Far Manager

Far Manager (short for File and ARchive Manager) is an orthodox file manager for Microsoft Windows and is a clone of Norton Commander. Far Manager uses the Win32 console and has a keyboard-oriented user interface (although limited mouse operation, including drag-and-drop, is possible).

Far Manager
Developer(s)Eugene Roshal (1996–2000)
Far Group (2000–present)
Initial release10 September 1996 (1996-09-10)[1]
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, Linux port[2]
Available inEnglish, Russian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish, Slovak, Italian, Ukrainian, Belarusian
TypeFile manager
LicenseRevised BSD license
Websitefarmanager.com

Far Manager was created by Eugene Roshal, and has been under development by the Far Group since 2000. The project's Unicode branches (2.0 and 3.0) are open-source (under the revised BSD license). All branches are available as 32- and 64-bit builds. Far Manager is often viewed as a very customizable file manager and text editor, and a free alternative to Total Commander.[3][4][5]

Features

Far Manager features an internal viewer and editor, customizable user menus, tree views, file search, compare, integrated help, and a task switcher for its tools. Its standard functionality can be expanded with macros (which allow scripting) and plugins.

Far Manager's default interface combines two file panels with a command prompt. Panels may be fully customized as to which columns are shown and in which order, and operations may be done to and from either panel. The file panels support wildcard selection, advanced filtering, sorting and highlighting. The file panels and the command prompt are both active at the same time (they are interacted with using different keys), and most features can be accessed using keyboard shortcuts (the key bar at the bottom displays the function key actions for the currently held down modifier keys).

Extensibility

Far's standard functionality can be greatly extended with macros (written in Lua scripting language, primarily used to record keypress sequences) and plugins. Standard plugins installed by default include FTP, Windows network, extensible archive file support and temporary panel (sandbox) virtual file systems, a process list, print manager, filename case converter, and several editor plugins to format, wrap, and otherwise alter text.

Third-party plugins are available from the PlugRing repository and plugin announcement forum (in Russian). Some popular plugins include regular expression search and replace (both in the text editor and across multiple files), syntax highlighting and auto-completion for the text editor, SFTP/SCP and Windows Registry virtual file systems, 7-zip integration, a hex editor and a picture viewer (which overlays a DirectX surface over Far's console window).[6][7] Wrappers are available which allow using some Total Commander plugins with Far Manager, and vice versa. Plugins can be developed using the native C/Pascal API,[8] or using wrappers which permit plugin development in other platforms and languages, such as .NET (including PowerShell),[9] and Lua.[10]

Linux and MacOS version

far2l project develops Linux and MacOS ports of Far Manager. As for now, port successfully builds and most common functions work as expected. Among ported and working plugins there are FarFTP, Colorer, MultiArc, TmpPanel.

Licensing

Far Manager is available under the revised BSD license.

Originally, Far Manager was available as 40 days shareware for everyone except for citizens of the former USSR countries, who could use it as freeware for non-commercial use only.[11] On 26 October 2007, the source code for the Unicode development version (1.80, later renamed to 2.0) was released under the revised BSD license.[12][13][14] On 17 May 2010 the 1.x branch has also been released under the revised BSD license, though without source code.[15]

See also

References
  1. Far Manager release history
  2. http://github.com/elfmz/far2l
  3. Антонов, Игорь (July 2008). Как сказать варезу "Нет!" [How to say "no" to warez]. XAKEP (in Russian) (115): 22–23. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  4. Леха ББ (May 2003). Ручной кодинг с удобствами. Редакторы кода [Comfortable manual coding. Code editors]. XAKEP (in Russian) (30): 60. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  5. Bezroukov, Nikolai (12 August 2009). "FAR – the first OFM that successfully implemented a plug-in concept". The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm. Softpanorama University Library. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  6. Far PlugRing. "Top plugins". Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  7. ГалЈнкин, Сергей (17 May 2004). "Десять лучших дополнений для FAR" [Best ten add-ons for FAR]. ITC.UA, published in "Домашний ПК" (in Russian). Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  8. FAR Encyclopedia for Developers
  9. FarNet and PowerShellFar on Google Code.
  10. LuaFar thread (in Russian).
  11. License.xUSSR.txt (Far EULA for ex-USSR countries citizens). Distributed with older 1.x versions.
  12. Far Group (26 October 2007). "Far Manager – Open Source". Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  13. Far Group (26 October 2007). "Open Source – Unicode Far (Far forum)" (in Russian). Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  14. Мешков, Георгий (30 October 2007). "Файловый менеджер Far Manager стал свободным" [Far file manager became free]. Компьюлента (in Russian). Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  15. Far Group. "Far 1.x changelog" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
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