This page lists some ranger goodies to be used with lf.

For users who are already used to ranger as a file manager, moving to lf means less default features and a slightly different behavior. This page is supposed to include a collection of configuration steps needed to make lf behave more like rangers defaults in order to make the transition easier.

By default, lf will only preview text files. To enable previews for other file types, we can use rangers scope.sh file for lf to some extent. First, create a wrapper script ~/.config/lf/scope-lf-wrapper.sh as follows:

#!/bin/sh
"$HOME/.config/ranger/scope.sh" "${1}" "${2}" "${3}" "" "" || true

Then set previewer option and pager mapping in lfrc to use this script as follows:

set previewer ~/.config/lf/scope-lf-wrapper.sh
map i $LESSOPEN='| ~/.config/lf/scope-lf-wrapper.sh %s' less -R $f

Note, ranger uses return codes for different semantics so we append || true to enable caching in lf. Also, arguments ${4} and ${5} are used for image previews in ranger which does not work directly in lf so they are left empty. See also Previews wiki page for image previews in lf.

Ranger has a rifle.py file executor/opener, which can simply be used by lf instead of the default mimeopen command.

The easiest way to change the file opener in lf is to set the environment variable $OPENER in your shell configuration (e.g. ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc):

export OPENER='rifle'

Alternatively you can configure the file opener in lf by changing the open command in your lfrc file:

cmd open $set -f; rifle -p 0 "$fx"

You can also list all possible ways to open a file with a command/mapping as follows:

cmd open-with ${{
    clear
    set -f
    rifle -l $fx | sed -e "s/:[a-Z]*:[a-Z]*:/ \| /"
    read -p "open with: " method
    rifle -p $method $fx
}}
map r open-with

Note that these examples assume you are using a posix compatible shell (e.g. set shell sh) and you have the appropriate settings to handle filenames without quoting in your configuration file (e.g. set ifs "\n"). Also note that the example mapping overwrites the default r binding for rename command in lf.

By default, the delete command is not enabled in lf, so we need to add it if we want to remove files or move it to the trash. One of the cool projects I found while experimenting with lf was trash-cli and how easy it integrates into lf:

cmd trash %trash-put "$fx"
map D trash

To enable the same automatic file updates that we are used from ranger, lf offers the period option to poll the directory status every x seconds:

set period 1

Enable file and directory information like rangers defaults:

set info size
set dircounts

map <f-7> push :mkdir<space>""<c-b>

set scrolloff 10

In lf, files that have been copied are marked and stay marked after being pasted/moved. This changed the behavior back to rangers default:

map p : paste; clear

Lf uses GNU dircolors defaults to display different file types. This can be changed by adapting the colors file in the lf configuration directory. Add this colors files to your lf config directory (~/.config/lf/colors) to change the colors to rangers defaults.