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Ask HN: best file manager for OS X?

23 points by nailer ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I've just switched from Ubuntu to OS X for dev purposes. Things have been going well so far, but Finder seems a little non-structural and limited, and I'm not alone - it seems there's about 20 or so different file manager apps for OS X. Is HN able to provide me with some pointers? Is there a Textmate of file managers?

Here's what I'm missing from Finder:

- Proper collapsible/expandable tree view

- Ability to see and create symlinks

- See file access, create, modify times

- Preview of SVG files

- SFTP/SCP support

- ACL / old style mode changes

- Nautilus style icon or text navigation pane (so I can paste a file path)

- General single window operation - I shouldn't ever need to open another window to move or copy files

35 comments

[ 7.2 ms ] story [ 114 ms ] thread
windsurfer
KDE4 is approaching stable on OS X, and it has two file managers that do what you want (dolphin and konqueror): http://mac.kde.org/
Titanous
Path Finder (http://cocoatech.com/) will let you do most of what you're asking. (tree view, symlinks, file attributes, previews, mode changes, single window operation)

I'd highly recommend it.

DenisM
$39.95
vincentpants
and worth every penny. it even has build in terminal functions.
ovi256
bash/zsh, whatever shell you want. Just forget the "Proper collapsible/expandable tree view" - why are you limiting yourself to GUI file managers ? Get on the new old thing - command lines.
tvon
Yeah, I came to OSX from Linux and I only use Finder maybe 30% of the time, and often I cd to a directory and just use 'open .' from the Terminal anyway.
dmix
Have you tried Quicksilver? It's a much more efficient way to open folders then using term + open.
tvon
I think you misunderstand me. I use the terminal constantly anyway, so when I do want to view a directory in the Finder (which is relatively uncommon), I just use 'open' to do it.

Granted, I'm not much of a Quicksilver pro, I mostly just use it to launch apps, but I have my doubts that I'll ever use it for opening folders unless it's one of the few commonly named home folders (Downloads, Documents, Sites, etc).

edit:

Though if you know some special tips or tricks to open folders with QS with tab-complete to get the right path and all that, I wouldn't mind knowing about them.

nailer
Because dragging and dropping is faster than typing scp, a folder, a hostname, and a colon.
whalesalad
Regarding SFTP, I use ExpanDrive (http://www.expandrive.com/mac) which works with Finder. They act as remote drives in the left pane which you can interact with just like an external drive. It's not free, but it's pretty cheap and really versatile. You can have drives auto mount on login, and it can be controlled from your terminal.
tvon
> Ability to see and create symlinks

PathFinder might let you create symlinks, though pretty much everything should display them with a little arrow overlay.

> Preview of SVG files

I don't think any finder replacement will do this for you. If you have an app that can edit SVG files, it should be generating a preview for you. I know that doesn't help much but in short, look for a SVG preview generator, or something along those lines.

> SFTP/SCP support

Likewise, I think you need a 3rd party solution. MacFuse or Expandrive (which is basically a nice UI on MacFuse). Pity finder doesn't handle this though, yet more insecure FTP use encouraged...

> ACL / old style mode changes

command-i, under 'sharing & permissions' gives you most of this (which you probably know), but no non-standard options like suid/sgid. I imagine PathFinder has a nice UI for this.

> Nautilus style icon or text navigation pane (so I can paste a file path)

Not what you asking, but fyi command-shift-G does this in Finder (even has tab complete)

makecheck
Not what you asking, but fyi command-shift-G does this in Finder (even has tab complete)

This also works in Open/Save dialogs, if you just start typing a "/".

fiaz
forklift...

I've been an OSX devotee for a long time, and I feel your pain. I use forklift because it's relatively lightweight on the memory and it does what I need to do efficiently. I was thinking of going with PathFinder, but I decided against it because it was a bit too memory heavy for me. PathFinder has more features, but then again, I'm not looking for a command-line replacement...just a more convenient way of navigating through folders, copying things over, finding things...

stevejohnson
I think Path Finder is probably the only usable alternative, but some of your supposed "missing features" aren't actually missing. Please correct me if I misread you...

> Proper collapsible/expandable tree view View -> as List: Check it out, tree view.

> Ability to see and create symlinks Finder has this. Symlinks look like their originals but with a little arrow overlay. Drag and hold Command+Option to create a symlink.

> See file access, create, modify times Again, Finder already has this (mostly). While in list view, go to View -> Show View Options and check Date Modified and Date Created.

> General single window operation - I shouldn't ever need to open another window to move or copy files You don't need to. Command+C and Command+V work just fine with files.

tvon
> Drag and hold Command+Option to create a symlink.

That's not a symlink, at least not in the unix sense (not the same thing as 'ln' or 'ln -s', which I think is what the author is looking for, and what I'd like as well).

tvon
> Command+C and Command+V work just fine with files

and for moving files, just drag and hover to activate spring folders (or whatever they're called). Very handy.

jonhohle
> > Ability to see and create symlinks Finder has this. Symlinks look like their originals but with a little arrow overlay. Drag and hold Command+Option to create a symlink.

To be fair, this creates an Alias, which is a Finder/GUI level construct, and not a file system level contstruct like a symlink. If you're just doing things graphically, there's not a significant difference, but at the command line an Alias won't do you any good. Symlinks work the same at the command line or in the GUI.

(I know aliases are a holdover from classic, but I don't see why they weren't replaced with symlinks during the OS X transition.)

nailer
Thanks for the clarification - yep, I need to be able to create real symlinks on remote machines.
rufo
There's actually a very significant difference - a symlink just resolves to a fixed path, whereas an alias always resolves to the same file/folder, no matter where it is moved within the filesystem. They remember things like which volume a file is on as well, so if you were to have an alias on a file server or a disconnected drive it would automatically remount the server or ask you to connect the missing volume. (EDIT: Or at least, used to in pre-OS X times. Just tried it now with an external hard drive and it failed to ask for the volume back. Still works with file servers, though.)

That alias also points to the same file no matter which Mac it is moved to, so if you create an alias to a folder on a server, you can copy that to 10 different Macs and it will always resolve so long as it can contact the file server.

Since they act so differently, you really can't replace one with the other without breaking expected behavior.

stevejohnson
Sorry for the mistake. When you do a normal "ln -s" on the console, it looks exactly the same as an alias in the Finder with the little arrow overlay, which is why I was confused.
nailer
PathFinder indeed sounds like the best alternative.

A tree view in the contents pane is a little clumsy for my liking. And as another poster pointed out, Finder doesn't make real symlinks. Thanks for the info re: Date Modified and Date Created tho.

JeremyChase
I have been on OS X for almost a year now, and the Finder windows are still bugging me. One feature that I really miss is the ability to "cut" a file then "paste" it into another directory. In order to move a file from one directory with the GUI Finder you have to have both directories open in a window and drag/drop between them. Please tell me I'm wrong.
DenisM
What I do is start dragging the files, then open desktop and hover files over e.g. USB drive which then opens and allows me to do the same with folders until I reach my target. I am afraid I would drop the files somewhere in the middle though.

Personally I want something like Norton Commander (or the modern day FAR), but MC doesn't cut it for me.

jonhohle
- Preview of SVG files

IANASVGE (I am not an SVG expert): while I'm surprised Finder doesn't show SVG previews, if you use quicklook (hit space with the file selected), it will show you a preview. You can also open SVGs in Safari.

nailer
I'm surprised too. But it doesn't - just a document with a Safari logo. I can open the files in Safari fine, but Finder won't preview them.
bayareaguy
On OSX I can do almost all of those things easily in a single window with emacs dired-mode in a Terminal, the ! (shell) key and the "open" command.
jamesbritt
I've been trying out mu-commander. Not bad, better than Finder for actual file/directory browsing.

Wish it had auto-complete of paths, though.

ttam
Like many have said, Path Finder is probably the best alternative, except it's costy.

I would love to have free time and make a file manager that is as light and useful as windows explorer (imho it's much better than any *nix file manager)