twilight-commander

A simple console tree file explorer for linux, similiar to NERDTree but independent of vim. Developed and tested on Ubuntu 18.04 with xterm derivatives.

Build and install

Instructions for Debian 10 or Ubuntu 18.04/20.04

	step	description
1.	install rust	https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install
2.	clone the repository	git clone https://github.com/golmman/twilight-commander.git
3.	change to the newly created directory	cd twilight-commander
4.	build the project	cargo build --release
5.	run the executable	./target/release/twilight-commander

Implemented features

Configuration

The configuration is loaded as follows

1. load values from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/twilight-commander.toml
2. else load values from $HOME/.config/twilight-commander/twilight-commander.toml
3. fill missing values with app defaults
4. overwrite values with defines from the command line options

For a config file with the default values, see twilight-commander.toml. The command line options are derived from the values defined inside the twilight-commander.toml . E.g.

[debug]
enabled = true

is set with the option --debug.enabled=true.

Configurable key bindings

The key bindings are configurable. For the set of configurable keys and key combinations consult the event.rs.

default key	default configuration	action
up arrow	--keybinding.entry_up=up	move an entry up
down arrow	--keybinding.entry_down=down	move an entry down
left arrow	--keybinding.collapse_dir=left	collapse an entry directory or jump to parent if not collapsable
right arrow	--keybinding.expand_dir=left	expand an entry directory
r	--keybinding.reload=r	collapse all directories and reload root directory
return	--keybinding.file_action=return	perform configured file action
q	--keybinding.quit=q	quit

Directory entry management

File Action

The command line option / config value --behavior.file_action defines the action taken when the return key is pressed on a file. The action is interpreted by bash and any occurence of %s will be replaced by the selected filename.
E.g. when enter is pressed on the file .bashrc in a twilight-commander process created with

twilight-commander "--behavior.file_action=xterm -e 'cat %s; echo opened file: %s; bash'"

then

bash -c "xterm -e 'cat /home/user/.bashrc; echo opened file: /home/user/.bashrc; bash'"

is executed, i.e.:

• a new xterm window is opened
• where the selected file (.bashrc) is printed to stdout
• then opened file: ~/.bashrc is printed
• bash prevents the window from closing.

--behavior.file_action defaults to true, which does (almost) nothing.

Scrolling modes

Specified with the option --behaviour.scrolling (default = center)

• center: move the cursor until it is in the center, then move the text instead
• editor: move the cursor until it hits the top/bottom boundaries set by the debug.paddin_top/bot limits

Utf-8 support

In case your terminal does not support utf-8 you can disable it with --composition.use_utf8=false.

Logs

Logs are written to

1. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tc.log if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is defined
2. else they are placed in $HOME/.config/twilight-commander/tc.log

Usage with tmux and vim

The tcide_vim and tcide_neovim scripts open a new tmux session with 3 panes: (neo)vim, twilight-commander and terminal. Hitting the file_action key (default: return) on a file entry opens it in a new tab.

tcide requirements

When using vim you need to build it with the clientserver option:

git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git
cd vim/src
make distclean
./configure +clientserver
make
sudo make install

Ideas for improvements

• neovim support via https://neovim.io/doc/user/api.html
• configuration of 'on close'-event scripts
• storing sessions
• improved reload
  • preserve expanded tree on reload
  • automatic reload
• more colors, configurable
  • git colors (indicating modified or new files)
• improved sorting
  • sort case insensitivly
• advanced navigation
  • jump to parent directory
  • skip x entries by holding a modifier key
  • collapse the current parent directory
• improve tcide to store vim sessions
• add a proper Makefile
  • https://sagiegurari.github.io/cargo-make/
• better response to terminal resize events: in some terminals response is too slow, text is wrapped
  • intended to work like less -S <filename>
  • problem seems not to appear in plain xterm
  • https://www.xfree86.org/4.8.0/ctlseqs.html
  • https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html
  • https://linux.die.net/man/1/resize
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4738803/resize-terminal-and-scrolling-problem-with-ncurses#4739108
• directory entry stats
• directory entry management
  • copy
  • create directory
  • create file
  • move
  • open with custom command
  • remove
  • rename
• --help screen with info to all command line options
  • clap
  • gumdrop
• bookmark / pin entries (recursivly?) and prevent them from being collapsed
• search
  • case insensitive wildcard
  • mark hits
• nnn like status updates in the footer (permission denied, ...)
• logging
  • to log file
  • limit log file length
• add rust doc