Skip to content.

A Note About Website Navigation

Skip to main menu.

For users of screen readers, depending on the screen resolution, the two checkboxes are for opening and closing the side menus that appear to the left and right side of the screen. This is designed both for large screens and for mobile devices with a touch screen. Checking either the main menu or sidebar checkboxes causes the menu to open from the left or right side of the screen, respectively. Clearing the checkox in either the main menu or sidebar closes the menu. The checkboxes are visible to screen readers such as JAWS and NVDA for Windows, Voiceover for Mac, and Orca screen reader for Linux. When a screen reader says "clickable" for both main menu and sidebar, that is for the respective checkboxes. End of explaination.

Viewing Single Blog Post

Need a Command Line-based File Manager for Linux?

Audience

This short article is intended for Linux users who are both familiar with the command line and a terminal-based text editor called vim.

For blind users, I don't believe the ranger program is accessible for screen readers. Probably not even in VoiceOver for Mac. For file management tasks, if only the Mac's Finder could support SSH's Secure Copy Protocol (scp for short) or SSHFS (Secure Sheel File System). Third-party applications will have to be installed. I do have brew installed for installing homebrew applications tAhat run Linux-like applications in a Mac, but Brew does not support Mac OS 13 (pre-release). I think the problem with ranger is that VoiceOver for Mac does not read the currently highlighted directory or file that I currently select.

Keyboard Commands for ranger:

Key: h, j, k, l
Left, down, up, and right. Basic commands similar to Vim and Vi. You can also use arrow keys if you want to! Arrow keys work in Vim as well.
Key: yy and pp
Copy and paste a file or directory.
Key: gg
Go to the beginning of the list of files or directories (typing g once instead of twice opens the list of available commands; type g again and it should move the selector to the top of the list).
Key: G
Go to the end of the list of files or directories.
Key: Enter
Depending on the file associations, opening an HTML file opens w3m and opening a JSON file opens a text editor such as Vim.
Key: F4 (function key)
Opens a text editor for a selected file.
Key: r
Open with: (Type the name of the program you want to open with.)
Key: spacebar
Select multiple files or directories. This is useful when copying files or directories in bulk.
Key: q
Quit ranger.
Command: :search <filename>
Searches for a file. Replace <filename< with the name of the file you are looking for.

Additional details for ranger can be found by visiting the ArchWiki page.

Install ranger:

For Fedora/Red Hat-based Linux distributions:

sudo dnf install ranger

Replace dnf with yum if you are running an older version of Red Hat-based Linux distribution.

For Debian/Ubuntu-based Linux distributions:

sudo apt install ranger

For those who use Arch Linux (if you use Arch Linux, I'm going to assume you know the commands for installing and updating packages. Explaining flags for pacman is beyond the scope of my article.):

sudo pacman -Syu ranger

Why choose ranger as a terminal-based file manager?

I need a way to copy and paste files into multiple directories. I can do it via the command line, but I can be very lazy with typing the names of directories. With a new flat-file CMS (Content Management System), I had a new blog setup and I needed to import all of my posts from ClassicPress to my new CMS. For creating new posts, I follow the convention where the date comes first before the permalink (yyyymmdd-hhmm-permalink). The following list shows how I break it down.

yyyy
Year: 2023
mm
Month: 02 (February)
hhmm
Hour/Minute: 11:00 (Eastern Time)
permalink
Permalink: need-filemanager-linux

The more I use ranger, the more I begin to fall in love with the program. But if I'm going to be using a screen reader with the screen turned off, this can be a problem for me and even a problem for blind users as well. However, at least ranger saved me from having to type a lot, especially when performing file management tasks. If you are looking for a file management program while working over a secure shell (SSH), give ranger a try. Oh, and the more I discover keyboard commands, the more I add to the list of commands. And of course, the more I enjoy using ranger.

Article published: 2023-02-19 11:15

Categories: The World of Computers, Computers,

About Grayson Peddie

Hello! I am a web developer and I have a passion for the world of Information Technology. I currently hold 4 CompTIA certificates (A+, Network+, Security+, and CySA+) including Cisco's CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certificate. Speaking of web development, I am a web accessibility enthusiast. I make sure that users of screen readers and keyboard users who cannot use a mouse can be able to access my website with just only the keyboard. Plus, I have learned a whole lot about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

So what are my hobbies? Aside from web development, I watch Star Trek: The Next Generation from time to time during the nights. I listen to music from the likes of David Arkenstone, Yanni, Checkfield, Cucso, Looreena McKennitt, Clannad, 2002, Enya, and even soundtrack from EPCOT Center (1982-1994), Tomorrowland, WALL-E, and TRON: Legacy. Oh, yes! Tomorrowland, TRON: Legacy, and WALL-E are the three movies I watch during Friday nights and every Friday night is my pizza night. I'm an optimist who likes to see what kind of future the world would look like. That's why I follow The Venus Project on Twitter (here's the website to The Venus Project. I do have a lot to cover in my introductory article in my website, so if you want to go in-depth and know more about me, that is the article to visit.