File Manager

A two-panel file manager in an editor tab, in the spirit of Total Commander and Midnight Commander: copy, move, rename, delete, attributes, properties and archives, by toolbar, keys and drag and drop.

Installation

code --install-extension file-manager.vsix

Or in VS Code: Extensions panel → ... menu → Install from VSIX…. After installing, reload the window (Developer: Reload Window).

Requires VS Code 1.94 or later. In a remote window (WSL, SSH, containers) the extension runs on the remote side and shows its file system.

Opening

• The File Manager button in the title bar of any editor tab shows the File Manager tab used last, or opens one.
• The same button on a File Manager tab opens one more next to it.
• File Manager: Open File Manager in the Command Palette.

Both panels start in the first workspace folder, or in the home folder without one. Each tab reopens where it was left, also after a window reload.

Panels

• Columns: name, extension, size, date, attributes. The date column shows modification, creation or access time, chosen in its header.
• Click a column header to sort by it, again to reverse. Folders always come first.
• Sizes are shown in KB, MB, GB with two decimals; the KB button in the header switches to bytes. A folder shows <dir> until its size is counted.
• The extension and size columns fit their longest value in the folder. Drag a divider in the header to set a width by hand; double-click it to go back to the automatic width.
• Ctrl+mouse wheel scales the tables, as in the editor.
• Drag the line between the panels to resize them; double-click it for equal halves.
• The path above the list is clickable: a click on a part of it opens that folder, a click after it lets you type a path (relative, ~ and paths to files work).
• The list follows changes on disk while it is open. Folders on file systems that report no changes (WSL /mnt/c, network shares, FUSE) are polled.
• The status line under each panel counts folders and files, selected and all, and their size.
• File icons come from the active file icon theme.

Toolbar

• Parent folder, home folder, project folder (a list when the workspace has several), root (the drive list on Windows).
• Open this folder in the system file manager.
• Show or hide hidden files.
• New folder, new file, rename, copy, move, properties, attributes.
• Pack, unpack, test archives.
• Delete; with Shift, permanently.

An operation works on the selected entries, or on the entry under the cursor when nothing is selected. Copy and move go to the folder of the other panel.

Keys

The function keys work while a File Manager tab is active; elsewhere VS Code keeps its own.

• Tab — other panel
• ↑ ↓ PgUp PgDn Home End — move the cursor
• Enter, double-click — open a folder or an archive; a file opens in an editor tab
• Backspace — parent folder
• Insert — select or unselect, cursor down
• Space — select or unselect; on a folder, count its size
• Alt+Shift+Enter — count the size of every folder
• Esc — stop counting
• Ctrl+U — swap the panels
• F1 — help: keys, mouse, toolbar
• F2 — rename
• F3 — properties
• F4 — open the file in an editor tab, an archive included
• Shift+F4 — new file
• F5 — copy
• F6 — move
• F7 — new folder
• F8, Delete — delete
• Shift+F8, Shift+Delete — delete permanently
• F9 — attributes
• Alt+F5 — pack
• Alt+F9 — unpack
• F10 — close the tab

Mouse

• Click on an icon, or Ctrl+click — select or unselect one entry.
• Shift+click — select a range; Ctrl+Shift+click adds it to the selection.
• Click on a row — cursor there, selection cleared.

Drag and drop

Drag entries to the other panel to move them; hold Ctrl at the drop to copy. Dropped on a folder row, they go into that folder; anywhere else, into the folder the panel shows. A dialog with the destination comes first. Esc cancels the drag. Nothing is dropped inside the panel the drag started from.

File operations

• Copy and move show the destination in a dialog; for a single entry it includes the name, so the copy can get a new one. Every copied file is read back and compared with the checksum taken while copying (CRC-32, or SHA-1 where Node has no CRC-32). A move between volumes deletes a source file only after its copy has passed that check; inside one volume a move is a rename. Dates and permissions of the source are kept where the file system allows.
• Name conflicts ask, for one file or for all: overwrite, keep both (name (1).ext), skip, cancel. Overwriting replaces the file in place.
• Errors on single files ask: retry, skip, skip all, abort.
• Progress shows in a corner of the tab, with the current file for big files, totals, speed and Cancel; the panels stay usable.
• Delete always asks. Without a trash, or with Shift, a second confirmation follows, and its button unlocks after five seconds. The trash is used where VS Code reaches one: in a local window, not in WSL or other remote windows.
• Rename opens a dialog; "Hide file extension" (on by default, remembered) leaves the extension as it is.
• Names are checked before anything is written. Under Windows and WSL the Windows rules apply: no < > : " / \ | ? *, no reserved names such as CON, no trailing dot or space.
• Attributes: permission bits with an octal field on Linux and macOS, Read-only, Hidden, System and Archive on Windows. Only the bits changed in the dialog are applied, also to a selection with different attributes, and optionally to everything inside folders. Links are not changed.
• Properties: type, size, dates, attributes, owner, link target. Folder content is counted while the dialog is open.

Archives

• Zip, tar and tar.gz (.tgz) open like folders, read only. Names in old zip files written in the Russian DOS code page (CP866) are shown correctly.
• Unpack extracts whole archives into a folder, optionally into a subfolder named after each archive. Zip files are checked against their stored CRC-32. Entries that would land outside the folder — .., absolute paths, links pointing out — are refused.
• Pack creates a zip, tar or tar.gz and checks it afterwards; an archive that fails, is cancelled or does not pass the check is removed. Zip has no links, so links are skipped there.
• Test reads archives without writing anything and lists every damaged entry.
• Password-protected zip files are not supported.

Platforms

• Windows: the drive list above the drive roots; attributes are read and changed through one PowerShell process started when needed.
• WSL: names follow the Windows rules, since the same folders are used from Windows. The system file manager button opens Windows Explorer.
• Linux, macOS: POSIX permissions and owners.

Building from source

npm install
npm run check
npm run build

npm run check runs the TypeScript checker over the JavaScript sources; npm run build writes file-manager.vsix.

License

MIT.