestion.

For more information about the suggestions system, consult the suggestions page.

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Navigation

By default, and unlike the ls(1) shell command, clifm lists files automatically for each entered directory (a feature know as autols). To disable this function, run clifm with the -o, --no-autols option or set AutoLs to false in the configuration file (F10).¹

Action	Command	Keybinding
Change directory to DIR	DIR / ELN
Change to HOME	cd / ~	Alt-e / Home
Change to /	/	Alt-r
Go back	b	Shift-Left / Alt-j
Go forward	f	Shift-Right / Alt-k
Switch workspaces	ws[1-8]	Alt-[1-4]
Reprint files in current directory	rf / .	Enter / Ctrl-r
Go to parent directory	..	Shift-up / Alt-u
Jump to /some/deep/directory2	j so dir
Go up 2 directories3	...
Bookmarks2	bm	Alt-b
Change to pinned directory5	,
Change to mountpoint	mp	Alt-m
Change to first visited directory		Ctrl-Alt-j
Change to last visited directory		Ctrl-Alt-k
Print directory history	bh / fh	Alt-h

NOTES

¹ In the last years there have been some projects aimed to implement an autols function on regular shells. See auto-ls.fish, autols, and auto-ls.
² Only provided that /some/deep/directory has been already visited and is in the jump database. See the jump section for more information.
³ Fastback function: Each dot (.) after the first two dots means one more directory to go up. Thus, to go up four directories at once enter 5 dots: ..... (the corresponding target will be suggested)
⁴ Once in the bookmark screen, enter the ELN corresponding to the desired file/directory or its shortcut. See the bookmarks section.
⁵ A directory must be already pinned. See the pin command.

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Opening files

There are several ways to open files:

1. Automatically, via Lira (clifm's builtin resource opener). Type in the name of the file or its ELN and the file will be automatically opened using the application associated to its file name or MIME type:

myfile # or just 12 (provided 12 is myfile's ELN)

You can run mm info on any file to know what application would be used to open the file. Example output:

Name: video.mp4
MIME type: video/mp4
Associated application: ffplay [MIME]

Note: [MIME] means here that the associated application has been selected matching the file's MIME type (instead of its file name).

Lira can be customized to use whatever application you prefer to open your files. For more information consult the Resource opener section.

2. As usual, the file name preceded by the application name (plus parameters):

nano myfile

Note: myfile nano also works.

3. You can also use the open-with function to get a list of possible applications to open your file:

ow myfile <TAB>

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File Operations

NB: Whenever files and/or directories in the current directory are involved, they can be replaced by the corresponding ELN. So, supposing the ELN for myfile is 12, p myfile works the same as p 12 (p12, without space, works as well).
The URI file scheme for local file systems is also supported. For example, file:///etc/hosts amounts to this: /etc/hosts.

Operation	Command	Keybinding
Create FILE(s) and/or DIR(s)	n FILE... DIR/...	Alt-n
Open FILE1	FILE
Copy FILE1 to FILE2	c FILE1 FILE22
Copy FILE to a remote location	cr FILE2 3
Move FILE1 to FILE2	m FILE1 FILE22
Delete FILE(s)	r FILE...2
Rename FILE1 into FILE2	m FILE1 FILE2
Symlink FILE2 to FILE1	l FILE1 FILE2
Trash FILE(s)	t FILE...
List trashed files	t
Restore (undelete) trashed files	u	Ctrl-Alt-u
Empty the trash can	t clear
Remove FILE from trash	t del
Interactively change permissions of FILE...	pc FILE...
Interactively change ownership of FILE...	oc FILE...
Duplicate FILE(s)	d FILE...
Archive/compress FILE(s)	ac FILE...
Dearchive/decompress FILE	ad FILE
Bulk rename FILE(s)	br FILE...
Toggle executable bit on FILE...	te FILE...
Export FILE(s)	exp FILE...
Select FILE(s)	s FILE...
Select all files in the current directory	s * .*	Alt-a
Deselect all selected files	ds *	Alt-d
Copy selected files into current directory	c sel	Ctrl-Atl-v
Copy selected files into DIR	c sel DIR
Move selected files into current directory	m sel	Ctrl-Alt-n
Move selected files into DIR	m sel DIR
Remove selected files	r sel	Ctrl-Alt-d
Trash selected files	t sel	Ctrl-Alt-t
Bulk rename selected files	br sel	Ctrl-Alt-r
Export selected files	exp sel	Ctrl-Alt-e
Archive selected files	ac sel	Ctrl-Alt-a
Open/change to last selected file		Ctrl-Alt-g
Bookmark last selected file		Ctrl-Alt-b

¹ For more information consult the Opening files section above.

² For more information about these commands consult the corresponding description page.

² cr is the invocation name (action name) of the cprm plugin. Enter cr --help for more information. Remote locations need to be configured first (cr --edit).

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Trashing files

Clifm implements a built-in and FreeDesktop compliant trash system.

Only two commands are involved: t (standing for trash) and u (standing for undelete or untrash).

Action	Command
Trash FILE(s)1	t FILE(s). E.g.: t 1 file2 *.txt sel
List trashed files	t
Permanently remove some trashed files2	t del
Restore (undelete) all trashed files	Ctrl-Alt-u
Restore (undelete) some trashed files3	u
Empty the trash can	t clear or t empty

¹ The Trash directory is $XDG_DATA_HOME/Trash, falling back to $HOME/.local/share/Trash. To set an alternative trash directory use the -T,--trash-dir command line option.
² The user will be presented with a screen to chose files to be removed from the trash can. TAB completion is also available: t del TAB
³ The user will be presented with a screen to chose files to be restored to their original location. TAB completion is also available: u TAB

NOTE: In order to prevent accidental deletions, the remove command (r) could be instructed to always trash files instead of simply remove them. To achieve this use the --trash-as-rm command line option or the TrashAsRm option in the configuration file.

Selection

1. General concepts

Three commands are used to control files selection:

Command	Description
s / sel	Select files
ds / desel	Deselect files. See the deselecting files section below
sb / selbox	Print the content of the Selection Box

The syntax of the s command is this:

s, sel ELN/FILE ... n [[!]PATTERN] [-filetype] [:PATH]

If not in light mode,¹ once a file is selected, and if the file is in the current working directory, the corresponding file name will be marked with an asterisk (colored according to the value of li in the color scheme file - by default bold green), at the left of the file name (and at the right of its ELN).

¹ Selected files are tracked via device and inode numbers, obtained via a call to stat(2). But since in light mode all calls to this function are avoided for performance reasons, tracking selected files is not possible.

The s command allows you to send one or multiple elements (either files or directories) to the Selection Box. sel accepts individual elements, range of elements, say 1-6, file names and paths, just as wildcards (globbing) and regular expressions. Example:

s 1 4-10 ^r file* filename /path/to/filename

Just as in the search function, it is also possible to further filter the list of matches indicating the desired file type. For instance,

s ^ -d

will select all directories in the current working directory. For available file type filters consult the search section.

By default, the selection function operates on the current working directory. To select files in any other directory use the :PATH expression. For example, to select all regular files with a .conf extension in the /etc directory, the command would be:

s .*\.conf$ -r :/etc

or using wildcards:

s *.conf -r :/etc

Just as in the case of the search function, inverse matching is supported for patterns, either wildcards or regular expressions. To invert or reverse the meaning and action of a pattern, prepend an exclamation mark (!). E.g., to select all non-hidden regular files in the Documents directory, issue this command:

s !^\. -r :Documents

or, to select all directories in /etc, except those ending with ".d":

s !*.d -d :/etc

Glob and regular expressions could be used together. For example:

s ^[r|R].*d$ /etc/*.conf

will select all files starting with either r or R and ending with d in the current working directory, plus all .conf files in the /etc directory. However, this use is discouraged if both patterns refer to the same directory, since the second one might override the result of the first one.

It is important to note that glob expressions are evaluated before regular expressions, in such a way that any pattern that could be understood by both kinds of pattern matching mechanisms will be evaluated first according to the former, that is, as a glob expression. For example, .*, as regular expression, should match all files. However, since glob expressions are evaluated first, it will only match hidden files (files starting with a dot). To select all files using a glob expression, try .* *, or, with a regular expression: ^ or (.*?). The keyboard shortcut Alt-a is also available to perform the same operation.

The Selection Box is accessible to different instances of the program, provided they use the same profile (see the profiles section). By default, indeed, each profile keeps a private Selection Box, being thus not accessible to other profiles. You can nonetheless modify this behavior via the ShareSelbox option in the configuration file. If the ShareSelbox option is enabled, selected files are stored in ~/.config/clifm/selbox.clifm. Otherwise, the corresponding profiles directory is used instead: ~/.config/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/selbox.clifm (this is the default).

Use the sb command (or Alt-s) to show the entries currently contained in the Selection Box.

2. Operating on selected files

In order to operate on selected files the sel keyword is used: indeed, sel amounts to all selected files. In this way, you can use the sel keyword with any command, be it internal or external. For example:

r sel

to remove all selected files

or

ls -l sel

to print the properties of all selected files

Note: If there is a file named sel in the current directory, use ./sel to distinguish it from the sel keyword. For example, enter p ./sel to tell clifm that you want to get the properties of the file named sel rather than the properties of the currently selected files.

Note 2: Since version 1.9.9, the s: construct can be used in place of sel. For example, r s: to remove all selected files.

2.1 Operating on specific selected files

If using the TAB completion in FZF mode, you can operate only on some selected files as follows:

CMD sel<TAB>

Note: since version 1.9.9 the s: construct can be used as well. Unlike sel, however, this new construct can be used as first word (i.e. it does not need to be preceded by a command). For example, to list all selected files type s:<TAB>.

The list of selected files will be displayed. Choose one or more of them (use TAB to mark entries) to operate only on those specific files. For example, to print the file properties of some specific selected files: p sel<TAB>, select the files you want via TAB, press Enter or Right (marked files will be inserted into the command line), and the press Enter to run the command, as usual.

The fzfsel plugin (invoked via the * action name) can be used as well:

* ls -l

The user will be prompted to mark some selected files (you need to install FZF first), which then will be passed as parameters to the corresponding command, in this case ls -l.

If you need to specify a specific position for marked selected files in your command, use the %f placeholder as follows:

* cp %f /misc/docs

Marked selected files will be inserted in the place of %f. If %f is not specified, marked files will be inserted at the end of your command.

2.2 Deselecting files

There are several ways of deselecting files, all of them involving the ds command:

a. Enter ds: you'll be prompted to select files to be deselected. To deselect all selected files at once, enter ds * or press Alt-d.

b. Type ds <TAB>: if running in FZF mode, you'll see the list of currently selected files. Mark (using the TAB key) those files to be deselected and then press Enter.

c. Via the fzfdesel plugin, bound by default to the ** action. To invoke this plugin, enter **. Here you can fuzzy search/filter selected files and easily mark those you want for deselection. You can mark individual files, all of them, just as invert the current selection. Once done, press Enter.

NOTE: Given the flexibility of fzfdesel, you might want to replace the ds command by this plugin. To do so, edit the configuration file (F10 or edit) and create the corresponding alias:

ds='**'

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Tagging files

Etiqueta is clifm's built-in files tagging system

1. How Etiqueta works?

File tags are created via symbolic links using a specific directory under the user's profile: ${XDG_CONFIG_DIR:-/home/USER/.config}/clifm/profiles/USER/tags.

Every time a new tag is created, a new directory named as the tag itself is created in the tags directory. Tagged files are just symbolic links (named as the full path to the target file and replacing slashes by colons) to the actual files created in the appropriate directory. For example, if you tag ~/myfile.txt as work, a symbolic link to ~/myfile.txt, named home:USER:myfile.txt will be created in tags/work.

NOTE: Etiqueta itself takes care of expanding these symlinks, so that you, as a user, should not worry at all about this colons notation.

2. Handling file tags

tag is the main Etiqueta command and is used to handle file tags. Its syntax is as follows:

tag [add, del, list, list-full, merge, new, rename, untag] [FILE]... [[:]TAG]

NOTE: the :TAG notation is used for commands taking both file and tag names, for example, tag add FILES(s) :TAG ..., to tag files, and tag untag :TAG file1 file2, to untag files. Otherwise, TAG is used (without the leading colon). For example: tag new docs, to create a new tag named docs, or tag del png, to delete the tag named png.

Both short and long formats can be used:

Short format	Long format	Description
ta	tag add	Tag files
td	tag del	Delete tag(s)
tl	tag list	List tags or tagged files
tm	tag rename	Rename tag
tn	tag new	Create new tag(s)
tu	tag untag	Untag file(s)
ty	tag merge	Merge two tags

3. Usage examples

Short format	Long format	Description
tl	tag list	List available tags
-	tag list-full	List available tags and all tagged files
tl work	tag list work	List files tagged as work
tl file.txt	tag list file.txt	List tags applied to the file file.txt
tn dogs cats	tag new dogs cats	Create two empty tags: dogs and cats
ta *.png :images :png	tag add *.png :images :png	Tag all PNG files in the current directory as both images and png1 2
ta sel :special	tag add sel :special	Tag all selected files as special
tm documents docs	tag rename documents docs	Rename the tag documents as docs
ty png images	tag merge png images	Merge the tag png into images3
td images	tag del images	Remove the tag images (untag all files tagged as images and remove the tag itself)
tu :work file1 image.png dir2	tag untag :work file1 image.png dir2	Untag a few files from the work tag4

¹ Tags are created if they do not exist.
² Since add is the default action, it can be omitted: tag *.png :images :png.
³ All files tagged as png will be now tagged as images, and the png tag will be removed.
⁴ TAB completion is available to complete tagged files. If using the FZF mode, multiple files can be selected using TAB.

4. Operating on tagged files

Tag expressions, that is, the t:TAG construct, are used to operate on tagged files via any command, be it internal or external. A few examples:

Command	Description
t:<TAB>	List available tags (multi-selection is allowed - FZF mode only)
p t:docs	Print properties of all files tagged as docs
r t:images	Remove all files tagged as images
stat t:work t:docs	Run stat(1) over all files tagged as work and all files tagged as docs

4.1 Operating on specific tagged files

NOTE: This feature, as always when multi-selection is involved, is only available when TAB completion mode is set to FZF. See the TAB completion page.

You may not want to operate on all files tagged as some specific tag, say work, but rather on some of them only. TAB completion is used to achieve this aim.

Let's suppose you have a tag named work which contains ten tagged files, but you need to operate (say, print the file properties) only on two of them, say, work1.odt and work2.odt:

p t:work<TAB>

The list of files tagged as work will be displayed via FZF. Now mark the two files you need using TAB, press Enter or Right, and the full path to both files will be inserted into the command line. So, p t:work will be replaced by p /path/to/work1.odt /path/to/work2.odt.

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Searching

Files searching is performed in clifm using the slash character (/). The general usage of the search function is as follows:

/PATTERN [-filetype] [-x] [DIR]

Type / followed by a glob or regular (or extended regular) expression, and clifm will list all matches in the current working directory. For example, both

/*.pdf

and

/.*\.pdf$

will list all PDF files in the current directory, the former using wildcards, and the latter a regular expression.

Bear in mind that search patterns (if containing metacharacters) are evaluated first as glob expressions, and then, if no matches are found, as regular expressions.

Expressions containing no pattern metacharacter are automatically transformed into a regular expression: /.*EXP.*. For example, /test becomes /.*test.*.¹

By default, regular expressions (and thereby expressions containing no metacharacter) are case insensitive (glob expressions, by contrast, are always case sensitive). However, you can enable case sensitive search via the CaseSensitiveSearch option in the configuration file.

To search for files in any directory other than the current one, specify the directory name as a further argument. This argument (DIR) could be an absolute path, a relative path, or an ELN. For example,

/^A 7

will search for all files starting with 'A' in the directory corresponding to the ELN 7, while

/*.conf /etc

will list all .conf files in the directory /etc.

The result of the search could be further filtered by specifying a filter type:

Filter	Meaning
-d	directory
-f	regular file
-l	symlink
-s	socket
-p	FIFO/pipe
-b	block device
-c	character device
-D	door (Solaris)
-P	port (Solaris)

For example:

/[.-].*d$ -d Documents/

will list all directories containing a dot or a dash and ending with d in the directory named Documents.

The quick search function also supports invert search: prepend the exclamation mark (!) to negate a given search pattern. For example:

/!.*s$ -d /etc

will match all directories in /etc NOT ending with s, just as /!D* will match all files in the current directory NOT starting with D.

To perform a recursive search use the -x parameter, and, optionally, a search path (DIR). The search will be performed using find(1) as follows: find DIR -name PATTERN. If no search path is provided, the search is executed starting in the current directory. Otherwise, the search starts in DIR.

¹ Clifm provides three search strategies: glob-only, regex-only, and glob-regex (default). Set the desired search strategy via the SearchStrategy option in the configuration file.

Search patterns history

Type /*<TAB> to list previously used search patterns.

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File details

Long/detail view mode

By default, clifm lists only file names. To toggle detail or long view mode press Alt-l or use the ll command. The output is quite similar to that of the ls -l shell command, though it does not depends on ls(1) at all.

Available fields are:

1. File name
2. Files counter (for directories)
3. File inode
4. File allocated blocks (since 1.17.10)
5. Number of hard links (since 1.17.3)
6. File permissions
7. User/group IDs
8. File size
9. Time stamp¹

¹ To set a custom time format see the Time style section below.

Exception made of the name field, which is always displayed, the remaining fields can be toggled on/off and sorted anyway you like using the PropFields option in the configuration file, or --prop-fields=FORMAT in the command line. This option takes a string of at most 9 characters specifying fields to be displayed and the displaying order. These characters are:

Character	Description
f	Files counter (for directories)
B	File allocated blocks1
d	File inode number
l	Number of hard links1
p|n	File permissions: either symbolic (p) or numeric/octal (n) notation
i|I	User/group IDs: either as numbers (i) or as names (I)
G	Don't print groups (requires i|I)1
a|b|m|c	Time stamp: last access, birth, modification, or status change time1
s|S	File size: either in human readable form (s) or in bytes (S)2 3 4
x	Extended attributes/capabilities/ACLs (marked as @) (requires p|n)5

For example, to display all of these fields (with symbolic permissions, numeric IDs, modification time, and size in bytes):

PropFields="fBdlpimSx"

or, if you prefer to list only file permissions (numeric) and file size (human readable):

PropFields="ns"

Use a single dash to disable all fields (except for file name):

PropFields="-"

The default value is "xfpIsm".

The order of these characters (exception made of x and G) defines the order in which fields will be printed on the screen. For example, if you want file sizes first: sxfpIm.

The space between fields (by default 1) can be doubled by setting the PropFieldsGap option in the configuration file to 2.

¹ The b, l, and G switches are available since version 1.17.3, and B since 1.17.10.

² The file's size is affected by the --si (powers of 1000 instead of 1024), --no-apparent-size (used blocks instead of used bytes), and --full-dir-size command line flags (see the command line flags section). The fz command can also be used to toggle full-dir-size on/off on the fly.

³ If full-dir-size is enabled, a red colored size prefix (B, K, M, and so on) (an exclamation mark (!) before 1.17.8) means that an error occurred while reading a subdirectory (for example, due to insufficient permissions), so sizes may not be accurate.

⁴ Since 1.17.8: If running with --si (powers of 1000 instead of 1024), human sizes in the order of the kilobyte are printed using k (lowercase) as prefix (instead of K, uppercase).

⁵ To list extended attributes and their values use the p command: p FILE. This feature is available on Linux only.

Time styles

By default, timestamps in long view are printed as follows:

Format	Description
+%b %e %H:%M	Less than 6 moths: abbreviated month name, day of the month (decimal number), plus hours and minutes
+%b %e %Y	Older: abbreviated month name, day of the month (decimal number), and year (four digits)

To set a custom time style you can use (in this order of precedence):

• --time-style in the command line.
• TimeStyle in the configuration file.
• The TIME_STYLE environment variable (or CLIFM_TIME_STYLE).

Valid styles (for all the three cases) are: default, relative, iso, long-iso, full-iso, and +FORMAT (FORMAT is interpreted like in strftime(3)). A few examples:

• clifm --time-style=full-iso
• TimeStyle="+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
• TIME_STYLE=relative clifm

Note: Color shades are used by default to print timestamps and file sizes. Consult the Colors page for information on how to customize these colors.

This feature is available since version 1.11. If upgrading from a previous version, you need to update you default color scheme file as follows:

1. Compile/install the latest version.
2. Delete you default color scheme file (~/.config/clifm/colors/default.clifm).
3. Restart clifm. A new, updated color scheme file will be created automatically.

Or, just unset the color codes dd and dz (solid colors for timestamps and file sizes respectively) in the InterfaceColors section of the color scheme file (cs edit or F8), in which case the default color shades will be used.

More details?

To get more detailed information about one or more files properties, use the p command (short for prop). For example:

p5 10

to get information about those files whose ELN's are 5 and 10. The output format is based on the output of the stat(1) shell command, but, again, it is completely independent from it.

In the case of directories, you can use the pp command to include the total directory size as well (gathered via du(1)). Example:

pp5

Note that, unlike p, pp always follows symlinks.

Note: An exclamation mark (!) before sizes means that an error occurred while reading a subdirectory (for example, due to insufficient permissions), so sizes may not be accurate.

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Bookmarks

bm (short for bookmarks) is the command used to manage user bookmarks.

A bookmark consists of two elements:

Element	Description	Status
Path	The bookmarked file (both directories and regular files can be bookmarked)	Required
Name	The bookmark name	Required

For example, the following line, as stored in the bookmarks file ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/NAME/bookmarks.clifm), defines a bookmark pointing to /media/mount named mnt:

mnt:/media/mount

Bookmark names can be used to access your bookmarks. See below.
Note: Bear in mind that a, d, e, add, del, and edit are reserved bookmark keywords and cannot be used as bookmark names.

Bookmarks can be managed either from the command line of from the bookmarks screen.

1. The command line

The general syntax for the bookmarks command is as follows:

bm, bookmarks [a, add FILE NAME] [d, del [NAME]] [edit [APP]]

You can list, access, create, delete, and edit bookmarks from the command line as follows:

Command	Description
bm <TAB>	List available bookmarks (only names are listed, not shortcuts)
bm add /media/mount mnt	Bookmark the directory /media/mount as mnt
bm mnt	Change to/open the bookmark named mnt
bm del mnt	Delete the bookmark named mnt1
bm edit	Edit the bookmarks file

¹ Enter bm del <TAB> to get the list of available bookmark names.

Note: a, d, and e can be used as shortcuts for the add, del, and edit arguments respectively.

2. The bookmarks screen

With no argument, bm opens the bookmarks screen (Alt-b is also available). Here you can cd into the desired bookmark by entering either its ELN, shortcut, or name.

In this screen you can also add, remove or edit your bookmarks by entering e to edit the bookmarks file (F11 is available as well), which is simply a list of lines with this format:

name:path

For example:

docs:/home/user/documents

Edit here your bookmarks to your liking (either name or path can be edited).

To delete a bookmark, remove the corresponding line from the bookmarks file.

Note: A handy use for the bookmarks function is to create bookmarks using short names, which will be later easily accessible via TAB completion and the suggestions system.

NOTE: If you are a Ranger or a Midnight Commander user, you can import bookmarks using the bm_import.sh plugin, bound by default to the bmi action. Just run bmi BOOKMARKS_FILE (usually ~/.local/share/ranger/bookmarks for Ranger and ~/.config/mc/hotlist for Midnight Commander).

Operating on specific bookmarks

Via the b: construct you can operate on one or more specific bookmarks as you normally do on any other file.

List available bookmarks:

b:<TAB>

Change to the bookmark named mybm:

b:mybm

Note: If unsure about where a bookmark points to, use TAB as follows: b:NAME<TAB>, in this case, b:mybm<TAB>.

Print the file properties of multiple bookmarks (multi-selection is allowed):

p b:<TAB>

Note: The b: construct can be used multiple times in the same command. For example:

s b:bm1 b:bm2 b:bm3

to select those bookmarks named bm1, bm2, and bm3.

Or, if you prefer to operate on all bookmarks at once:

p b:

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Basic usage examples

If looking for information about some specific command, take a look at the complete list of commands.
Help for all internal commands is available via the -h or --help options.
You can also make use of help topics: type help <TAB> to get the list of available topics.

A few important tips before starting:

1) ELN is one of the key notions of clifm. ELN amounts to Entry List Number, that is, the number at the left of each listed file name that can be used in place of the corresponding file name. Consult the ELN and the interface sections for more details. Any shell command, just as internal commands, can make use of ELN's. For example: diff 1 2.

2) Always try TAB: TAB completion is available for many things.

3) Pay attention to clifm's suggestions: whenever a possible completion/expansion is available, Gemini, the auto-suggestions system, will print it next to the current cursor position: if that is what you want, press Right or Ctrl-f to accept the suggestion: the text typed so far will be automatically replaced by the given suggestion. Otherwise, the suggestion will be ignored. You can disable suggestions via the --no-suggestions command line option or setting Suggestions to falsein the configuration file.

Navigation

Command	Full description	Brief description
/etc	Change directory	Change the current directory to /etc. The cd command could be used as well: cd /etc
5	Change directory	Change to the directory whose ELN is 5. TIP: Press TAB (or just pay attention to the auto-suggestion) to make sure 5 is the directory you want: 5<TAB>
bm net	Bookmarks	Change to the bookmark named net (the same can be achieved via b:net). You can also press Alt-b to open the bookmarks screen and select your bookmark from here. bm <TAB> / b:<TAB> can also be used to list available bookmarks
j <TAB>	Kangaroo	Navigate through the list of visited directories1
j xproj	Kangaroo	The j command allows you to fuzzy jump into already visited directories. In this example, jump to ~/media/data/docs/work/mike/xproject, provided this directory has been already visited (that is, it is in the jump database). For more accuracy you can try j mike xproj. TAB completion and suggestions are available for this command to make the search easier. For example, j xproj<TAB> will list all directories in the jump database matching the given query, in this case, xproj
.. / Shift-Up / Alt-u		Change to the parent directory
...	Fastback function	Each subsequent dot after the first two dots will be understood as an extra /... In this case, we change to the parent directory of the current parent directory. TAB completion and suggestions are available
bd <TAB>	Backdir function	Quickly change to any parent directory
b / Shift-left / Alt-j	Back / Forth	Go back in the directory history list (the previously visited directory). NOTE: Enter f, or press Shift-right or Alt-k to go forth in the directory history list
ws2 / Alt-2	Workspaces	Switch to the second workspace. To go back to the first workspace, enter ws1 or press Alt-1
mp		Change to a mountpoint
pin dir		Pin the directory named dir
,		Change to the pinned directory
/*.png<TAB>	File filters	Quickly list all PDF files in the current directory
=x<TAB>	File filters	Quickly list all executable files in the current directory
@gzip<TAB>	File filters	Quickly list all files in the current directory whose MIME type includes "gzip"
view / Alt+-	File previews	Preview files in the current directory (depends on fzf). File previews are also available for TAB completion
pg / Alt+0	Files pager	Run MAS, the files pager, on the current directory

¹ Take a look at the dh command as well.

File operations

Command	Full description	Brief description
myfile.txt	Open files	Open myfile.txt. The default associated application will be used to open the file. See the resource opener section and the mm command to manage default opening applications. The open command could be used as well: o myfile.txt
12	Open files	Open the file whose ELN is 12. TIP: Press TAB (or just pay attention to the auto-suggestion) to make sure 12 is the file you want: 12<TAB>. Use the ampersand character to open the file in the background: 12&
n myfile	Create files	Create a new file named myfile. Since clifm is integrated into the system shell, you can also use any of the commands you usually use to create new files. For example: touch myfile
n mydir/ / md mydir	Create files	Create a new directory named mydir (note the ending slash in the n command). You can also use mkdir(1)
n mydir/ && mydir		Create a directory named mydir and cd into it at once (provided the first operation was successful). If the second command does not depend on the success of the first, use the semicolon instead: cmd1; cmd2
/*.png / /.*png$	Files search	Search for files ending with .png in the current directory (both wildcards and regular expressions are supported). To just search for files containing query in their names, issue /query
s *.c :my_project/	Files selection	Select all C files in the directory my_project/. If :dir is omitted, the query is made in the current directory
s /media/*<TAB>	Files selection and Wildcards expansion	Interactively select files in the directory /media using wildcards expansion (non-standard TAB completion mode only, i.e., fzf, fnf, or smenu)
s 1-4 8 19-26	Files selection	Select multiple files in the current directory by ELN. s <TAB> is also allowed
sb / Alt-s	Files selection	List currently selected files
ds	Files selection	Deselect a few files. Use ds * or Alt-d to deselect all files at once
bm / Alt-b	Bookmarks	Open the bookmarks screen. Here you can select the desired bookmark by entering the corresponding ELN, shortcut, or name.1 You can also specify the desired bookmark in the command line as follows: bm NAME, where NAME is a bookmark name (TAB completion is available: bm <TAB>)
bm add mydir/ md	Bookmarks	Bookmark the directory named mydir/ as md. Regular files can also be bookmarked. To delete a bookmark run bm del NAME or bm del <TAB> to select the bookmark name to be deleted1
ta *.pdf :mypdfs	Tagging files	Tag all PDF files in the current directory as mypdfs
p t:mypdfs	Tagging files	Print the file properties of all files tagged as mypdfs
c sel	Copy files	Copy selected files into the current directory (since version 1.9.9 s: works exactly as sel: c s:)
c 34 file_copy	Copy files	Create a copy (named file_copy) of the file whose ELN is 34. You can also use the d command to duplicate a file
m 45 3	Move/rename files	Move the file whose ELN is 45 to the directory whose ELN is 3. To rename the file issue m 45: a secondary prompt will be displayed to edit the file name inline. m 45 NEW_NAME is also allowed
r sel mydir 27	Remove files	Remove all selected files, plus the directory named mydir and the file whose ELN is 27. To remove files in bulk via a text editor use the rr command.
t 12-18	Trashing files	Send the files whose ELN's are 12 through 18 to the trash can
t del	Trashing files	Select trashed files and remove them permanently. You can also use TAB (t del <TAB>) to get the complete list of trashed files, select a few, and then remove all of them from the trash can
t empty	Trashing files	Empty the trash can
u	Trashing files	Undelete trashed files (restore them to their original location). Hit TAB to get the list of trashed files: u <TAB>
p4	File properties	Print the properties of the file whose ELN is 4. To include directories full size as well, use the pp command: pp4
oc file.txt	File ownership	Interactively change ownership of file.txt
pc file.txt	File permissions	Interactively change permissions of file.txt. To just change the executable bit of a file, you can use the te command: te4.

¹ You can also enter bm edit or press F11 to open the bookmarks file and manually add/remove/edit the desired bookmark.

Misc

Command	Full description	Brief description
rf / Enter / Ctrl-l		Clear/refresh the screen
ll / Alt-l	File details	Toggle detail/long view mode on/off
hh / Alt-.		Toggle hidden files on/off
config / F10	Configuration file	View and/or edit the main configuration file
Alt-TAB	Usage analyzer	Toggle the disk usage analyzer mode
pf set test	Profiles	Change to the profile named test. If the profile does not exist, it will be created
st size rev	Sort files	Sort the current list of files by size in reverse order. You can use Alt-z and Alt-x to quickly switch the sorting order
actions	Plugins	List available actions/plugins
icons on	Icons	Enable icons
q	Quit	I'm tired, quit

Note: If you experience any problem with the default keybindings, consult the Keybindings issues section.

For more advanced use cases see the Common operations and the Advanced tricks pages.