rex-fm-0.2.4 is not a library.

REX — Terminal File Manager

⚡ A Vim-inspired, blazing-fast TUI file manager built in Rust.

🚀 Version 2 is Coming

REX v2 is currently in active development and will be launching soon.

Version 2 is a major leap forward — the goal is to make REX a true daily-driver file manager that you can replace Nautilus, Thunar, or any other GUI file manager with, right from your terminal.

What's planned for v2:

🔥 Major performance overhaul — even faster rendering and directory scans
🎨 Redesigned UI with better visual hierarchy and themes
📂 Dual-pane mode
🔖 Bookmarks / pinned directories
🖥️ macOS and Windows support (Linux-only as of v1 — cross-platform is on the roadmap)
And much more...

If you find REX useful, star the repo and watch for the v2 release!

What is REX?

REX is a keyboard-driven terminal file manager inspired by Vim. If you've used Vim, you'll feel right at home — hjkl to navigate, modal-style interactions, and zero mouse dependency. It's lightweight, fast, and stays out of your way.

It's built with Rust and ratatui, which means it starts instantly, uses almost no memory, and never lags.

Linux only as of now. macOS and Windows support is planned for a future release.

Features

	Feature
⚡	Zero-lag navigation — dirty-flag rendering, async previews, cached `stat` calls
🔍	Fast search — `/` local, `g` global (via `fd`), fully async with per-keystroke cancellation
✏️	Inline rename — press `r`, edit with arrow keys, confirm with Enter
ℹ️	File info popup — press `i` for name, size, type, permissions, modified date, full path
📋	Multi-select — `Space` to toggle, `A` to select all, then batch copy/cut/delete
🗂️	Open With — `o` opens with configured app, `O` shows a picker popup
⚙️	JSON config — map any extension to any app in `~/.config/rex/config.json`
🗑️	Trash support — delete sends to trash, `u` to undo
📖	Built-in help — press `?` anytime

Install

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/gaurav13407/REX-File-Manager
cd REX-File-Manager

# Run directly
cargo run

# Or install the binary globally
cargo install --path .

Requires Rust ≥ 1.70

# Install fd for faster search (optional but recommended)
sudo apt install fd-find       # Ubuntu / Debian
sudo pacman -S fd              # Arch
brew install fd                # macOS (future)
# Falls back to system 'find' automatically if fd is not installed

Keybinds

Navigation

Key	Action
`j` / `k`	Move down / up
`h`	Go to parent directory
`l` / `Enter`	Enter directory
`Tab`	Switch between file list and preview pane

File Operations

Key	Action
`r`	Rename — opens popup with arrow-key cursor, pre-filled name
`i`	File info — popup with size, type, permissions, modified, path
`o`	Open file with configured app
`O`	Open With popup — choose app, saves as new default
`Space`	Toggle select file
`A`	Select all files
`y`	Copy selected / cursor file
`x`	Cut selected / cursor file
`p`	Paste
`d`	Delete → trash (confirm with `y`)
`u`	Undo last operation
`Esc`	Clear selection / close popups

Search

Key	Action
`/`	Local search (current directory, depth 5)
`g`	Global search (from `/`, depth 8)
`j` / `k`	Navigate results
`Enter`	Jump to result
`Esc` / `q`	Exit search

Rename Popup Keys

Key	Action
`←` / `→`	Move cursor left / right
`Home` / `End`	Jump to start / end
`Backspace`	Delete character before cursor
`Delete`	Delete character at cursor
`Enter`	Confirm rename
`Esc`	Cancel

General

Key	Action
`?`	Toggle help popup
`q`	Quit

Configuration

REX looks for config.json in the following order:

Next to the binary (for installed builds)
Current working directory
~/.config/rex/config.json

{
  "open_with": {
    "rs": "nvim",
    "md": "nvim",
    "pdf": "evince",
    "png": "eog",
    "mp4": "vlc",
    "mp3": "vlc"
  }
}

o opens with the mapped app, or falls back to xdg-open
O lets you pick from a list and saves the choice back automatically

Architecture

src/
├── main.rs          # Event loop, key handling, async search
├── app.rs           # App state (App struct, config, history)
├── fs/
│   └── navigator.rs # Directory listing with cached is_dir flags
├── ui/
│   └── layout.rs    # Rendering: widgets, popups, icons
└── utils/
    └── trash.rs     # Trash-safe deletion and undo

Performance design:

Async preview via mpsc::channel — never blocks the event loop
Search runs fd in a background thread with AtomicBool cancellation
needs_draw dirty flag — zero redundant redraws
Zero stat() syscalls during render — is_dir cached at directory load time

Dependencies

Crate	Purpose
`ratatui`	TUI rendering
`crossterm`	Terminal backend & input
`notify`	Filesystem watcher (live refresh)
`serde` + `serde_json`	Config file serialization
`dirs`	Home directory resolution

Platform Support

Platform	Status
🐧 Linux	✅ Fully supported
🍎 macOS	🔜 Planned (v2)
🪟 Windows	🔜 Planned (v2)

License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.

rex-fm 0.2.4