path: root/README

ranger v.1.5.0
==============
ranger is a console file manager with VI key bindings.  It provides a
minimalistic and nice curses interface with a view on the directory hierarchy.
The secondary task of ranger is to figure out which program you want to use to
open your files with.

This file describes ranger and how to get it to run.  For instructions on the
usage, please read the man page.  See doc/HACKING for development specific
information.  For configuration, check the files in ranger/defaults/.  They
are usually installed to /usr/lib/python*/site-packages/ranger/defaults/
and can be obtained with ranger's --copy-config option.

A note to packagers:  Versions meant for packaging are listed in the changelog
on the website.


About
-----
* Authors:     Check the copyright notices in each source file
* License:     GNU General Public License Version 3

* Website:     http://ranger.nongnu.org/
* Download:    http://ranger.nongnu.org/ranger-stable.tar.gz
* Bug reports: https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=ranger&func=additem
* git clone    http://git.sv.gnu.org/r/ranger.git


Design Goals
------------
* An easily maintainable file manager in a high level language
* A quick way to switch directories and browse the file system
* Keep it small but useful, do one thing and do it well
* Console based, with smooth integration into the unix shell


Features
--------
* UTF-8 Support  (if your python copy supports it)
* Multi-column display
* Preview of the selected file/directory
* Common file operations (create/chmod/copy/delete/...)
* Renaming multiple files at once
* VIM-like console and hotkeys
* Automatically determine file types and run them with correct programs
* Change the directory of your shell after exiting ranger
* Tabs, Bookmarks, Mouse support


Dependencies
------------
* Python (tested with version 2.6, 2.7, 3.1, 3.2) with support for ncurses
  and (optionally) wide-unicode.
* A pager ("less" by default)

Optional:
* The "file" program for determining file types
* The python module "chardet", in case of encoding detection problems

Optional, for enhanced file previews (with "scope.sh"):
* img2txt (from caca-utils) for previewing images
* highlight for syntax highlighting of code
* atool for previews of archives
* lynx, w3m or elinks for previews of html pages
* pdftotext for pdf previews
* transmission-show for viewing bit-torrent information
* mediainfo for viewing information about media files


Installing
----------
Use the package manager of your operating system to install ranger.
Note that ranger can be started without installing by simply running ranger.py.

To install ranger manually:
    sudo make install

This translates roughly to:
    sudo python setup.py install --optimize=1 --record=install_log.txt

This also saves a list of all installed files to install_log.txt, which you can
use to uninstall ranger.

Getting Started
---------------
After starting ranger, you can use the Arrow Keys (or hjkl) to navigate, Enter
to open a file or type Q to quit.  The third column shows a preview of the
current file.  The second is the main column and the first shows the parent
directory.

Ranger will automatically copy simple configuration files to ~/.config/ranger.
If you mess them up, just delete them and ranger will copy them again. Run
ranger with --dont-copy-config to disable this.  Also check ranger/defaults/
for the default configuration.