Better tree (arguably)

Manipulate file tree in terminal.

Installation

bt is currently only supported on linux and macOS. Windows support is on todo list.

go install github.com/LeperGnome/bt/cmd/bt@v1.2.2

Or from source

make install

Or download prebuilt binaries from the latest release.

Usage

bt [flags] [directory]

Usage of bt:
      --file_preview       Enable file previews (default true)
      --highlight_indent   Highlight current indent (default true)
  -i, --in_place_render    In-place render (without alternate screen)
  -p, --padding uint       Edge padding for top and bottom (default 5)

Key bindings:

key	desc
j / arr down	Select next child
k / arr up	Select previous child
h / arr left	Move up a dir
l / arr right	Enter selected directory
tab	Mark selected child and move down
shift+tab	Mark selected child and move up
d	Move marked children (then 'p' to paste)
y	Copy marked children (then 'p' to paste)
D	Delete marked child
if / id	Create file (if) / directory (id) in current directory
r	Rename selected child
e	Edit selected file in $EDITOR
gg	Go to top most child in current directory
G	Go to last child in current directory
H	Toggle hidden files in current directory
enter	Open / close selected directory or open file (xdg-open / open)
esc	Clear error message / stop current operation / drop marks
?	Toggle help
q / ctrl+c	Exit

Configuration

You can configure bt via configuration file at $HOME/.config/bt/conf.yaml

padding: 5
file_preview: true
highlight_indent: true
in_place_render: false

Motivation

I find myself disliking a majority of column-based terminal file managers. The reason for that is - when I need to copy/move some files across nested subdirectories, I constantly lose context of where I am currently, because columns always go left and right. Even though those file managers are really mature and loaded with features (e.g. ranger, lf, xplr, nnn), it's uneasy for me to perform simple tasks.

I like how broot renders the ui, but I guess that it's mainly usable for exploring a file tree, but not manipulating it (at least I found it this way, when I had to type a target directory for move).

That's why I'm writing my own simple tool for simple use cases. It's currently lacking a bunch of features (see todo list below), but the fundamentals are here.

TODO

Functional:
- [x] Tree rendering
- [x] File preview
- [x] Scrolling trees, that don't fit the screen
- [x] Move files
- [x] Jump into empty directories
- [x] Copy / paste files
- [x] Not reading whole file contents, only fix size
- [x] Remove files
- [~] Resolve filename conflicts (kinda done)
- [x] Sorting
- [x] "G" to go bottom and "gg" to go top
- [x] Creating files and directories
- [x] Renaming files and directories
- [x] Handle fs updates
- [~] Error handling (permissions denied, etc) (kinda)
- [x] File permission in status bar
- [x] Stylesheets
- [x] Edit selected file in editor of choice
- [x] Help
- [x] Toggle hidden directories
- [x] Image preview (half-block only)
- [x] xdg-open files
- [x] Async preview
- [x] Mark multiple files
- [ ] Image preview TGP
- [ ] Custom delete cmd
- [ ] Search
- [ ] Marked to stdout on exit
- [ ] Jump to current directory
- [ ] Go higher then local root
- [ ] Make current directory a local root
- [ ] Windows support

Fixes:
- [x] Fix size notation
- [x] Check existing name on rename
- [x] "gg" drops previous operation
- [ ] File preview ignore control chars

Maintenance:
- [x] Tests (at least a little bit)
- [x] Release artifacts
- [x] CI
- [ ] Distribution
- [ ] CONTRIBUTING.md