lf File Manager Configuration

Installation

Install lf using your package manager:

sudo pacman -S lf

Configuration

Change to the /home/<username> directory:

cd ~

Inside ~/.config, create an lf directory to store the lf configuration file:

mkdir .config/lf

Create the lfrc configuration file within the directory created prior:

nvim .config/lf/lfrc

Display the Working Directory within the Window Title

Add the following lines to the lfrc file:

cmd on-cd &{{
    printf "\033]0; $PWD\007" > /dev/tty
}}
on-cd

The on-cd command will run every time the directory is changed with the h and l keys.

After defining the command, it is called to ensure that the window title is set upon launching lf.

The & allows one to run commands silently in the background (i.e. they are not connected to stdout). This behaviour is desired when updating the window title, however the sequence still needs to reach stdout so it is sent to /dev/tty.

To display the ~ symbol to show instead of /home/<username>, change the printf line above to the following:

printf "\033]0; $(pwd | sed "s|$HOME|~|")\007" > /dev/tty

To add the lf name to the window title, simply append it:

printf "\033]0; $(pwd | sed "s|$HOME|~|") - lf\007" > /dev/tty

Decompression and Unarchiving

Ensure the necessary decompression and/or unarchiving packages are installed. The tar package can handle most archive and compression formats and is installed as a default package in many Unix-based distributions. To find out more information about the tar package and its flags/options, see this manual page. 7z and zip are also common formats. Install their related packages:

sudo pacman -S p7zip unzip

Add the following lines to the lfrc file:

cmd uncomp-unarch !{{
    case "$f" in
    *.zip) unzip "$f" ;;
    *.tar) tar -xvf "$f" ;;
    *.tar.gz) tar -xzvf "$f" ;;
    *.tar.bz2) tar -xjvf "$f" ;;
    *.tar.xz) tar -xJvf "$f" ;;
    *.7z) 7z x "$f" ;;
    *) echo "Error extracting $f"
       echo "Expected either .zip .tar .tar.gz .tar.bz2 .tar.xz .7z formats" ;;
    esac
}}

Within lf you can run this command by typing :uncomp-unarch and it will decompress and/or unarchive the selected file. If the format is not supported, an error message will be displayed. Note that the abbreviation "uncomp" was used to make it is easier to remember the first letter of the command (i.e. "u" for both "unarchive" and/or "uncompress" as opposed to "decompress").

Enable Borders Between Panes

To visually separate the current directory or file from its sub-directory or file preview, as well as its parent directory, add the following line to the lfrc file:

set drawbox

Enable Icons

To view the icons, one must install a unicode font that has support for icons. The Nerd fonts are a common choice: options for Arch Linux are available here. Select a Nerd font that uses your desired font face, noting that lf, being a terminal user interface, uses a monospace font. Install the font:

sudo pacman -S ttf-hack-nerd

In order for the icons to be loaded, one has to set-up a shell environment variable that links certain file types to their respective icons. For those running BASH, these environment variables will be set within the ~/.bashrc file. Edit this file:

nvim .bashrc

Create the LF_ICONS environment variable by adding the icons from this blob found on lf repository using the following format:

export LF_ICONS="\
ln=:\
or=:\
tw=t:\
ow=:\
st=t:\
di=:\
...
*.opus=\
*.pdf=\
"

Edit the .config/lf/lfrc file:

nvim .config/lf/lfrc

Add the following line to enable the icons:

set icons

Reboot your computer and open lf. Icons will be displayed next to the files and directories for those file types that have been set. Note that if you have files that were created on another operating system (e.g. Windows) lf recognises these as executables even though they have the correct file extension. The reason for this behaviour is that Unix-based operating systems don't fully understand the meta-data attached to files created by other operating systems. This is why one should take care when editing files (especially system files) via a non-native operating system.

Basic Usage

lf provides direct access to the terminal to execute shell commands via four command prefixes:

• $ explicit execution (i.e. displays the command's output).
• % explicit execution, then waits for a key press.
• & silent execution.
• _ ___ execution.

The shell command will be executed from the current working directory unless another path is given.

lf has a built in server-client model for file management which means you can open separate instances of lf and use the yank, cut and paste commands to move files between the instances. This is useful for visually exploring and managing files.

Some useful commands include:

• space to select and unselect files.
• u to bulk unselect files.
• y to yank (copy).
• d to cut (delete).
• p to paste.
• c to clear the yank/cut selection.
• r to rename.