They’re better than

cd something
ls
cd something-else
ls
cd ../..
ls

I like them better than repetitive or complicated CLI commands, but I just never remember to install or use them when I’m doing a bunch of stuff on a server.

As someone who uses nnn (occasionally lf) all the time, terminal file managers make navigation (especially bookmarking) easier.

Think Nemo’s my default file manager but with GUI file managers I find it hard to switch contexts. I always used to have two splits open with Nemo but if I need to open a new context I’d have to open another instance of Nemo and then I gotta switch between the instances now.

Now, nnn gives me 4 contexts, which can be easily switched between using 1-4. I’ve added zoxide within nnn to pretty much jump to any directory within my system. This isn’t really possible with a GUI file manager. Guess you can add integration to other tools as well to the list of pros of a terminal file manager.

File preview needs a mention as well. It’s easier when you can quickly glance a file and move on instead of opening it.

I use a mix of shell commands, terminal file manager, and GUI file manager depending on the task at hand.

The terminal file managers are quicker to navigate to a particular file/directory since it doesn’t require typing commands but I can still navigate with a few key strokes as opposed to using a GUI.

I had a similar thought. I got a plugin for neovim that lets you manage files and folders with nvim and seems like a quick way to easily move a bunch of files and folders around.

I haven’t really used it, as you said I stick with shell commands. But I could see some people getting used to that. Especially when dealing with a lot of files or photos and you really like vim lol

I never use them but I can see the point. Like when you’re poking around for a log file, not sure what it’s called or where it’s stored and just going on a hunch…but you’re in an SSH session and don’t want to deal with X shenanigans.

It’s a legit PITA to ls, look for files, cat/tail them, etc. sometimes you just want to ls -alR but your corporate build runs tmux on SSH sessions with no configuration so you can’t scroll back since your shortcuts don’t work so you have to pipe everything to more and it just sucks.

Depends on what I’m going to do. I often use mc if I need to do something to a bunch of files but not all and the filenames are not good to filter on except by human eye. For example when I want to move a bunch of mixed downloaded stuff from my dl machine into grouped folders on my NAS. It’s easy to go down through the list and select what to move from the download folder (where it’s all in a disorganized pile) into the grouped destination folders.

If I work on individual files, or something that’s easy to filter through wildcards I use terminal commands.

It’s not for or against, it’s about choosing the most convenient tool for the job.

The keybinds you can set up in e.g Ranger for navigating or moving files are incredibly fast and easy. Sure you could just use shell commands/aliases etc. but the visual representation of the file system that a TUI provides, I find really useful.

I use ranger to navigate around and view large source trees. I like its miller columns like Finder.

I am not sure there is any killer feature that you cannot do in a cli application. It is just a different way of working. Slightly better at some things slightly worst at others. But the biggest difference is what you are used to more then and single feature set.

Though I don’t personally use them, I also use a shell with a lot more interactive features built in then default bash does. If I where stuck with only default bash maybe I would lean more towards them. But that is just the way I work, others work differently then ai do.

I use ranger and it’s multi-purpose. I use it as a file manager, file editor (via vim) and also a disk mounter (through an add-on). I can run shell commands if I wanted to.

What I really like is that I can use the :mkdir command to make one directory with spaces in its name or :shell mkdir to make multiple directories in one go and escaping spaces if necessary.

I like that it shows you how much space is free based on which partition you’re on. Another useful feature is being able to preview images.

Now, not all of what I mentioned is unique to ranger but it’s fast and navigating is easy. If I’m copying files between two folders, I can put a flag down and use ’ to jump between them.

Ranger is very customisable so if you want to control how different file extensions are handled then there is a config file that’ll allow you to do that.

One of the first things I install is mc (sometimes ranger). It’s just a really fast way to get around.

CLI is fast, but GUI is (if done right) intuitive. Running mc is both. Very fast way to explore/get around file system.

I have wondered this as well. I do find that sometimes I DO prefer to be able to see image thumbnails, but that’s about all I see.

There’s some good stuff out there, but zsh for me is plenty feature rich to do the job.

I only use lf in foot to have a preview of a file (image, text, pdf, ssl cert, everything with sixels, cat or the specific command) without opening or searching for that file first. It’s faster to just use lf to search for a file instead of opening every single one. Other than that I find using xdg-open, cp, mv, rm etc. is faster compared to using any file manager, probably because I never learnt lf’s shortcuts properly. All GUI file managers I know are bound to their DE, eg. dolphin and nautilus, which sucks with a WM.

It saves time when you’re dealing with multiple files with different names. Also, MC is a clone of NC and I’ve been using either of them since early 90s. Habits.