User Tool · Terminal File Manager

Files at the speed
of your keyboard.

PetaFiles is a three-pane terminal file manager built for Linux power users. Vim-style navigation, instant preview, bulk operations and network filesystem support — starts in 0.04 seconds.

Three-pane layout — parent · current · preview

Navigate with hjkl, copy with y, paste with p, delete with dd. Never touch the mouse again.

Download PetaFiles Documentation ›

#PetaFiles #KeyboardFirst #0.04s

What Is PetaFiles

The file manager your
terminal deserved.

Ranger is slow. Midnight Commander is a relic. GUI file managers require a desktop. PetaFiles is built from scratch for the modern Linux power user — keyboard-native, vim-style and blazingly fast.

The three-pane layout shows your parent directory, current directory and a live preview of the selected file simultaneously. Navigate with h/l to move between panes, j/k to move up and down. No mouse required.

Vim-style navigation — hjkl, g/G, /, ?, n, N
Three-pane layout — parent · current · preview in one view
File preview — text, image, PDF, archive listing, hex dump
Bulk operations — select with space, operate on all selected
Bookmarks — m to mark, ' to jump
NFS, SMB, SSHFS — browse network filesystems seamlessly
Custom key bindings — fully configurable via ~/.config/petafiles/keys

petafiles ~/projects v1.2

Documents/

projects/

Downloads/

.config/

.zshrc

.gitconfig

petacomm/

webapp/

scripts/

README.md

Makefile

.gitignore

src/

dist/

node_modules/

package.json

index.html

vite.config.js

            NORMAL · 6 items · 2 selected
            hjkl:nav  y:yank  p:paste  dd:delete  /:search  m:mark
          

vs ranger

	PetaFiles	ranger
Start time	0.04s	0.72s
Memory usage	3 MB	28 MB
Dependencies	0	Python 3
Network FS	Built-in	Manual

Key Bindings

Everything
on the keyboard.

Key	Action	Description
h / l	←→ panes	Move between parent / current / preview
j / k	↑↓ list	Move up and down in current pane
g / G	top / bottom	Jump to first or last item
Enter	open	Open file with default handler
y	yank	Copy selected file(s) to clipboard
p	paste	Paste yanked file(s) to current directory
dd	delete	Move selected file(s) to trash
r / R	rename	Rename file / bulk rename in editor
m / '	mark / jump	Bookmark current dir / jump to bookmark
/	search	Fuzzy search in current directory
Space	select	Toggle selection on current item
!	shell	Run a shell command on selected files

File Preview

Text, images, PDF, archives, binary hex — all previewed in the third pane without opening.

Network FS

NFS, SMB and SSHFS mounts appear as regular directories. Browse remote servers like local folders.

Shell Integration

Press ! to run any command on selected files. Output shown inline.

Bulk Rename

Select files, press R — edit all names in your $EDITOR. Save to apply.

Installation

Install PetaFiles.

Hosted on the Kotech Petacomm APT repository. One command to add the repo, one command to install.

Ubuntu / Debian

Quick Install Script

Manual

bash — Ubuntu / Debian

# 1. Add Kotech Petacomm GPG key

$ curl -fsSL https://repo.kotechsoft.com/kotech-petacomm.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kotech.gpg

# 2. Add repository

$ echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kotech.gpg] https://repo.kotechsoft.com stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kotech.list

# 3. Install PetaFiles

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install petafiles

# 4. Launch

$ petafiles

Already added the Kotech repo (e.g. for GateBell)? Skip steps 1–2 and run directly: sudo apt install petafiles

bash — One-liner

$ curl -fsSL https://repo.kotechsoft.com/petafiles/pfinstall.sh | sudo bash

The script adds the GPG key, adds the repo, installs PetaFiles and sets up ~/.config/petafiles/ automatically.

bash — Manual / Portable

# Download petafiles.py directly

$ curl -fsSL https://repo.kotechsoft.com/petafiles/petafiles.py -o petafiles.py

# Make executable and run

$ chmod +x petafiles.py && python3 petafiles.py

# Optional: install system-wide

$ sudo mv petafiles.py /usr/local/bin/petafiles

Requires Python 3.6+. No additional dependencies.

Ubuntu Debian Linux Mint Pop!_OS Kali Raspbian

Files at the speedof your keyboard.

The file manager yourterminal deserved.

vs ranger

Everythingon the keyboard.

Install PetaFiles.

Navigate your filesystem at the speed of thought.

Files at the speed
of your keyboard.

The file manager your
terminal deserved.

Everything
on the keyboard.