Useful functions
What makes them special?
The tools on our list can all perform the most basic function of navigating directories. All of them also support the breadcrumb feature, which helps you keep track of the directories as you traverse deep into a nested directory. Dolphin and GnomeFiles, the oldest projects on our review list, also support the Undo and Redo features. While this feature has been a part of Dolphin for a long time, GnomeFiles has only introduced this feature recently.
GnomeFiles remembers the last operation performed and makes it possible for you to either undo or redo the same, as applicable. For instance, if you create a new folder and then create another new folder, it will enable you to undo the last action. You can undo the last created folder, which will delete the folder. If you, however, create a new folder, or copy some files into the new folder, then the undo option means you can revert the copy action.
Dolphin, on the other hand, possesses much greater powers of recall and remembers all your actions for the currently open window. The default file manager for KDE also features an integrated terminal. It uses Konsole as the terminal emulator so you must install KDE to access this feature. Dolphin also makes it possible to add tags to your files and folders. Although it’s been in the works for some time, at the time of writing GnomeFiles doesn’t yet offer the tags feature, and it isn’t even on the to-do list for the other files managers featured in this month’s Roundup.
SpaceFM’s Path Bar (location bar) is located in each panel above the file list for the current directory. At its simplest, the Path Bar enables you to see the current folder’s path, but it also provides the breadcrumb feature. This means that you can Ctrl+click a portion of the path to switch to that directory. If you’re in the /home/linuxlala/ Documents/articles/2017/PDF/ directory and Ctrl+click the Documents part of the path bar, then you’ll immediately be taken to the ~/Documents directory. You can also run commands from the path bar, without launching a terminal first, but you must use one of the following prefixes: $ to run a task, & to run the command in background, + to run the command in terminal and, finally, ! to run the command as root.