Commander Operations

The dual-pane workspace keeps source and destination visible during file operations.

Core file operations

Commander follows the classic function-key workflow: F2 rename, F3 view, F4 edit, F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, F8 delete, F9 new file and F10 quit.

Edit (F4) opens the built-in syntax-aware editor in its own window for local UTF-8 text and source files, with save, reload, find and replace, go to line, code folding and word wrap. It can be configured to hand off to the system’s default editor instead. New Window (Ctrl+N) opens another full Commander window.

Copy and move operations run in the background, work across local, remote and cloud panes, and handle conflicts with overwrite, keep-both, skip or cancel choices. Clipboard operations also work in the Finder or Explorer style with Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V. On Windows, local file context menus can use the native Shell menu so installed Explorer extensions and standard system verbs remain available.

Delete, trash and recovery

Recoverable delete moves files to the operating-system Trash. Shift+F8 or Shift+Delete performs permanent deletion, after a confirmation prompt. Trash views include Put Back and Empty Trash actions, so cleanup can remain reversible unless permanent deletion is chosen explicitly.

On Windows, Commander recycles through the Windows shell directly, which also makes deleting a large selection noticeably faster. When a delete does fail, it explains why — the file is open in another program, permission is missing, or the item can only be removed permanently with Shift+Delete — instead of showing a raw error code.

Batch work

Multi-rename supports name, extension and counter masks, search and replace, case transforms, live preview and collision detection.

Find Files searches recursively by name and content, then jumps directly to a result. It can filter by date, size and kind, match extended attributes and search inside archives. Compare by Content opens a side-by-side line diff, while Directory Synchronization categorizes differences between panes and copies either direction.

Archives, documents and conversion

Commander can pack selected files into archives, unpack archives into the other pane, browse supported archives as virtual folders and extract only selected members.

Document tools cover file combining and splitting, PDF combining and page splitting, plus known file-type conversion across data, image, audio, video and document categories. Convert to PDF is part of this workflow where supported by the source format.

Remote, cloud and network panes

Connect to Server (Ctrl+F) opens the Remote Connections dialog. Every connection type mounts inside a pane and behaves like any other folder, so copy, move, rename, delete and preview work the same across local and remote panes.

SFTP panes browse a remote host like a local folder and use the system OpenSSH client. Connection profiles live in the OS secret manager, not in Commander settings or browser storage.

Object Storage panes browse S3-compatible buckets and prefixes, preview objects and delete objects or prefixes. Commander keeps credentials in the same secret-manager-backed profile store and addresses the pane through an internal s3:// profile URI rather than putting credentials in paths.

WebDAV shares such as Nextcloud and ownCloud, and FTP or explicit FTPS servers, connect in-process through Commander’s bundled libcurl. No external curl executable and no temporary credential file are involved.

Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive authorize through the provider’s own login page in a browser, and Commander receives an access token — your password is never typed into the app. Tokens are stored in the OS secret manager like every other connection profile. Saved connections also appear in the drive strip as bookmarks, where a right-click removes them.

On Windows, Network Neighborhood is an in-pane browser. It lists workgroups, then computers, then server shares; once a share is opened Commander continues through normal UNC paths.

Nearby Share

Files → Share with Nearby… transfers selected files to another computer running Commander on the same local network. The receiver chooses who may discover it — known devices only, everyone for ten minutes, or no one — and must accept each request explicitly. A first-time pairing shows the same six-digit verification code on both computers to compare before accepting.

Transfers are direct peer-to-peer over the local network with no upload and no relay server, and the metadata and file chunks are individually encrypted and authenticated. Accepted files are written to the receiver’s Downloads folder; an existing name is preserved and the incoming file becomes name (1).ext.

Nearby Share reaches Commander desktops only. It is not Apple AirDrop and cannot send to an iPhone, iPad or Android device. Folders are not supported yet, and a single request carries at most 256 regular files. Discovery needs UDP ports 53317–53332 and transfers need TCP ports 53340–53355 through the host firewall.

Command line and system tools

The built-in command line runs shell commands in the active directory. cd navigates the active pane. Autocomplete learns from the current session and from real zsh, bash or fish history. Fuzzy matches appear in a suggestion list, while a matching prefix appears dimmed inline and can be accepted with Right Arrow.

The History button opens searchable command-output records containing the command, working directory, exit status, standard output and standard error. History is capped at 1,000 records and 32 MiB, exists only for the current Commander session and is never written to disk. Commands use an absolute 30-second deadline, including commands that continuously stream output.

Advanced mode adds live processes, listening ports, open files, installed apps, startup items, package managers, external tool checks, hex view and binary inspection.

Updates and maintenance

Installed builds can check for newer Commander releases and apply updates. The current updater flow tracks the live release manifest used by the website downloads, so users can move from one published build to the next without manually checking every package. After an installed marketing version changes, Commander shows a one-time offline What’s New dialog sourced from the release notes bundled into that build. First launch still shows the interface-mode picker instead.

Smart Clean includes large-file, large-directory, duplicate, Git repository and system-junk scans. Large-directory scanning is useful when reclaimable space is concentrated in folders rather than individual oversized files.