The file window
The file window lists the files of the directory under the tree cursor, or of
a whole branch (B) or of everything logged (S). Enter goes back to the
tree, Esc too (at the directory of the selected file).
Moving around
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↑ ↓ PgUp PgDn Home End | move the cursor |
| ← → | page up and down (in the column modes: previous and next file) |
| Backspace | show the files of the parent directory |
| Shift+letter, 0–9 | next file starting with it |
| Space | down one line |
Display modes (Alt+F)
Alt+F cycles, in ZTreeWin’s order, between names in several columns, names and sizes in columns, details (one column with size, date and permissions, the default) and long names (one column, full names only).
Before long names come two modes ZTreeWin does not have:
- owner: size,
user:groupand permissions (not shown on Windows or inside archives); - type: what each file is, in the spirit of the
filecommand (“PNG image, 800 x 600”, “ELF 64-bit executable”, “python3 script”, “Rust, UTF-8 text”…), from the first bytes of the visible files.
In the column modes, files run from left to right, ← → move one file and ↑ ↓
one row; names longer than 20 characters are cut off with …. The initial mode
is file_display in the configuration.
Autoview (F7)
Splits the screen between the list and the contents of the selected file,
which follows the cursor. The file window’s keys keep working (T tags, for
example); Shift+↑ ↓ PgUp PgDn Home End scroll the contents; W toggles soft
wrap, # toggles line numbers; F7, Esc or Enter leave. It shows the first
1 MiB of each file (V shows up to 16 MiB).
Opening files
V: the viewer (text or hex, with search).E: the editor (Edit).O: the system’s default program (xdg-open: images in the image viewer, PDFs in the PDF reader…), in the background. Ctrl+O opens all the tagged files. Inside an archive, the entry is first extracted to a temporary folder, deleted when Xylem exits. Another program can be set inopener.- Alt+F5: open an archive as a directory.
Hidden direction characters
Some invisible characters change the direction of the text, so a name can look different from what it really is (Trojan Source, CVE-2021-42574; for example fatura\u{202E}fdp.sh can look like a harmless PDF). Xylem never sends them to the terminal: in a name they appear marked in red, the footer warns “Name has hidden bidirectional characters” when the cursor is on one, and O asks for confirmation before opening it, showing the name with the characters spelled out as \u{XXXX}.
The clipboard
Y or Ctrl+Insert copies the path of the file (in the tree, of the directory)
to the clipboard; Ctrl+Y copies the paths of the tagged files, one per line;
y in the viewer copies the path of the file being viewed. It works over SSH
and tmux (OSC 52) and keeps the clipboard after Xylem exits, on X11 and Wayland.
Other commands
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
T / U | tag / untag the file and move down (tags) |
C / M | copy / move the file |
D or Del | delete it (Shift+Del: permanently) |
R | rename it; Ctrl+R renames the tagged files with a mask |
A | permissions |
N | change the date |
| Alt+S | sort |
| Ctrl+S / Ctrl+V | search the tagged files / view them |
| Ctrl+B | Batch: a script with one line per tagged file |
| F5 / Ctrl+F5 | create an archive with the file / the tagged files |
| Alt+I | Info: details of the file (information) |
See also: the tree window, the keys in effect.