A curses library with wide char support (e.g. ncursesw), libc and libreadline (optional).

TL;DR: Can't install packages? Get the statically linked binary from the latest release.

Officially maintained RPM distribution + an Arch package is available in Openbuildservice
Packages for Debian and Ubuntu and a static binary are generated with the latest release.

Packaging status (expand)

Unlisted packagers:

● CentOS (yum --enablerepo=epel install nnn)
● iSH (apk add nnn)
● Milis Linux (mps kur nnn)
● NuTyX (cards install nnn)
● Sailfish OS (devel-su zypper install nnn)
● Source Mage (cast nnn)

Download the latest release or clone this repo (risky), install deps and compile. On Ubuntu 18.04:

sudo apt-get install pkg-config libncursesw5-dev libreadline-dev
sudo make strip install

PREFIX is supported, in case you want to install to a different location.

See the developer guides for source verification, platform-specific notes and other tips.

Completion scripts for Bash, Fish and Zsh are available. Refer to your shell's manual to install.

Visit the plugins page.

The new colorscheme (config NNN_FCOLORS) - a feast for your eyes!

There is no config file. Associated files are at

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nnn/

Use plugin nbak to backup configuration.

nnn supports a few optional (set if you need) environment variables.

1. Key-bookmark and key-plugin pairs are listed in the help and config screen (key ?).

2. Sort keys can be a/d/e/r/s/t/v (see program option -T). Capitalise to reverse (except r). Path must be absolute.

   Sorting options:

   • a apparent disk usage, how large the file appears to be, can be bigger than actual disk usage in sparse files.
   • d disk usage, amount of data taken on disk, a multiple of the block size.
   • e extension of the file.
   • r reverse the current order (not available with -T).
   • s size of file, amount of data stored in the file.
   • t time, this depends on the currently selected time type which can be changed using the T key. Options are:
     • a access, last time the file was accessed.
     • c change, last time the metadata of the file was changed (e.g. permissions).
     • m modified, last time the content of the file was changed (default).
   • v version, sorts by filename while treating digit characters numerically. For example: j1.png, j02.png, j3.png.
   • c clear, revert to filename order (not available with -T).
   • ^T cycle between filename/size/time order (not available with -T).

   Timestamps for entries created/modified within 5 minutes are shown in reverse.

3. With atool or bsdtar and (un)rar installed you can have:

   export NNN_ARCHIVE="\\.(7z|a|ace|alz|arc|arj|bz|bz2|cab|cpio|deb|gz|jar|lha|lz|lzh|lzma|lzo|rar|rpm|rz|t7z|tar|tbz|tbz2|tgz|tlz|txz|tZ|tzo|war|xpi|xz|Z|zip)$"
   

   bsdtar can extract, list and archivemount can mount ISO 9660 cdrom images (extn: iso).

4. Understands 8 color, xterm 256 color or both.

Hexadecimal numbers representing xterm 256 colors, note that the width has to be 2, e.g. "5" becomes "05"

• 8 colors numbers: 0-black, 1-red, 2-green, 3-yellow, 4-blue (default), 5-magenta, 6-cyan, 7-white.
• To specify xterm 256 color hex numbers, prefix with # (2 symbols per context).
• To specify both, export 256 color hex numbers followed by 8 color number as fallback, separated by ;.

5. Specify file-specific colors in xterm 256 color hex numbers (2 hex symbols per color).

   Order is strict, use 00 to omit/use default terminal color. Defaults:

   Order	Hex	Color
   Block device	c1	DarkSeaGreen1
   Char device	e2	Yellow1
   Directory	27	DeepSkyBlue1
   Executable	2e	Green1
   Regular	00	Normal
   Hard link	60	Plum4
   Symbolic link	33	Cyan1
   Missing OR file details	f7	Grey62
   Orphaned symbolic link	c6	DeepPink1
   FIFO	d6	Orange1
   Socket	ab	MediumOrchid1
   Unknown OR 0B regular/exe	c4	Red1

   • If the terminal supports xterm 256 colors or more, file-specific colors will be rendered.
   • To force the 8-color scheme use option -C.
   • If xterm 256 colors aren't supported, 8-color scheme will be used.
   • More Themes.

6. nnn v2.9 and below have NNN_CONTEXT_COLORS, NNN_SSHFS_OPTS and NNN_RCLONE_OPTS.

7. If the FIFO file doesn't exist it will be created, but it will never be removed.

8. Only the first character is considered if not a Ctrl-key combo.

9. Overridden by NNN_COLORS.

10. For example, to use macOS's native trash command, use NNN_TRASH="trash". Command "1" and "2" are treated specially to use trash-cli and gio trash respectively for backwards compatibility purposes.

usage: nnn [OPTIONS] [PATH]

The unorthodox terminal file manager.

positional args:
  PATH   start dir/file [default: .]

optional args:
 -a      auto NNN_FIFO
 -A      no dir auto-enter during filter
 -b key  open bookmark key (trumps -s/S)
 -B      use bsdtar for archives
 -c      cli-only NNN_OPENER (trumps -e)
 -C      8-color scheme
 -d      detail mode
 -D      dirs in context color
 -e      text in $VISUAL/$EDITOR/vi
 -E      internal edits in EDITOR
 -f      use readline history file
 -F val  fifo mode [0:preview 1:explore]
 -g      regex filters
 -H      show hidden files
 -i      show current file info
 -J      no auto-advance on selection
 -K      detect key collision
 -l val  set scroll lines
 -n      type-to-nav mode
 -N      use native prompt
 -o      open files only on Enter
 -p file selection file [-:stdout]
 -P key  run plugin key
 -Q      no quit confirmation
 -r      use advcpmv patched cp, mv
 -R      no rollover at edges
 -s name load session by name
 -S      persistent session
 -t secs timeout to lock
 -T key  sort order [a/d/e/r/s/t/v]
 -u      use selection (no prompt)
 -U      show user and group
 -V      show version
 -x      notis, selection sync, xterm title
 -0      use null separator in picker mode
 -h      show help

Notes:

1. nnn opens the current working directory if PATH is not specified.
2. If PATH is specified and it exists, nnn will open it.
3. If the PATH doesn't exist and ends with a /, nnn will attempt to create the directory tree and open it. Otherwise, PATH is considered a path to a regular file and nnn attempts to create the complete directory tree to the file, open the parent directory and prompt to create the new file in it with the base filename.
4. The keys for option -T are apparent disk usage / disk usage / extension / reverse / size / time / version. Capitalize to reverse (except r).

The list below is from master. Press ? in nnn to see the keybinds in your installed version.

 NAVIGATION
         Up k  Up                PgUp ^U  Page up
         Dn j  Down              PgDn ^D  Page down
         Lt h  Parent            ~ ` @ -  ~, /, start, prev
     Ret Rt l  Open                    '  First file/match
         g ^A  Top                     J  Jump to entry/offset
         G ^E  End                    ^J  Toggle auto-advance on open
        B (,)  Book(mark)           b ^/  Select bookmark
          1-4  Context           (Sh)Tab  Cycle/new context
      2Esc ^Q  Quit                   ^y  Next young
           ^G  QuitCD                  Q  Pick/err, quit
            q  Quit context
 
 FILTER & PROMPT
            /  Filter                 ^N  Toggle type-to-nav
          Esc  Exit prompt            ^L  Toggle last filter
            .  Toggle hidden     Alt+Esc  Unfilter, quit context
 
 FILES
         o ^O  Open with...            n  Create new/link
         f ^F  File details            d  Detail mode toggle
           ^R  Rename/dup              r  Batch rename
            z  Archive                 e  Edit file
            *  Toggle exe              >  Export list
      Space +  (Un)select            m-m  Select range/clear
            a  Select all              A  Invert sel
         p ^P  Copy here            w ^W  Cp/mv sel as
         v ^V  Move here               E  Edit sel list
         x ^X  Delete or trash         S  Listed sel size
            X  Delete (rm -rf)       Esc  Send to FIFO
 
 MISC
        Alt ;  Select plugin           =  Launch app
         ! ^]  Shell                   ]  Cmd prompt
            c  Connect remote          u  Unmount remote/archive
         t ^T  Sort toggles            s  Manage session
            T  Set time type           0  Lock
           ^L  Redraw                  ?  Help, conf

Notes:

1. Shift-TAB attempts to create a new context, and reverse cycles when all contexts are active.
2. B adds a new bookmark in the bookmarks dir, , marks a location in-memory
3. At the filter prompt, ^L toggles last filter and unfilter. If no last filter, exits filter mode and redraws.
4. Q quits with EXIT_FAILURE if no selection, else prints the selection to stdout and quits with EXIT_SUCCESS.
5. S shows the total size of non-filtered selected files listed in a directory. For directories, only the size of the directory is added by default. To add the size of the contents of a directory, switch to du mode.
6. Help & settings, file details and archive listing are shown in the $PAGER.
7. To change shortcuts modify key bindings in nnn.h and compile. Option -K detects collisions.
8. Repeat sort order key ^T to apply sort by time, size and default in the same order.
9. There are keymap patches available for the Colemak keyboard layouts in nnn's User Patch Framework.

( Léo Villeveygoux, based on Qwerty.svg)

SVG version

Some control keybinds may not work if they are mapped by stty. To confirm, run stty -a and look for keybind conflicts. Some common ones are: ^Q (start), ^S (stop), ^V (lnext).

To remove the stty mapping:

stty start undef
stty stop undef
stty lnext undef

Note:

• All links (hard/sym) are dimmed.

The minimum file size unit is byte (B). The rest are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024), same as the default units in ls.

nnn -h
man nnn

To lookup keyboard shortcuts at runtime, press ?.

user1: How it compares to Midnight Commander ?
user2: It works in daylight too.
         - from a reddit conversation