Double Commander is a twin-panel, cross-platform file manager. Inspired by Total Commander and featuring some new ideas in file management. Double Commander is absolutely free, open source software distributed under the GNU GPL version 2 license.
Some features of Double Commander:
all operations work in the background with threading operations support
tabbed panels interface
custom toolbar with buttons to launch external programs or internal commands
multiple files name rename at once
customizable columns
built-in file viewer (F3) to view files of ANY SIZE in hexadecimal, binary or text format
built-in text editor (F4) with syntax highlighting
archives are handled like subdirectories. You can easily copy files to and from an archive. Supports the following types: ZIP, TAR GZ, TGZ, BZ2, RPM, CPIO, DEB, RAR
extended search function with full text search in any files
supports WCX, WLX, WDX and WFX plugins from Total Commander (also supports its own DSX plugin format)
operations log
and more...
Note: the project is under heavy development now, so information presented in this document may be incomplete or irrelevant.
These parameters may be used with internal command cm_Options to jump directly to a specific configuration section.
| List of parameters for internal command cm_Options | |
|---|---|
| Parameter | Target configuration section |
TfrmOptionsLanguage |
Language |
TfrmOptionsArchivers |
Archivers |
TfrmOptionsAutoRefresh |
Auto refresh |
TfrmOptionsBehavior |
Behaviors |
TOptionsColorsGroup |
Colors |
TfrmOptionsFilePanelsColors |
Colors > File panels |
TfrmOptionsFileTypesColors |
Colors > File types |
TfrmOptionsConfiguration |
Configuration |
TfrmOptionsDirectoryHotlist |
Directory Hotlist |
TfrmOptionsDirectoryHotlistExtra |
Directory Hotlist > Directory Hotlist Extra |
TfrmOptionsFileAssoc |
File associations |
TfrmOptionsFileAssocExtra |
File associations > File associations extra |
TfrmOptionsFileOperations |
File operations |
TfrmOptionsFileSearch |
File operations > File search |
TfrmOptionsMultiRename |
File operations > Multi-Rename |
TfrmOptionsFilesViews |
Files views |
TfrmOptionsFilesViewsComplement |
Files views > Files views extra |
TfrmOptionsBriefView |
Files views > Brief |
TfrmOptionsColumnsView |
Files views > Columns |
TfrmOptionsCustomColumns |
Files views > Columns > Custom columns |
TfrmOptionsTabs |
Folder tabs |
TfrmOptionsFavoriteTabs |
Folder tabs > Favorite Tabs |
TfrmOptionsTabsExtra |
Folder tabs > Folder tabs extra |
TfrmOptionsFonts |
Fonts |
TfrmOptionsIcons |
Icons |
TfrmOptionsIgnoreList |
Ignore list |
TfrmOptionsKeyboard |
Keys |
TfrmOptionsHotkeys |
Keys > Hot keys |
TfrmOptionsLayout |
Layout |
TfrmOptionsDrivesListButton |
Layout > Drives list button |
TfrmOptionsTreeViewMenu |
Layout > Tree View Menu |
TfrmOptionsTreeViewMenuColor |
Layout > Tree View Menu Colors |
TfrmOptionsLog |
Log |
TfrmOptionsMisc |
Miscellaneous |
TfrmOptionsMouse |
Mouse |
TfrmOptionsDragDrop |
Mouse > Drag & drop |
TfrmOptionsPluginsGroup |
Plugins |
TfrmOptionsPluginsDSX |
Plugins > DSX |
TfrmOptionsPluginsWCX |
Plugins > WCX |
TfrmOptionsPluginsWDX |
Plugins > WDX |
TfrmOptionsPluginsWFX |
Plugins > WFX |
TfrmOptionsPluginsWLX |
Plugins > WLX |
TfrmOptionsQuickSearchFilter |
Quick search/filter |
TfrmOptionsToolbar |
Toolbar |
TfrmOptionsToolbarExtra |
Toolbar > Toolbar Extra |
TfrmOptionsToolbarMiddle |
Toolbar > Toolbar Middle |
TOptionsToolsGroup |
Tools |
TfrmOptionsDiffer |
Tools > Differ |
TfrmOptionsEditor |
Tools > Editor |
TfrmOptionsEditorColors |
Tools > Editor > Highlighters |
TfrmOptionsTerminal |
Tools > Terminal |
TfrmOptionsViewer |
Tools > Viewer |
TfrmOptionsToolTips |
Tooltips |
Internal commands may be groups by categories so here they are:
| Table of Command Categories | |
|---|---|
| Category | Description |
| These commands apply to the current selected panel, left or right. | |
| These commands apply to the left panel, no matter which one is currently selected. | |
| These commands apply to the right panel, no matter which one is currently selected. | |
| These commands apply to current selected item in current selected panel. It includes operations like view/copy/move/rename/delete/pack/unpack/split, etc. These are the commands that can have a direct impact on your files. |
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| Access options and configurations of Double Commander. | |
| Related directly with computer network. | |
| Inevitable category with those commands which we did not know in which category to place them! Effort has been made to try not to place too many commands in this category. |
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| Select the items on which file operations will take place. | |
| Interaction between the system clipboard and selected items. | |
| To move from one folder to another to access different items according to their location. | |
| Access the integrated help files of Double Commander. | |
| Commands related to the Double Commander window, its look and behaviour like any other computer application. | |
| Interact with command line to view past commands and help to invoke new ones. | |
| For action requiring more than a click. These action will generally show another window to have Double Commander do some more complex jobs. | |
| Commands related with the visibility and appearance of data files, system files, etc. | |
| Interact with tabs by creating new ones, navigate from directory to directory, etc. | |
| Actions related with DC log files. | |
Here is a quick description of all the internal command.
For each of them we will:
These commands apply to the current selected panel, left or right.
| Category "Active Panel" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+F1 |
Just the name of the items. If possible, more than one column. |
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Ctrl+F2 |
One item per line, with default or user defined columns.
See column section. |
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Ctrl+Shift+F1 |
Items shown as small images. If possible, in more than one column. |
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Ctrl+B |
Will scan all the directories of panel to show all content in one single panel.
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| Like the cm_FlatView command without parameter, but for selected files and folders only. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Q |
Content of selected item shown in opposite panel. As we navigate to next items, displayed content is updated. |
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Ctrl+F3 |
Sort items in active panel by name. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+F4 |
Sort items in active panel by extension. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+F6 |
Sort items in active panel by file size. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+F5 |
Sort items in active panel by date. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sort items in active panel by attributes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Invert sorting items displayed in the active panel. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Open drives list for active panel. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will sort specified column in specified order of the specified panel. See the following table for the possible parameter values.
Example: "cm_UniversalSingleDirectSort: panel=active, column=size, order=descending" This will sort the item in active by column according to size — larger files first. |
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Alt+Shift+Enter |
Compute overall size of the contents of each of the directories present in current selected panel. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
These commands apply to the left panel, no matter which one is currently selected.
| Category "Left Panel" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||
| In left panel, just the name of the items. If possible, more than one column. |
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| In left panel, one item per line, with default or user defined columns.
See column section. |
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| In left panel, items shown as thumbnails. If possible, more than one column. |
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| Will scan all the directories of left panel to show all content in this single panel. | |||||||||
| Sort items in left panel by name. | |||||||||
| Sort items in left panel by extension. | |||||||||
| Sort items in left panel by size. | |||||||||
| Sort items in left panel by date. | |||||||||
| Sort items in left panel by attributes. | |||||||||
| Invert sorting items in the left panel. | |||||||||
Alt+F1 |
Open drives list for left panel. | |||||||||
These commands apply to the right panel, no matter which one is currently selected.
| Category "Right Panel" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||
| In right panel, just the name of the items. If possible, more than one column. |
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| In right panel, one item per line, with default or user defined columns.
See column section. |
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| In right panel, items shown as thumbnails. If possible, more than one column. |
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| Will scan all the directories of right panel to show all this content in this single panel. | |||||||||
| Sort items in right panel by name. | |||||||||
| Sort items in right panel by extension. | |||||||||
| Sort items in right panel by size. | |||||||||
| Sort items in right panel by date. | |||||||||
| Sort items in right panel by attributes. | |||||||||
| Invert sorting items in the right panel. | |||||||||
Alt+F2 |
Open drives list for right panel. | |||||||||
These commands apply to current selected item in current selected panel.
It includes operations like view/copy/move/rename/delete/pack/unpack/split etc.
These are probably the commands that have a direct impact with your files.
| Category "File Operations" | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||||||||||
F3 |
Open file in viewer program. | |||||||||||||||||
F4 |
Open file in internal editor. | |||||||||||||||||
Shift+F4 |
Create a new file, and open it in the editor (see configuration). | |||||||||||||||||
F5 |
Copy items from source to target.
Example: "cm_Copy confirmation=1" will prompt user to confirm the copy, no matter how file operations confirmation for copy operations setting is set. |
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Copy items from source to target without asking for confirmation. | |||||||||||||||||
Shift+F5 |
Copy items in the same directory. | |||||||||||||||||
F6 |
Rename or move items.
Example: "cm_Rename confirmation=1" will prompt user to confirm the rename/move, no matter how file operations confirmation for move operations setting is set. |
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Rename or move items without asking for confirmation. | |||||||||||||||||
F2, Shift+F6 |
Rename files in the same directory. | |||||||||||||||||
F7 |
Create a new directory. | |||||||||||||||||
F8, Del |
Delete selected item to trash (recycle bin) or permanently. Deleting to trash can might not be available for all platforms. A different confirmation message is given when deleting to trash or permanently.
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Alt+Del |
Wipe file. | |||||||||||||||||
Alt+F5 |
Pack items into archive.
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Alt+Shift+F9 |
Validate the integrity of the content of selected archive file. If archive content is corrupted, error message will be reported. |
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Ctrl+PgDown |
If a directory is selected, will open this directory to show its content. If a file is selected, ignoring its extension, will try to open it as an archive based on its detected content (see ID configuration in other help page). |
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Alt+F9 |
Unpack one or more selected archives.
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Open according to WFX plugin. | |||||||||||||||||
Alt+Enter |
Show item properties (size, data, attributes, etc). | |||||||||||||||||
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Adjust item properties like creation, modified and last access date, file permission, etc. | |||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Z |
Create or edit comment for file/directory. | |||||||||||||||||
Shift+F10 |
Shows context menu for files and folders. On Windows Double Commander will show the system context menu (as in Windows Explorer), in other operating systems Double Commander creates its own context menu with typical actions.
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Enter |
Open a file or program under cursor. Associated application based on file association configuration might be used, etc. |
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Ctrl+Alt+Enter |
Will invoke a program for the selected file from the system file associations. A single parameter may also be provided for the call. |
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| Create symlink to file/directory. | |||||||||||||||||
| Create hard link. | |||||||||||||||||
| Split files dialog. | |||||||||||||||||
| Combine multiple splitted files together to form one single file. | |||||||||||||||||
| Calculate file checksum (MD5, SHA1, etc). | |||||||||||||||||
| Verify MD5, SHA1, etc. checksum. | |||||||||||||||||
Access options and configurations of Double Commander.
| Category "Configuration" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Open configuration dialog. Command supports a single parameter to jump to a specific configuration section. Here is a link for possible parameters to use. |
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Access configuration of the toolbar. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Shift+D |
Access configuration of the directory hotlist. It is equivalent to cm_WorkWithDirectoryHotlist command with following parameters: action=config source=%Ds |
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Access the "Directory Hotlist" configuration window. With the parameters, you may control which actions will be done regarding the hotlist.
Example: "cm_WorkWithDirectoryHotlist action=addboth" This will add to directory hotlist both current directories of active and inactive frame as source and target respectively. |
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| Open file associations configuration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Access configuration for settings related with folder tabs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Access configuration of the Favorite Tabs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Access configuration of the Tree View Menus. This is where we could configure for which command by default we want to use the tree view menu style of selection. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Access configuration of the color used with the Tree View Menu section interface. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Access configuration of general options regarding file search. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Access configuration of hotkeys. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Will save current state and position of the main window of DC. |
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| Will save all the current settings and history, just like if you would close application and restore. This might be useful if you've used DC during a long session and you want to save current context in case system would crash and you do not want to lose current history when you would restart DC. |
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| Will launch the configuration page of the external archivers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Will launch the configuration page for the tooltips. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Access configuration of plugins. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Add plugin: Double Commander will prompt you to select a plugin file, automatically detect its type (WCX, WDX, WFX, WLX or DSX), open the required settings section and add it to the list. The file name can be specified as a parameter. |
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Related directly with computer network.
| Category "Network" | |
|---|---|
| Name | Description |
|
Nothing for the moment, but might be used in the future with network related stuff. |
|
Nothing for the moment, but might be used in the future with network related stuff. |
Inevitable category with commands we did not in which category to place them!
Effort has been made to try to don't place too much commands in this category.
| Category "Miscellaneous" | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||||||
Ctrl+L |
Calculate occupied space of selected items in active panel. | |||||||||||||
| Launch a simple benchmark consisting in running supported hash functions. | |||||||||||||
F9 |
Starts a terminal. | |||||||||||||
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Execute Lua script file (requires Lua .DLL installed), see also.
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Select the items on which the file operations will took place.
| Category "Mark" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Num + |
Select items in active panel using a mask (provided or not) according the the following parameters:
Note2: When using filtering like Windows as oppose of DC legacy, file with no extension will be selected with filter *.* Note3: When specifying the "mask" parameter, please note you may also use predefined selection type simply by preceding the name of it with symbol ">" like "mask=>Pascal files". Note4: When using filtering parameter "ignoreaccents=TRUE", the ligatured characters like "œ" for example will be evaluated as the sequence "oe". So for example "cœur" will match "coeur". Note5: The fact to use parameters like "casesensitive" for example will not affect the subsequent usage the cm_MarkPlus with no parameters which will use the default same parameters of last time it was prompting the user. Note6: Regarding the "attr" possible parameter values, see the "The Searching for files with specific attributes." section in the "Find files" help file. The way to specify the filter regarding the attributes is the same. Example1: "cm_MarkPlus mask=*.pas;*.dfm;*.dpr;*.inc casesensitive=false" This will select all the files matching the given filter mask (which is basically common Delphi source file extensions) and ignoring the case of the letters. Example2: "cm_MarkPlus mask=*ecole*.docx ignoreaccents=true" This will select all the files matching the given filter mask (which is basically Microsoft Word document with the word "ecole" in them) ignoring the accents. This means it will select file with "école" and "ecole" in them since accent are ignored. |
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Num - |
Unselect items in active panel matching the mask (provided or not) according the the same parameters as the cm_MarkPlus command. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Num + |
Will basically select all the entries in the active panel according to attribute filter that follows.
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Ctrl+Num - |
Will unselect all the entries of the active panel according to the same filter described in table of cm_MarkMarkAll command. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Num * |
Will Invert the selected state of all the entries matching the same filter described in table of cm_MarkMarkAll command. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mark files with the same path as item under cursor of active panel. Note: It might seem useless at first look but may be used in at least two situations:
After you've filled a panel with search results coming from various level of directories
After you've invoke the cm_FlatView internal command. |
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Unmark files with the same path as item under cursor of active panel. See note of cm_MarkCurrentPath for the possible usefulness of this command. |
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Mark files with the same filename ignoring the extension as item under cursor of active panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Unmark files with the same filename ignoring the extension as item under cursor of active panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shift+Num + |
Mark files with the same extension as item under cursor of active panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shift+Num - |
Unmark files with the same extension as item under cursor of active panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mark files with the same filename and extension as item under cursor of active panel. See note of cm_MarkCurrentPath for the possible usefulness of this command. |
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Unmark files with the same filename and extension as item under cursor of active panel. See note of cm_MarkCurrentPath for the possible usefulness of this command. |
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Will select the items, in both active and inactive panels, that are not present in the opposite panel.
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Used in conjunction with "cm_RestoreSelection". The cm_SaveSelection command will save in internal buffer current selected items. Then later, the command cm_RestoreSelection could be use to re-select again the same items that were selected before. |
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See previous cm_SaveSelection command. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Save the current selection to a file. You may specify the output filename into the first parameter. If no parameter is supplied, Double Commander will prompt user to enter one. |
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Will read the content of the supplied file to select items from what is read from the file. This file could be supplied as the first parameter of the internal command. If no file is supplied, application will prompt use to enter one. |
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Will select the item of the active panel based on the content of the clipboard. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Actions related to interact between system's clipboard and selected items.
| Category "Clipboard" | |
|---|---|
| Name | Description |
Ctrl+X |
Cut selected text, file or directory to clipboard. |
Ctrl+C |
Copy selected text, file or directory to clipboard. |
Ctrl+V |
Paste data from clipboard. |
Ctrl+Shift+X |
Copy item names to clipboard. |
Ctrl+Shift+C |
Copy item full names to clipboard. |
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Will copy the full path of the current selected items including an ending directory separator. |
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Will copy the full path of the current selected items excluding an ending directory separator. |
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Will copy file information of selected items onto the clipboard. |
To go from one folder to another to access various items according to their location.
| Category "Navigation" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+H |
Invoke dir history menu.
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Ctrl+D |
Directory hotlist.
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Synchronous directory changing in both panels. Synchronous navigation is disabled when this command is called again or automatically if there are no matching folder names. |
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Ctrl+PgUp, Backspace |
Go to the parent directory of the current shown one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Shift+Home |
Go to to the user's home directory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+\ |
Go to root directory ("/" in Unix and GNU/Linux) or root of the current disk (Windows). In archive: go to root of this archive. |
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Alt+Z |
Show same directory in opposite panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+ ← |
Open directory under cursor in the left panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+ → |
Open directory under cursor in the right panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Show same directory in left panel than what is in the right panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Show same directory in right panel than what is in the left panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+U |
Swap file panels. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User may type directly the directory he wants see in the selected panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will switch the active/inactive/left/right panel to the specified directory(ies). Please note that you may specify more than one parameter, so with only one command, you may set both source and target path.
Examples: cm_ChangeDir activepath=%$DESKTOP% inactivepath=E:\Medias\Paul Houde This will make the active panel to show content of the current user's desktop folder and in the inactive panel you'll see the content of "Paul Houde" one. cm_ChangeDir leftpath=C:\Working rightpath=E:\Euler No matter where is the current active panel, the left one will show content of "Working" folder and the right panel will show the one of "Euler". cm_ChangeDir \\TERA-06\OPENSHARE1\MEDIAS\PICTURES\2015 This is the DC legacy way of working, the active panel will switch to show content of the network mentioned path. |
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Ctrl+S |
Quick search in directory.
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Ctrl+F |
It allows to filter the file list to show only desired files/directories.
For example, setting a tool button with the following parameters will allow pressing button to toggle the application of a filter to show only the "txt" file or not each time the button is pressed:
text=txt
filter=toggle files=on directories=on matchbeginning=off matchending=on When no parameter at all is specified, it will be assumed to activate the filter AND the other options will be the same as previous filter except for the text with the focus ready in the text box to allow you to type the desired text to set filter. |
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Place cursor on first folder or file in list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place cursor on last folder or file in list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place cursor on next folder or file. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place cursor on previous folder or file. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place cursor on first file in list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place cursor on last file in list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will popup at the cursor position, the last directories visited.
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Alt+ → |
According to list of last directories visited, will set the active panel to the very next one, if any, visited prior to current one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alt+ ← |
According to list of last directories visited, will set the active panel to the very last one visited prior to current one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In the current tab of the specified panel, will show content of the specified drive. If no panel is specified, it will be in the current active panel.
Example: "cm_OpenDriveByIndex side=left index=2" will focus panel on left and show drive E: content assuming in our current drive list we have C:, E:, S: and X:. |
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Switch focus between left and right panel.
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Access the integrated help files of Double Commander.
| Category "Help" | |
|---|---|
| Name | Description |
| Open Double Commander help index page. |
| Open keyboard shortcuts help page. Note: This will be a passive HTML file. So you if you change the keyboard shortcut from the default one, be aware that the passive html help file won't show the actual shortcut the application is currently using. |
| Go to Double Commander's home page. |
F1 |
Show program "About" information. |
Commands related with the Double Commander window, its look and behavior, like any other computer application.
| Category "Window" | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | ||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Shift+H |
Will set the arrangement of panels between two vertical ones disposed in left/right OR two horizontal ones disposed in top/bottom.
Example: "cm_HorizontalFilePanels mode=horizontal" will force the two panels to be in horizontal disposition, one above the other. |
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| Set the panels width, e.g. 50% — equal size.
Example: "cm_PanelsSplitterPerPos splitpct=80", with vertical panels, will set the left panel width to 80% of the available space. |
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Determine if we see the main bar menu or not.
Example: "cm_ShowMainMenu menu=off", will hide the main menu. |
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| Determine if we see the toolbar or not.
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Alt+V |
Shows a window with the file operations process currently in progress if any. | ||||||||||||||||
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Ex-command not implemented anymore. Since the configuration of the toolbar is done via one single simple versatile dedicated configuration window, you may want to refer to cm_ConfigToolbars command instead. |
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Minimize the Double Commander window. | ||||||||||||||||
Alt+X |
Close Double Commander. | ||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Shift+F8 |
Tree View Panel. | ||||||||||||||||
Shift+Tab |
Switch focus between current file list and tree view (if enabled). | ||||||||||||||||
Interact with command line to view past commands and help to invoke new ones.
| Category "Command Line" | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | ||||||||||||||
Shift+F2 |
Change focus to the command line. | ||||||||||||||
Alt+F8, Ctrl+ ↓ |
Show history of all commands used in the command line.
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Will activate in the next command line typed prior the current one, if any. | ||||||||||||||
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Will activate in the next command line typed after the current one, if any. | ||||||||||||||
Ctrl+P
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Place current path in command line.
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Ctrl+Enter |
Place filename of current selected item in command line. Note: Command also accepts the same parameters as the cm_AddPathToCmdLine. |
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Ctrl+Shift+Enter |
Place current path and filename of selected item in command line. Note: Command also accepts the same parameters as the cm_AddPathToCmdLine. |
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Ctrl+O |
Toggle fullscreen mode console window. | ||||||||||||||
For action requiring more than a click.
These action will generally show another window to have Double Commander do some more complex jobs.
| Category "Tools" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||
Ctrl+M |
Open Multi-Rename Tool.
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Alt+F7 |
Open Search dialog with default parameters or with saved template from option "Default search template" (see File Operations > File search). Also command supports a single parameter to open Search dialog with saved template, use template name as is without quotes. |
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Shift+Ctrl+F7 |
Create and open a new instance of Search dialog window. Invoking this command to do a search will preserve the searches we've made earlier in the session. It will also allow to launch a new search instance to search something else while a long search is in progress. | |||||||||
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If we've launched a few instances of search with the cm_AddNewSearch, this command will allow us to view a summary of them and be able to switch back to one of them. | |||||||||
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If we've launched a few instances of search with the cm_AddNewSearch, this command will allow us to close and remove from memory all of them at once. | |||||||||
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Will invoke the directory synchronization tool to scan left and right panel folder to eventually see the content difference and make them equal. | |||||||||
| Open compare by contents dialog | |||||||||
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Will simply show a message with the info passed as parameters. This may be helpful to validate the parameter you're passing to a command. |
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Shift+F12 |
Will show an internal command selector window where user may select any of the possible internal command and execute it. | |||||||||
Commands related with the visibility or not of files like the system files, etc.
| Category "View" | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | |||||||||||
Ctrl+R |
Refresh panels. | |||||||||||
| Show hidden and system files. | |||||||||||
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Enable or not the "Ignore list" depending of the parameter.
Example: "cm_SwitchIgnoreList ignorelist=on", ignore list is enabled so item present in the ignore list won't be shown in the panels. |
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Interact with tabs by creating new ones, navigate through them, etc.
| Category "Tabs" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+T |
Create a new tab for opened directory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Up |
Open directory under cursor at new tab, but don't switch to it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Tab |
Change to next tab. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
Change to previous tab. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Prompt user to rename current tab of active panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ctrl+W |
Close current tab of active panel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Close all tabs of panel(s), excluding the active one, according to following parameters:
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Close tabs pointing to same dirs so at the end of action, only one tab for each dir is kept.
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All tabs from the specified side will be added also on the opposite side. By default with no parameter, it copies tab from the active panel to the inactive panel.
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Open a file expected to contains tab names and their associated directories to apply to panel.
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Will save into a file the current tab names and their associated directories, for both left and right, to a .tab file to be eventually loaded back with previous described command.
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Current tab status to normal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Current tab to "locked", user cannot change directory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Current tab to "locked with dir change allowed", user may change directory inside the panel, but if user changes tab and then come back to that one, it will come back to original directory where it was "locked with dir changed allowed". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Current tab to "locked with dir change in new tab", user may change directory inside the panel, but as user enters in new directory, that one will be opened in a new tab. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Set back to "normal" all the tabs.
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All tabs to "locked", user cannot change directory.
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All tabs to "locked with dir change allowed", user may change directory inside the panel, but if user changes tab and then come back to that one, it will come back to original directory where it was locked.
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All tabs to "locked with dir change in new tab", user may change directory inside the panel, but as user enters in new directory, that one will be opened in a new tab.
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Prompt the user with a menu asking to select a previously saved setup.
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Will save in the "Favorite Tabs" the current opened tabs. Later on, on request, user may reload these saved setup using the cm_LoadFavoriteTabs command. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reload again the last Favorite Tabs setup that was loaded. So if after browsing in every tab and additional tabs were added, etc. we want to restore "as-is" what has been set for the last Favorite Tabs that was loaded, that's the command to invoke. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will resave the current tabs configuration over the last loaded Favorites Tabs entry. This is useful if you realized you're missing a tab in one of your configuration. After loading your Favorite Tabs you add the missing tab you wanted and then you invoke cm_ResaveFavoriteTabs internal command. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will load the Favorite Tabs setup that is just before in our list the last one we loaded. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will load the Favorite Tabs setup that is just after in our list the last one we loaded. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Will activate the specified tab in the specified panel where it will also switch to. If no panel is specified, tabs used will be from the active panel.
Example: "cm_ActivateTabByIndex side=right index=1" will activate the 1st tab in the rigth panel and will switch focus on it. |
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Actions related with DC logs file.
| Category "Logs" | |
|---|---|
| Name | Description |
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Open the current log file of operation. |
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Will erase the current log file of operation. |
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Will clear the log window content. |
Originally created by Rustem (dok_rust@bk.ru)
When launching Double Commander executable we may specify some command line parameters to customize our start up.
For example, we may specify the directories that will be displayed in the file panels.
There are some switches that may be used as well.
These switches are NOT case sensitive.
Here is a summary description of the syntax of what's possible in the command line:
doublecmd.exe [-C] [-T] [-P L|R] [path1\subpath1] [path2\subpath2]
An alternative form is also possible like this one:
doublecmd.exe [-C] [-T] [-P L|R] [-L path1\subpath1] [-R path2\subpath2]
Here is the list of what may be present as parameters when launching Double Commander.
| Command Line Parameters | |
|---|---|
| Parameter | Description |
path1\sub1 [path2\sub2] (no switches, directly a path) |
If one path passed then load it into the active panel. If two paths are passed then load first path into left panel and second in the right panel. Directory names containing spaces must be put in double quotes. Always specify the full path name. |
-C or --client | If Double Commander is already running, activate it and pass the path(s) in the command line to that instance. |
-L directory | Set directory to show in the left panel. |
-R directory | Set directory to show in the right panel. |
-P L|R | Sets the active panel when program starts:
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-T | Opens the passed directory(ies) in new tab(s). |
--config-dir=path | Set custom directory path with DC configurations files. |
--servername=x |
Sets the name of the instance (server) DC, which can then be used to pass parameters. If there is no already existing instance, then create it. If there is already existing instance, and the current one is a client, then send params to the server (i.e. to the existing instance). If there is already existing instance, and the current one is not a client, (i.e. Allow only one copy of DC at a time is false and no --client/-c options were given), then user-provided servername is altered: firstly, just add a trailing number "2".If there is already some trailing number, then increase it by 1, until we found a servername that isn't busy yet, and then create instance with this servername. |
--no-splash | Disables the splash screen at startup DC. |
--debug-log=file |
Running Double Commander with sending the debug output to the specified file. Note: Also used module (Lazlogger) supports the environment variable xxx_debuglog, where xxx is the program file name without extension:
in this case, it will be doublecmd_debuglog. If this environment variable exists, the file specified in its value will be used.
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Note: If the full file name is specified instead of the directory, Double Commander will open the folder and move the cursor to this file.
Here is a few examples of wanted behaviors that could be done via command line parameters when launching Double Commander.
Open the directory e:\Xilinx\ISE DS in the left panel and the directory c:\temp in the right one:
doublecmd.exe "e:\Xilinx\ISE DS" c:\temp
Open directory c:\Logs in a new tab in the active panel of and already running instance of Double Commander:
doublecmd.exe -c -t c:\Logs
Start application with configuration files from directory f:\Documents\DC\Job Settings with the mention JOB in the title bar of application:
doublecmd.exe --config-dir="f:\Documents\DC\Job Settings" --servername="JOB"
Double Commander keeps its configuration settings in files. You may configure the location of these configuration file from the configuration options.
The main files are:
doublecmd.xml — all the main program settings;
extassoc.xml — file extension association configuration;
highlighters.xml — editor color settings;
shortcuts.scf — keyboard layout settings;
multiarc.ini — external archivers;
history.xml — command line and directory history, search and replace, etc.;
few others... — etc...
We normally don't have to play directly into these files. As we work with the application and configuring it in the options, the information will be write into them. Then, on the next session, their values will be restored.
The "Options" window allows to set almost all of the options in Double Commander, but there are several parameters that can only be changed manually in the doublecmd.xml configuration file.
Double Commander has several internal commands to open the configuration dialog and quickly jump to the desired section.
Note: To the right of the file or directory choose buttons is the button Some functions to select appropriate path: the popup menu contains lists of variables (including environment variables) and some additional functions, see description here.
These are the various translations available for Double Commander. You can choose your preferred language.
There are 4 checkboxes and 1 list that affect certain behaviors of DC.
Allow only one copy of DC at a time — If enabled, only one copy of the program can be run. If you try to run a second copy of Double Commander, the first copy will be activated.
Move icon to system tray when minimized — When minimized Double Commander will display its icon in the system tray (notification area) rather than the panel (or Windows taskbar).
Always show tray icon — If enabled, in addition to the Double Commander window button on the panel (or Windows taskbar), it will additionally show the tray icon.
Drives blacklist — use this to hide certain drives in the drives panel menu bar. Each item must contain the full path to the drive/mount point. Separate multiple drives with semicolons ";" without spaces. Examples: /media/cdrom;/mnt/win_c (Linux) or a:\;b:\;d:\ (Windows). Also in Unix/Linux you may use wildcard mask, example for AppImage files: /tmp/.mount_*. Hidden drives will still be available, for example, you can open them from the Directory Hotlist menu or change the path manually.
Automatically hide unmounted devices — An unmounted device will be automatically removed from the drive button bar and from the drives list.
This section contains the settings of the built-in Double Commander tools (editor (F4), viewer (F3) and file comparison tool) and commands for launching the terminal.
You can specify external programs for edit, view and find differences. These external programs will be used instead of the internal tools.
You can select fonts for the editor (F4), viewer (F3), file panels (Main Font) and other elements of the Double Commander interface, and also their size. The bottom line for each allows you to see how the display of the selected font looks. One important note: the fonts for the editor and viewer must be MONOSPACE. The figure below illustrates a proportionally spaced font in the window above (notice the strange spacing) and a monospace font in the window below which appears correctly spaced. Also, with some proportional fonts the characters may overwrite each other and look quite strange.
Normal (proportional) font above, monospaced below.
This section contains settings for the appearance of file panels:
The color settings here are global settings for both file panels. These settings can be overridden by creating a customised column style which can have its own color settings, and more, for each tab in the panel! See Files views > Columns > Custom columns for details on how to do this. You must adjust the current style of the columns (Default by default) or create your own style and apply it for any tab.
Here you can choose colors that will be used to process the file panels: Text Color, Background, Background 2, Mark Color, Cursor Color, Cursor Text, Inactive Cursor Color, Inactive Mark Color, and also Cursor border (if you are not using a frame cursor). With the two background options you can make an alternating stripe in the panels, as in some screenshots.
Use Inverted Selection — inverts colors of marked text and marked text under cursor.
Use Inactive Sel Color — enables the display of the cursor also in the inactive panel.
Use Frame Cursor — Double Commander will use a frame instead of a solid rectangle.
Allow Overcolor enables the ability to use a color other than the default color for file names (see section Colors > File types).
Also here you can decrease the brightness of the inactive panel and change the colors of the drive free space indicator.
There is a preview area at the bottom of the window, so you can see all the changes at once.
The Reset to DC default button will reset all parameters to their default values.
Here you can specify file types that should be given a different color. The Allow Overcolor parameter must be enabled (enabled by default).
In line Category name you may write a description of the file, what it does or what program it opens.
In line Category mask put a wildcard mask to match file types (symbol "*" means match any number of characters, symbol "?" means any one character). You may put multiple file types here using a semicolon ";" without spaces between them. Also you can use search templates, including search with content plugins.
In line Category attributes you can put file attributes, and DC will match any files which have matching attributes (not available if using a search template). File attributes are specified by the following templates:
Windows: [d or l]rahs[c or e]tp
Linux: [b, c, d, f, l, r or s]rwxrwxrwx
See the description of this values here. If attribute should not be set, it must be replaced with the "-" symbol, unnecessary attributes should be hidden: symbol "*" means match any number of characters, symbol "?" means any one character. For example, ?r* (Windows) or ?r-* (Linux) will find all read-only files and folders.
You can use a color from the list or specify yours using the ">>" button.
Do not forget to click "Apply" button after customization.
Rules are applied strictly in reverse order: a rule higher in the list will overlap any rule below.
Here you can set the action on pressing some keys in the active file panel: Letters, Alt+Letters, Ctrl+Alt+Letters. You can choose one of the following actions: do nothing, set focus to command line and enter command, run quick search or quick filter.
Left, Right arrows change directory (Lynx-like movement) — right arrow opens directory or runs a program under cursor, left arrow opens parent directory.
In this section you can set keys to launch commands and also specify parameters for these commands.
Shortcut files — A drop-down menu containing a list of files with a set of hotkeys. They are stored in the directory with program settings files.
On the right is the file related menu button:
Actions with the current file: Save now, Rename, Copy and Delete.
Restore DC default.
Commands for switching to the previous and next categories.
Commands for switching the sort order of the command table (see below).
Categories — shows the category of hot key combinations: Main, Copy/Move Dialog, Differ, Edit Comment Dialog, Editor, Find files, Multi-Rename Tool, Synchronize Directories, Viewer.
Filter — enables you to search the internal commands more quickly.
Sort order — switchs the sort order of the command table:
By command name.
By shortcut key (grouped) — If multiple hotkeys are assigned, they will be listed separated by semicolon ";".
By shortcut key (one per row).
Commands — list of available internal commands in Double Commander. The list is shown as a table with three columns:
Command (name of internal command).
Hotkeys (assigned shortcuts).
Description (a short description).
The table at the bottom of the window shows assigned keyboard shortcuts, parameters, and interface elements (see below) for the selected command.
Add hotkey — will open a window for adding hotkeys.
Edit hotkey — will open the same window, but with the hotkey and other options already set.
Delete hotkey — will delete the hotkey selected in the list.
A window for adding hotkeys:
Shortcuts — new shortcut displays here. Click in the box and press combination on keyboard to enter new hot key. If the new combination is already being used for another command, Double Commander will show a warning.
Parameters (each in a separate line): — allows to set some parameters for the command. Most parameters must be added as parameter=value (unless otherwise stated), without quotes and each in a separate line.
Only for these controls — The hotkey will only work if the selected interface element(s) has focus: command line, files or quick search panel.
The following buttons are located on the right side of the window:
The F1 button will show a menu with a list of free availabl keyboard shortcuts, grouped by alphabet and modifiers.
The "+" button will add another field for the keyboard shortcut (up to five).
The "-" button will delete last shortcut from list.
You can set multiple hotkeys for an internal command in two ways: use the Add hotkey and "+" buttons or the Add hotkey button several times. The second way allows to use the selected command with different parameters.
Selection by mouse, Mode — ability to select and unselect files and folders with the mouse. Mode is set for Left button or Right button.
By clicking on icon — allows to select files with one mouse click on the icon.
Scrolling — ability to use mouse wheel to list files at panels.
Line by line with cursor movement — cursor will move up or down the panel before scrolling takes place.
Line by line — the cursor remains on the file and scrolling takes place immediately. Also you can specify the number of lines.
Page by page — the same as previous, but scrolling is by pages rather than by lines (much faster scrolling).
Open with — will determine what will launch the action when you are using the mouse button on an element from the displayed file list in a panel:
A double click is necessary to launch the action (default).
A single click opens files and folders.
A single click only opens folders. For files, a double click is needed.
The text cursor no longer follows the mouse cursor — is used for the last two values. If single click is enabled, by default the text cursor will follow the mouse cursor: this helps to avoid accidentally opening files or folders. You can disable it if you don't need it (or don't like it).
Show confirmation dialog after drop — helps to avoid accidental errors when using drag and drop files inside the active file panel or between panels: Double Commander will show a confirmation dialog as for normal copying or moving (if the Shift key was held) files.
The next feature is available in Windows only: you can drag and drop text selected in a web browser or word processor (for example, LibreOffice Writer or Microsoft Word) to the panel and save it. Here you can choose file format (RTF, HTML or plain text file), encoding and enable automatic name generation.
In this section, you can set various file sorting options and date/time and size formats.
Sort method — sets the sorting method in the file panels:
Alphabetical, considering accents — This method will sort alphabetically, taking into account the peculiarities of the system language and regional settings: also additional characters will be taken into account (for example, umlaut and other diacritical characters in Germanic languages or the letter "ё" in Russian).
Alphabetical with special characters sort — Like the previous method, but additionally the list will be sorted by special characters and punctuation marks before letters.
Natural sorting: alphabetical and numbers — This method will sort digits as numbers: for example, "3" will be show before "20" because 20 is larger than 3.
Natural with special characters sort — Like the previous method, but also with sorting by special characters and punctuation marks.
Case sensitivity — complements the selected method:
not case sensitive;
according to locale settings (aAbBcC);
first upper then lower case (ABCabc).
Sorting directories — sets the position of directories in the file list:
sort by name and show first;
sort like files and show first;
sort like files.
Insert new files — sets the position of the new file in the list:
at the top of the file list;
after directories (if directories are sorted before files);
at sorted position;
at the bottom of the file list.
Move updated files — sets the position if the file property currently used for sorting was changed (modification date, size, etc.):
don't change position;
use the same setting as for new files;
to sorted position.
The first parameter in the Formatting group is Date and time format. You can choose one of the existing templates from the drop down list or set your own using date and time formatting characters.
Formatting characters are presented below (based on Free Pascal documentation). Some values depends on your regional settings!
As example we will use 2021.01.24 09:06:02 (i.e. yyyy.mm.dd hh:mm:ss) and the USA region.
| Possible characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Description | Example |
c | short date format and long time format if the time is not zero | 1/24/2021 9:06:02 |
f | same as c, but adds the time even if it is zero | 1/24/2021 9:06:02 |
d | day of month | 24 |
dd | day of month (leading zero) | 24 |
ddd | day of week (abbreviation) | Sun |
dddd | day of week (full) | Sunday |
ddddd | short date format | 1/24/2021 |
dddddd | long date format | Sunday, January 24, 2021 |
m | month or minutes if preceded by h or hh specifiers | 1 |
mm | month or minutes if preceded by h or hh specifiers, with leading zero | 01 |
mmm | month (abbreviation) | Jun |
mmmm | month (full) | January |
yy | year (two digits) | 21 |
yyyy | year (with century) | 2021 |
h | hour | 9 |
hh | hour (leading zero) | 09 |
n | minute | 6 |
nn | minute (leading zero) | 06 |
s | second | 2 |
ss | second (leading zero) | 02 |
t | short time format | 9:06 |
tt | long time format | 9:06:02 |
am/pm | use 12 hour clock and display am and pm accordingly (also AM/PM, a/m or A/M); for example, t AM/PM | 9:06 am |
/ | insert date separator | / |
: | insert time separator | : |
"text" | literal text; for example, yyyy "AD" | 2021 AD |
The next parameters sets the file size format:
File size format — will be used in the file panels.
Header format — will be used in the drives list and free space label.
Footer format — will be used in the status bar of the file panels.
Operation size format — will be used in the file operations dialogs: copying, moving, calculating checksums and so on.
Also on the right you can set the number of digits after the decimal separator (i.e. separator for integer and fractional parts of a number): 0, 1, 2 or 3.
File size units: bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes or float (Double Commander will choose the unit automatically based on the size).
"Personalized" in the name means that Double Commander will use Personalized abbreviations from the list below. The Default button will reset their to the default values for the selected language (specified in the corresponding language file).
2.8.1. Files views > Files views extra
Marking/Unmarking entries:
Windows style filter when marking files ("*.*" also select files without extension, etc.).
Default attribute mask value to use — will be used for the following commands:
Select All (cm_MarkMarkAll),
Unselect All (cm_MarkUnmarkAll),
Invert Selection (cm_MarkInvert),
Select a Group (cm_MarkPlus)
and Unselect a Group (cm_MarkMinus).
For example, if you want these commands to work only with files, specify d-.
The Add button will open the file attributes selection window, you can use it or enter them manually. For more information about file attributes and their use, see here.
Use an independent attribute filter in mask input dialog each time — If enabled, the attribute filter will be added to the Select a Group (cm_MarkPlus) and Unselect a Group (cm_MarkMinus) command dialogs.
When selecting files with <SPACEBAR>, move down to next file (as with <INSERT>) — moves the cursor down on selection with SPACEBAR. Default keys are Shift+Down or Shift+Up.
Show square brackets around directories — helps to visually distinguish directories from files when icons are disabled. Also you can use any symbols instead them, see description of <FolderPrefix> and <FolderPostfix> parameters here.
Show system and hidden files — If enabled, Double Commander will show files and folders which have the "hidden" or "system" attribute (Windows) or the name with a dot character in the beginning (Linux and other Unix-like systems). This can also can be changed from the main menu.
The parameters Load file list in separate thread and Load icons after file list are designed to speed up the display of the list of files in the panel, i.e.the application window will hang less when opening large directories.
Don't load file list until a tab is activated — When launched, Double Commander will not load the list of files of inactive tabs that were opened in the previous session.
Highlight new and updated files — If enabled, the names of files that are currently being created or modified will flash.
Enable inplace renaming when clicking twice on a name — is an additional ability to rename the file using the left mouse click (it does not depend on the the chosen key for selection with the mouse), as in Windows Explorer. The A double click is necessary to launch the action option must be selected in the mouse settings section.
Enable changing to parent folder when double-clicking on empty part of file view — is an additional feature to simplify directory navigation. But not applicable if you are using a columns set and the list of files in the current directory does not fit in the panel (i.e. you see a vertical scroll bar).
There are only two parameters here.
Show file extensions: directly after filename or aligned (with Tab). In the second case, file extensions will be shown separately, aligned to the right side of the columns.
Columns size: Double Commander will set the size automatically (the size will depend on the length of the filenames) or you can set the width of the columns or their count.
First group is Show grid:
Vertical lines — enables vertical grid lines in the panels.
Horizontal lines — enables horizontal grid lines in the panels.
The screenshots below illustrate this subtle grid effect. The screenshot on the left has the vertical and horizontal lines enabled and the screenshot on the right does not.
Auto fill columns — If enabled, when resizing the window (or if free space exists), Double Commander will resize the column, which selected in the next option Auto size column: (first or last).
If the content of the column is larger than its width:
Cut text to column width — Sometimes column text can overlap into other columns. This option truncates any extra text at the column boundary.
Extend cell width if text is not fitting into column — If the text does not fit and the adjacent cell is empty, then the text will also occupy the adjacent cell.
2.8.3.1. Files views > Columns > Custom columns
In this section you can customize the panel appearance, columns, colors, fonts, etc. Double Commander is very configurable in this way.
There is a preview area at the bottom of the window, so you can see all the changes at once. You may move cursor and select files to get immediately an actual look and feel of the various settings.
File system — allows to switch to columns settings for WFX plugins (if installed plugins support it).
Columns view — a list of existing column styles. There is one default style Default.
Save — saves changes in the selected set of columns.
Save as — allows to save the selected column set (as is or with changes) with a new name.
New — creates a new column set based on the selected one. With the same name + current date and time.
Rename — will prompt to enter a new name.
Delete — deletes selected columns set.
Below is a table with columns of the selected set, here you can set the number, name, content, place and size of columns. The count of lines in the table is equal to the count of columns in the set. Adding a new column: right-click in the empty area near the table and select Add column.
These are the parameters that determine the table for the column (click in the boxes to edit them):
Column — shows the indicator of the selected column.
Caption — specifies the name of the column which will be displayed in the tabstop headers bar. You can set any name you like.
Width — column width (pixels) which will be set on program start. Note: the width depends on the column content, e.g. the file extension column will have a small width.
Align — sets the alignment of the content of the column. Variants are:
"<-" — align left;
"->" — align right;
"=" — align middle.
Field contents — sets the basic content of the column. You can select internal fields of Double Commander (submenu "DC") or fields of installed WDX plugins (submenu "Plugins"). List of internal fields:
GETFILENAME — file name and extension (text.txt).
GETFILENAMENOEXT — file name and no extension (text).
GETFILEEXT — file extension (from the dot to the end, e.g. txt).
GETFILESIZE — file or directory size. By default, the appearance will depend on the option chosen in the Files views section, but all possible size formats are also available.
GETFILETIME — file or directory modification date. The appearance will depend on the option chosen in the Files views section.
GETFILECREATIONTIME — file or directory creation date (does not work in Linux/BSD, POSIX limitation).
GETFILELASTACCESSTIME — file or directory last access date.
GETFILECHANGETIME — file or directory status change date.
GETFILEATTR — file or directory attributes. In Linux it is possible to choose a numeric (octal) value.
GETFILEPATH — path to the current item. Uses: usually, for search results.
GETFILEGROUP — displays the group of the file.
GETFILEOWNER — displays the owner of the file.
GETFILELINKTO — displays the path and file, that is, what is linked with this symlink.
GETFILETYPE — file type (as in Windows Explorer or MIME-type).
GETFILECOMMENT — file or directory description (comment) from descript.ion.
GETFILECOMPRESSEDSIZE — compressed file size (real size if using NTFS compression).
Move — allows to move lines (which equates to reordering the columns). Click twice in the Move box and you will see a type of spinner appear, clicking on the upper part moves the line up (column moves left).
Delete — allows to remove any line. To delete: click in the Delete box of the line. Then click again, this time a delete symbol appears. If you click a third time the line will be deleted from the table.
Next, you can change the appearance of the file panels.
Go to set default — opens the section Colors > File panels.
Use custom font and color for this view — allows to change the appearance of file panels only for this set of columns (and separately for each column, if needed). You can override the font for the file panels and the global settings from Colors > File panels:
Note: Cursor border and Use Frame Cursor can be applied only for the whole set.
Previous, Next — switches columns.
Customize column — shows the name of the custom column.
>> — button for choosing any color from the palette.
R — restores default value.
All — applies the modification to all the other columns.
Plugins are extensions that enhance the functionality of Double Commander. There are several types of plugins:
1. Packer plugins (WCX)
Packer plugins are used to unpack specific types of files, usually archive formats. Some plugins also support creating new archives and modifying existing archives.
There are plugins that allow to save a list of selected files or use batch processing: creating links,converting files, copying with specific conditions, etc.
2. Content plugins (WDX)
Content plugins are designed to get properties of a file or information about its content (for example, EXIF or ID3 tags). You can use this data in the file search or multi-rename tool, column set, tooltips.
Also Double Commander supports content plugins written in the Lua language (scripts are added in the same way as ordinary plugins). Examples can be found in the program folder (plugins/wdx/scripts).
3. File system plugins (WFX)
File system plugins uses their own file systems or provides access to other file systems and devices (local or remote). For example, FTP servers, Samba,mobile devises. Also it can be lists of files, running processes and services, or the Windows registry.
4. Lister plugins (WLX)
The built-in viewer displays plain text files, some image formats and console commands output, plugins allow to expand this list: electronic documents and databases, audio and video files, font files, content of archives, detailed information about some files, source code files with syntax highlighting.
Order matters: when choosing an appropriate plugin, Double Commander starts checking from top to bottom.
5. Search plugin (DSX)
Search plugins are Double Commander's own plugin type, these plugins use console programs to find files (for example, Locate, Everything or Recoll). The DSX plugins interface allows to send them search parameter values from the "Standard" and "Advanced" tabs.
Buttons:
Add — opens the file selection dialog. Alternatively, you can use the internal cm_AddPlugin command.
Disable — allows to temporarily disable the selected plugin.
Remove — removes the selected plugin from the list (but not plugin file!).
Tweak — the action depends on the type of plugin:
- WCX: change plugin path, set file extensions and supported functions;
- WDX and WLX: change plugin path, display name or detect string;
- WFX: change plugin path or display name.
Configure — opens the plugin's own settings window (if selected plugin supports this feature).
You can change the layout of the main window here. I suppose, all the available options are explained on the screenshot above (Layout). The screenshot below illustrates what DC looks like with all the layout options unselected.
2.10.1. Layout > Drives list button
In this section you can choose which additional information Double Commander will show in the drives list menu: drive label, file system and free space.
2.10.2. Layout > Tree View Menu
In this section you can enable the Tree View Menu and choose where it will be used.
The Tree View Menu is a way to display some of the Double Commander menus as a tree in a separate window: Directory Hotlist, Favorite Tabs, directory and command line history. This way of presenting content and a filter will help you quickly select the desired menu item.
Using the parameters of the corresponding internal commands, you can set the position of the Tree View Menu:
menu will be shown from the top left corner of active panel;
menu will be shown at the current mouse cursor position.
Parameters can be specified in the hotkey settings or add a button on the toolbar.
Also Double Commander can display main menu and toolbar as a tree (always in the center of its window), see the description of commands cm_ShowMainMenu and cm_ShowButtonMenu.
2.10.3. Layout > Tree View Menu Colors
Here you can customize the appearance of the menu to your preference, a preview will show all changes before saving.
2.11. Toolbar and Toolbar > Toolbar Middle
See the dedicated Toolbar help page about how to use and configure it.
2.11.2. Toolbar > Toolbar Extra
In this section you can choose how the path will be set when adding icons, commands and starting paths:
With complete absolute path.
Path relative to %COMMANDER_PATH%.
Relative to the specified path.
Also you can apply the chosen way to the already added paths.
This section contains settings related to file manipulation.
Show operations progress initially in — sets the initial display way and position of the file operations progress:
separate window;
minimized separate window;
operations panel: the special panel above the function key buttons bar will be used
(you can switch to display progress in a separate window by clicking on it with the mouse).
Drop readonly flag — If enabled, Double Commander will drop this flag in Windows, and add "w" attribute in Linux. This is handy if copying files from CD/DVD media where the files would retain the read-only attribute by default.
Select file name without extension when renaming — If enabled, renaming with the F2 key will select all characters in the file name up to the last dot, otherwise the entire file name will be selected.
Show tab select panel in copy/move dialog — If the target panel has more than one tab, on copy/move you can choose the destination tab:
Delete to recycle bin (Shift key reverses this setting) — If enabled, Double Commander will delete the selected files or the file under the cursor to trash (recycle bin) when you press F8 or Del and will delete permanently when you use Shift+F8 or Shift+Del. If unchecked, F8 or Del will delete them permanently.
Show confirmation window for — allows to choose the file operations for which Double Commander will show confirmation dialogs. The maximum secure behavior is chosen by default.
The following parameters are directly related to the execution of operations.
The Buffer size for file operations (in KB) and Buffer size for hash calculation (in KB) parameters set the size of the allocated memory for operations such as copying or moving files and calculating checksums. You should keep in mind that there is no universal value, but you can try to find a more suitable size.
Number of wipe passes — Here you can specify the number of rewrites to secure delete files.
Process comments with files/folders — If enabled and you have a file/folder with a comment (descript.ion) attached and you copy or move it to another folder the comment will be copied or moved to the destination along with the file/folder.
Skip file operations errors and write them to log window — If a file operation error should occur the error message will appear in the log window below the panels rather than appearing in a popup dialog. This can be useful because the error window will suspend the operation.
Duplicated name auto-rename style — sets the file auto-renaming template if a file with the same name already exists in the target directory (i.e. when you choose Auto-rename source files or Auto-rename target files in the copy/move dialog): "Copy (x) filename.ext", "filename (x).ext" or "filename(x).ext", where "x" is a counter (2, 3, 4 and so on).
2.12.1. File operations > File search
See description on the Find files help page.
2.12.2. File operations > Multi-Rename
See description on the Multi-Rename Tool help page.
Show tab header also when there is only one tab — If this option is disabled and there is only one tab on the panel, a tab header won't appear (usually this is more visually attractive).
Tabs on multiple lines (Windows only) — If the folder tabs do not fit in one line, then they will be placed in several lines. Otherwise, buttons to scroll them will be shown on the right (GTK2: on the right and left).
Limit tab title length to — Tabs with long names will be limited to this length and the displayed name will be truncated if longer than this value.
Confirm close locked tabs — If enabled then it will prompt for confirmation that you wish to close locked tab. Otherwise, such a tab will be closed as usual tab.
Confirm close all tabs — If selected and a Close All Tabs command is executed this option will prompt for confirmation that you wish to remove all inactive tabs.
Close duplicate tabs when closing application — If enabled, Double Commander will check the list of opened tabs and close duplicate tabs (separately for each panel!), only the first of them will be saved (counting from the left).
Ctrl+Up opens new tab in foreground — this option changes the behavior of the command Open folder in new tab (cm_OpenDirInNewTab): if enabled then Double Commander will open a new tab for the directory under the cursor and will switches to this tab.
Open new tabs near current tab — If enabled, new tab will be created on the right next to the currently active tab. If not, new tabs will be added to the right after the last tab.
Reuse existing tab when possible — For locked tab with directory change in new tab: if the selected folder is already open on any tab, then this tab will be activated instead of creating a new tab.
Show tab close button (Unix-like systems only) — If selected, a small "x" button will appear on tabs allowing to click on it to close them.
Show locked tabs with an asterisk * — to distinguish between locked and unlocked tabs. Locked tabs will be marked by "*". Tab Downloads is locked:
Keep renamed name when unlocking a tab — When we change the state of a tab from "locked tab" on "normal tab", Double Commander returns the usual tab name (current folder name): this option allows to keep the changed name.
Activate target panel when clicking on one of its Tabs — If enabled, when you click the mouse on a tab on the other panel, the focus will automatically be transferred to it (it will become the active panel). Also the cursor position will be retained when switching between panels this way.
Always show drive letter in tab title (Windows only) — Show drive letter and a colon before the folder name, e.g. "c:plugins".
Tabs position — Place folder tabs at the top or bottom of file panels.
Action to do when double click on a tab: — You can choose one of the following actions:
do nothing;
close this tab;
access Favorite Tabs (save current tabs, load saved set or configure);
show the tabs popup menu with the same items as in the "Tabs" menu.
2.13.1. Folder tabs > Favorite Tabs
Favorite Tabs are saved sets of tabs that grouped according to criteria convenient for you (work, projects, hobbies, and so on), they allow to open all the necessary directories in tabs at once.
The list of saved tab sets is available in the "Favorites" menu and in the popup menu called by the cm_LoadFavoriteTabs command.
In this section you can manage them: change order, names, delete unnecessary, sort or group in a submenu.
Also you can export entries to the selected directory and import them. Each entries will be saved to a separate .tab file (if it necessary, tabs from such a file can be loaded using the cm_LoadTabs command).
Some typical actions are added in the context menu of entries.
2.13.2. Folder tabs > Folder tabs extra
This section contains additional settings for Favorite Tabs.
Enable Favorite Tabs extra options (select target side when restore, etc.) — By default, saved tabs will be restored in the same panel and they will replace all opened tabs, you can change it with:
Tabs saved on left will be restored to:
Tabs saved on right will be restored to:
When restoring tab, existing tabs to keep: — i.e. the Favorite Tabs will be added to the already open tabs.
The following values are available for each parameter: Left, Right, Active, Inactive, Both or None.
Keep saving dir history with Favorite Tabs — enables or disables saving the history of each tab.
Also you can apply these parameters separately for each tabs set.
Default position in menu when saving a new Favorite Tabs — determines the order of adding a new set:
Add at beginning
Add at the end.
Alphabetical order.
You can specify an additional action after saving a new or resaving the current set:
Goto to Favorite Tabs Configuration after saving a new one.
Goto to Favorite Tabs Configuration after resaving.
Here you can choose the filename to log Double Commander's operations (copying or moving files, creating directories, launching external applications and so on). Also you can choose which operations will be logged.
If Include date in log filename is enabled, Double Commander will create a separate file for each day. In this case, you can set the number of log files: older files will be deleted automatically.
Location of configuration files — Here you can choose where to store all configuration files (also you can see the full path here):
Program directory (portable version).
User home directory.
If you launch Double Commander with the --config-dir parameter, then DC will just write Set on command line and show the full path to the configuration files.
Buttons Edit and Apply — allow to open the doublecmd.xml configuration file and change the settings manually. Keep in mind that some settings require a restart of Double Commander to apply.
Note (or little trick): This way allows to apply settings immediately without restarting the DC (but not all!): for example, you can change and immediately apply the size of the icons in the file panels, but you will not be able to change the program language without restarting.
Save on exit — Here you can choose what Double Commander will save on exit. Checkbox Save configuration enables or disables saving:
Main window state — Size and position of the application window.
Folder tabs — List of tabs that are open in the left and right panels.
And history: list of all visited directories, commands that were used at the command line, file masks and history of search and replacement of text.
You can choose how the list of settings sections will look:
Sort order of configuration order in left tree — You can choose classic (as in the source code of Double Commander and help) or alphabetical. In both cases, the Language section will be the first.
Tree state when entering in configuration page — expand the whole tree or collapse.
Directories — Here you can see a list of directories that Double Commander can use to store thumbnail cache, icon themes and syntax highlighting files for the internal editor. You cannot change them, it's just information.
Quick search is used in searching for filenames in the panel, quick filter will hide all filenames that do not match the conditions.
You can set the way of call the quick search/filter bar in the Keys section, or use the cm_QuickSearch and cm_QuickFilter commands.
Exact name match:
Beginning (name must start with first typed character) — means that the typed text will match the "text*" mask, where "*" is any number of any characters.
Ending (last character before a typed dot . must match) — If there is a dot among the typed characters, the name must end with those characters. For example, if you typed "dx.l", the file mask will be "* wx.l *".
If nothing is checked, the typed characters can be located in any part of the file name.
I like to have the Beginning (name must start with first typed character) selected and then I can just type the first character of the filename I'm looking for and then the second character, etc. The file is quickly located in this manner.
Below you can set the case sensitivity and choose what you want to search: only files or directories, or both.
These options can be changed on the fly directly in the quick search/filter bar. Also you can toggle between search and filter.
Options:
Hide filter panel when not focused — The quick search/filter panel will hide automatically as soon as you move the focus to the file panel.
Keep saving setting modifications for next session — All parameters that have been changed in the panel will be saved for the next quick search/filter call.
This section contains parameters for which there was no suitable place in other sections of the settings:
Show warning messages ("OK" button only) — shows warning messages if enabled. (For example, if Double Commander cannot set some property or attribute of a file due to file system restrictions in the target directory.)
Always go to the root of a drive when changing drives — If unchecked, Double Commander will go to the last open directory on this drive (in this case, you can go to the root directory of the drive by pressing its button twice).
Show current directory in the main window title bar — If enabled, Double Commander will display the name of the current folder and the active panel path in the main window title bar.
Thumbnails — Here you can enable to save cache of thumbnails of images and set their size. The Remove thumbnails for no longer existing files button will help to remove obsolete thumbnails.
File comments (descript.ion) — Here you can set the default encoding for existing file comments (OEM, ANSI or UTF-8) and the encoding for new files (UTF-8 BOM, UTF-16 LE or UTF-16 BE).
The next group of parameters is used for import from Total Commander and export Directory Hotlist and toolbar: TC executable, Configuration file and Toolbar output path
Allows Double Commander to refresh panels automatically, same as the Ctrl+R manual refresh command does.
Refresh file list — specifies what events Double Commander should react to and update the list of files and status bar:
When files are created, deleted or renamed.
When size, date or attributes change.
Also you can disable auto-refresh:
When Double Commander window is in the background or minimized.
For the specified paths and their subdirectories, just list them separated by semicolons ";" without spaces (e.g. /home;/media/cdrom).
The first option enables the display of the file type icons to the left of the name:
All associated + EXE/LNK (slow) — Same as All, but additionally extracts icons from .exe files and shortcuts.
All — Icons for all file types associated with any program will be displayed (from system settings and Double Commander file associations). Also DC will show the folder icon specified in the desktop.ini (Windows) and .directory (Linux) files.
Only standard icons — The icons for the file types listed in the pixmaps.txt file will be displayed. New file extensions are added similarly to existing ones (typically, in Unix-like systems, the system theme contains icons for common MIME types, but on Windows you should add the selected icon to the pixmaps/dctheme/XXxXX/mimetypes/ directories, the best way is to add icons to your DC theme, see item 3.6 in the FAQ).
No icons.
Show overlay icons, e.g. for links — If enabled, Double Commander will show overlay icons such as arrows for .lnk files and links.
Dimmed hidden files (slower) — If enabled, Double Commander will show icons for hidden files with 50% transparency.
Disable special icons — You can disable the loading of special icons (overlay icons, icons from .exe/.lnk files) for the specified directories and their subdirectories, just list them separated by semicolons ";" without spaces.
Icon size — You can choose from the following sizes:
File panel — 16x16, 24x24, 32x32 or 48x48.
Disk panel — 16x16, 24x24 or 32x32.
Main menu — 16x16, 24x24 or 32x32.
Show icons on buttons — If enabled, Double Commander will show icons on the buttons of the dialog windows (OK, Cancel, Start, Add To Queue and so on).
Show icons for actions in menus — If enabled, Double Commander will show icons in the main menu.
In the last parameter, Icon theme, you can choose an icon set from the drop down menu. Double Commander does comes with one DCTheme icon theme, but you can create and add your own, see item 3.6 in the FAQ.
Note: In Unix-like systems, Double Commander will primarily use the system icon theme, if some icons does not exist, it will use its own.
Ignore specific files and folders (one per line): they will not be displayed in panels.
You can use full path to file or filename.
Supports the wildcards * and ?.
When a mask is ended with a directory separator, it will match only directories.
Save in: — the ignore list location (by default it's ignorelist.txt near doublecmd.xml).
Add selected names with full path — will add all files/folders which selected in the active panel (if exists) or file under cursor with full path.
Add selected names — will add names of all files/folders which selected in the active panel (if exists) or file under cursor. This means that they will be hidden everywhere.
Note: These two buttons will not add a directory separator to the end of the folder names.
You can use the internal command cm_SwitchIgnoreList to turn this option on and off, add a button on toolbar or hotkey.
Please see the dedicated External archivers help page about how to use and configure it.
This section contains the settings for tooltips when the mouse cursor is hovering over a file.
Show tooltip for files in the file panel — enables the ability to use tooltips.
File types — contains a list of file groups.
Buttons:
Apply — will save the settings for the selected file type.
Add — will add a new file type and ask for a name, you may write a description of the file, what it does or what program it opens.
Copy — will copy the selected file type with a new name.
Rename — will prompt to enter a new name for the selected file type.
Delete — will delete the selected file type.
The Other... button is a menu:
Discard Modifications — will reset all unsaved changes in the selected file type.
Sort Tooltip File Types — will sort the file types alphabetically (first upper then lower case).
Export... and Import... — allow to export tooltips to a DC Tooltip file and import them from such files (in whole or in parts).
Below you can configure the content of the tooltip for the selected file type.
In line Category mask put a wildcard mask to match file types (symbol "*" means match any number of characters, symbol "?" means any one character). You may put multiple file types here using a semicolon ";" without spaces. Also you can use search templates, including search with content plugins.
In the Category hint field, you can enter any text and use the WDX plugins fields to get information (the ">>" button).
The remaining parameters are general tooltip parameters.
Tooltip showing mode — determines what type of tooltips Double Commander will show and how to combine them, if both types:
Combine DC and system tooltip, DC first (legacy).
Combine DC and system tooltip, system first.
Show DC tooltip when possible and system when not.
Show DC tooltip only.
Show system tooltip only.
Tooltip hiding delay — sets the duration of displaying the tooltip: system default, 1 sec, 2 sec, 3 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 30 sec, 1 min and never hide (the tooltip will be hidden when you move the mouse cursor to another file or outside the file panel).
In the screenshot at the beginning of the section description, you can see an example of a tooltip with the textline.wdx plugin that shows the contents of the selected lines of a text file (in this case, the first, second and third lines), the Combine DC and system tooltip, system first mode is selected.
2.23. File associations (internal command cm_FileAssoc)
This item opens the configuration file associations. All association sets are contained in the file extassoc.xml. An association sets example, called doublecmd.ext.example, is in the program directory.
Here you can customize file associations and set commands or scripts for some file types. Commands will be displayed in the context menu (internal command cm_ContextMenu) by right mouse clicking on a file in the panel.
File types — contains a list of extensions. Each group can contain many file extensions, and such a group can be associated with various programs.
Add — adds a new group. You must enter a group name.
Remove — deletes a group.
Rename — allows to set a new name for the group.
Icon — you can set the path to an icon for this group. Also you can use MIME-type icons: for example, if you want to use text-x-pascal.png from Double Commander icons theme (or from system theme in Linux and other Unix-like systems), just insert text-x-pascal.
Extensions — here you can set the extensions (without dot) for the selected group. Special values:
file — any file;
folder — any directory;
default — used when extension specific association does not exists.
Insert — adds an extension above the selected one in the list.
Add — adds an extension to the end of the list.
Remove — deletes an extension from the group.
Actions — here you can set commands for the group.
Insert — adds an action above the selected one in the list.
Add — adds an action to the end of the list.
Remove — deletes an action from the list.
Up, Down — moves the action. The actions (if more than one) can be reordered.
Action name: — sets type of action. Variants:
From popup menu
Open — action will be run after pressing Enter or double click.
View — action will be run after pressing F3.
Edit — action will be run after pressing F4.
Other actions displayed in the file context menu (submenu "Actions").
Command — any command from Desktop Environment, where you can set macro commands (right button). Macros are case sensitive!
{!DC-EDITOR} — call internal editor;
{!DC-VIEWER} — call internal viewer;
{!EDITOR} — call editor (internal or external, depends on the configuration);
{!VIEWER} — call viewer (internal or external, depends on the configuration);
{!SHELL} — use a terminal to run the program.
Parameters — command parameters including variables:
any variable from "percent" variables.
<?command?> — runs "command" in the system shell and feeds the output to the command above.
Start path — command start directory.
All available actions will be displayed in the "Actions" submenu in the context menu:
2.23.1. File associations > File associations extra
Offer to add selection to file association when not included already — When accessing file association, offer to add current selected file if not already included in a configured file type. This is a quick way to add an "Open with" action: Double Commander will prompt you to specify a type name and an executable file, everything else will be done automatically.
Extended context menu — allows to add some items to the "Actions" submenu:
Execute via shell.
Execute via terminal and close.
Execute via terminal and stay open.
File association configuration.
Below you can choose how the path will be set when adding icons, commands and starting paths:
With complete absolute path.
Path relative to %COMMANDER_PATH%.
Relative to the specified path.
Also you can apply the chosen way to the already added paths.
Please see the dedicated Directory Hotlist help page about how to use and configure it.
2.24.1. Directory Hotlist > Directory Hotlist Extra
In this section you can choose how the path will be set the path and target path:
With complete absolute path.
Path relative to %COMMANDER_PATH%.
Relative to the specified path.
Also you can apply the chosen way to the already added paths.
Created by Rustem (dok_rust@bk.ru)
English version by Rod J (rodmac_shiels@hotmail.com)
Main settings of Double Commander are saved/restored to/from an XML file named doublecmd.xml.
The location of this doublecmd.xml file may be in different places:
We follow this link if we want to specify it by with the command line paramter --config-dir.
Other than that, we do Configuration > Options... > select in the tree 
> set the option Location of configuration files.
Another way to quickly find out where is located the doublecmd.xml the current instance of Double Commander is using is by accessing the Directory Hotlist. At the end of it there is a sub section called "Special Dirs". Then we select "Go to Double Commander special path" and then "%DC_CONFIG_PATH%". We will find there the doublecmd.xml that application is currently using.
The large majority of possible settings in Double Commander may be set via the application itself through the various option categories.
We simply click from the main menu bar Configuration > Options and the various settings we'll configured there will be saved to the doublecmd.xml file when we close the application. Then, they will be restored on the next usage of the application.
So generally, we don't have to manually edit the content of the configuration file.
But there are some very rare specific settings that required to be edited manually from the configuration file if we want to tweak the application.
WARNING: We will not edit that file WHILE Double Commander is running! Not only because anyway their values are read only when we're starting the application, but also because if we edited the file while DC is running, when we'll close the application the values we would have wrote will be overwritten by the application re-saving its current context for next session. If we need to edit the doublecmd.xml file, we need to make sure we close Double Commander, then we edit file, and then we re-launch the application.
The following table gives us these rare specific settings that we need to manually edit the file if we need to change them.
About color format: We can set color as hex number using format $BBGGRR (for example, if we want to use blue color, we would write $FF0000).
| Setting required to be changed manually if necessary | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tag | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||
<ActiveRight> from <Behaviours> |
The right panel will be active when Double Commander starts.
<ActiveRight>True</ActiveRight>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<Quality> from many tags <Fonts> |
Determine what type of font rasterization that will be used. In other words, it determine the font quality. There are many tags where it's applicable individually.
<Quality>1</Quality>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<gBorderFrameWidth> from <Colors> |
We may configure DC so it will draw a rectangle around the active entry as we we cycle through them in a panel. This <gBorderFrameWidth> setting allows us to configure the width of the lines used to draw a rectangle around the current active entry.To view that rectangle, we must go in Configuration > Options... > Colors > File panels and check the option Use frame cursor. Example: <gBorderFrameWidth>1</gBorderFrameWidth>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<Info>, <Error> and <Success> from <Colors><LogWindow> |
Change text color of log window (info, error, success messages). | ||||||||||||||||||||
<PathLabel> from <Colors> |
Change colors of current directory bar:
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<AutoSaveWidth> from <FilesViews><ColumnsView> |
When we manually change the column width with the mouse help, by default DC changes it for both panels and saves a new value for the next launches. If we want to disable this behavior and use new value only in the current session, we must replace True with False, i.e. use <AutoSaveWidth>False</AutoSaveWidth>.
|
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<ShowColonAfterDrive> from <Layout> |
Windows only: show colon after letters of disks in the drives button bar and in the drives list. False by default. |
||||||||||||||||||||
<UppercaseDriveLetter> from <Layout> |
Windows only: use uppercase letters in the drives button bar and in the drives list. False by default. |
||||||||||||||||||||
<TitleStyle> from <FilesViews><ColumnsView> |
Changes the look of tabstop headers bar. Default value depends on your OS.
<TitleStyle>2</TitleStyle>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<ExtraLineSpan> from <FilesViews> |
This setting allows to add some extra pixels to the height allowed for each element displayed in the file panels. The value is interpreted directly in pixels. Default value is 2. Example: <ExtraLineSpan>2</ExtraLineSpan>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<FolderPrefix> and <FolderPostfix> from <FilesViews> |
By default DC shows square brackets around directory names (it's optional parameter in Files views > Files views extra), but we can use any symbols instead them. Note: In XML some special symbols are reserved as part of markup and we can not use them as is. There are five predefined entities: < should write as <, > as >, & as &, ' as ' and " as ".
|
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<LongNameAlert> from <FileOperations> |
Warn if target path is longer than maximum length for a path (some programs will not be able to access a file/directory with such a long name). In Windows this value (MAX_PATH) is defined as 260 characters. True by default. |
||||||||||||||||||||
<NtfsHourTimeDelay> from <FileOperations> |
Ignore time difference of exactly one hour between entries when comparing their date and time. This takes place when using internal commands cm_CompareDirectories or cm_SyncDirs. It is useful when comparing items located on a NTFS partition to another one not on such partition. Since the time stamp of a file changes on a NTFS partition when daylight savings period occurs and not when the same exact file is from a FAT32, we want the two files to be consider identical even if we visibly see a one hour difference between the two.
<NtfsHourTimeDelay>True</NtfsHourTimeDelay>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<AutoExtractOpenMask> from <FileOperations> |
Suppose we've "entered" into a compressed file and browsing its content in the active panel. The files with the specified extension of this setting will be automatically unpacked from the archive when we press Enter or double-click on them instead of showing the properties window. Example: <AutoExtractOpenMask>*.txt;*.mp3;*.mp4</AutoExtractOpenMask>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<CopyXattributes> from <FileOperations><Options> |
Linux and other Unix-like systems: copy filesystem extended attributes (i.e. the named attributes) when copying/moving files or not. True by default. |
||||||||||||||||||||
<Mode> from <AutoRefresh> |
The ability to delete watched directories. A "watched directory" is a directory that Double Commander has a kind of hook on it so it can monitor any modification in it. This way, it can refresh the displayable content of it if it's content changed. This setting allows to control how Double Commander will react if we attempt to delete one of these "watched directory" currently displayed in a panel, even in a non-activated tab.
<Mode>1</Mode>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<CustomIcons> from <Icons> |
Windows only: this option will help to determine if the icons used for drives, folders or archives will be the default ones from the system or if it will be custom ones that we may set ourselves. The CustomIcons option will be set to a single number representing the sum of the numbers from the following table depending on what are our preferences:
If we want... ...everything from the system: 0 + 0 + 0= 0 so <CustomIcons>0</CustomIcons>...everything custom: 1 + 2 + 4 = 7 so <CustomIcons>7</CustomIcons>...drive custom, other system: 1 + 0 + 0 = 1 so <CustomIcons>1</CustomIcons>etc... If we wish to use custom icons, here is the location for each items:
|
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<DiskAlpha> from <Icons> |
Option to set the transparency level of unmounted drive icons.
|
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<ToolSize> from <Icons> |
Size of toolbar icons in the internal editor, viewer and differ tool, supported values: 16, 24 or 32. | ||||||||||||||||||||
<ImageExifRotate> from <Viewer> |
Double Commander is able to recognize the metadata from EXIF structure that might be encoded into a JPG image file. Inside that structure, there is an orientation flag that may be used to display the picture into the same orientation as it was taken like if was in portrait, landscape, upside-down, mirror, etc. The ImageExifRotate tag configures Double Commander to indicate if we want the viewer to display the image using that information or not.
<ImageExifRotate>True</ImageExifRotate>
|
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<MaxTextWidth> from <Viewer> |
For the internal viewer, configure the maximum number of characters to be displayed on one text line prior to wrap it up to the next one. The valid range goes from 80 to 16384 and default value is 1024. Example: <MaxTextWidth>1024</MaxTextWidth>
|
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<TabSpaces> from <Viewer> |
For the internal viewer, set the width of tab stops to use. The valid range goes from 1 to 32 and default value is 8. Example: <TabSpaces>4</TabSpaces>
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<Added>, <Deleted> and <Modified> from <Differ><Colors> |
For the internal Differ tool, set colors for added, deleted and modified lines. | ||||||||||||||||||||
<Modified> from <Differ><Colors><Binary> |
For the internal Differ tool, set the color for differing characters in binary mode. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Attribute Save from <SyncDirs><Asymmetric> |
Synchronize directories: save or not asymmetric mode by default. If we want to save state of mode then <Asymmetric Save="True">
or <Asymmetric Save="False"> otherwise (by default).
|
||||||||||||||||||||
<Left>, <Right> and <Unknown> from <SyncDirs><Colors> |
Text colors in the directory synchronization tool:
|
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<PathToLibrary> from <Lua> |
This is the path to indicate where is the Lua library. It will indicate the location of the required dll file lua5.1.dll when doing Lua Scripting. This path may be relative to the Double Commander executable file. Example: <PathToLibrary>..\..\Other\dll\lua5.1.dll</PathToLibrary>
|
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Introduction to Directory Hotlist
A Directory Hotlist is a usable list of the directories you use most often.
It creates nothing on the disk, it's simply a list of shortcuts, to quickly access the "hot" directories.
By using them to jump to a directory, you won't play the monkey jumping continuously from one branch to another in the tree.
Also, for the important directories you don't want to forget, it's good to have an area with shortcuts pointing to them.
Even if you don't go into them often, you'll save time when you need them, because you won't have to search for them.
From the main panel, you may see the Directory Hotlist as a popup menu.
Click on one of the entries and it will immediately bring you to the associated, defined directory.
You won't have to browse from folder to folder to reach that target.
The following are common actions related with the Hotlist
From the menu bar you select "Commands" and then "Directory Hotlist".
It appears like a popup menu where you click the item and it brings you to the directory defined by the entry you've set.
You may click the button with a star on it on top right of the active file panel.
You may also set a toolbar button associated with the internal command cm_DirHotList.
You may double click on the title bar of the active frame to make it popup, which is the one the author of these lines prefers.
From the menu bar you may select "Configuration" and then "Directory Hotlist".
The tree you see there will show the same thing as what you will see in your popup Directory Hotlist from the main panel.
But instead of seeing it on the form of a popup menu, you see it as a tree with many functions to edit, move, etc. as you can see in this help document.
At the bottom end of the Directory Hotlist popup menu, there is always a menu shortcut to bring you to the Directory Hotlist configuration screen.
You may add a tool button with internal command cm_ConfigDirHotList.
The simplest way is this:
Later, we'll see there are many more ways to add an entry to the Directory Hotlist.
By default, when adding a directory to the Directory Hotlist, the entry name will be the name of the last directory name.
But if you want, you can rename it. Simply select the field "Name" and then type an easy remembered reference name.
In this example, the folder name is "doc" but the name given to the entry is "Documentation"
This is also how you will see it in the Directory Hotlist popup menu.
Not only you can add the directory to switch to, but you may also select the "Target Directory", the one that will be in the inactive panel when in the main window.
So for common repetitive actions over time when you need to copy stuff from directory "A" to directory "B", from which ever folder you might be before, you will simply select it from the Directory Hotlist menu item and it will set both side to the defined directories, ready for the action.
To define the target directory to be when selecting the Directory Hotlist entry, simply set the field "Target".
The following example shows the "Directory A" with "Directory B" as target as suggested here.
At the end of the "Path" and "Target" fields for an entry, you have drop box.
Use this drop box when you want to predetermine what needs to be the sort order of the panel when selecting the Directory Hotlist entry.
So if you set it to "Date 9-0", when you will use the Directory Hotlist, it will not only move the active path to the one defined, but no matter how the panel was sorted before, it will sort it in reverse chronological order.
Let this field to "none" if you don't want selecting a new path from the Directory Hotlist change anything.
Certainly you may work with absolute path and it will work fine on THIS machine.
But let's suppose you have Double Commander with numerous other tools on your Swiss-knife USB memory stick.
You may want to have relative paths for portable installations.
I mean here relative to the Double Commander path, for example.
So you may have this path "E:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\Data\Config\" and it works fine.
But you may also make it relative to current "Double Commander" current path and have this "%commander_path%\..\..\Notepad++Portable\Data\Config\".
To help you to figure what to type (in other words how many "..\" to use!), on right side of the "path" and "target" field, you have a little button that brings up a popup menu with various related little tools to edit and arrange the path the way you wish.
But this is just one of the possible use of that button.
Here is a complete summary of what you'll find there:
In time, the Directory Hotlist may grow longer and un-ordered.
You may re-arrange the order simply by dragging-and-dropping the selected entry to a new position that makes more sense to you.
By using the Ctrl key on the keyboard, you may select and move more than one at the time as well.
If you have a very long list of directories, the drag-and-drop method might not be suitable because source and destination are too far apart.
If so, you may select the ones you want to move, then click the "Miscellaneous" button to invoke the popup menu and select "Cut selection of entries".
Then you scroll the list to see the target position you want to place the selected entries.
Then you click again the "Miscellaneous" button and select "Paste what was cut" to paste the entries you've first selected.
By using the Ctrl key, you may select more than one entry at the time to cut-and-paste.
If you're a fan of Directory Hotlist, like the author of these lines, having a one-dimensional list of Directory Hotlist will not be enough!
So, Double Commander to the rescue. You may create and organize sub-menus in your Directory Hotlist.
More than that, you may have submenus inside another submenus.
This means you may really configure yourself a well organize Directory Hotlist.
To add a submenu, simply place the selection where you wish to have the submenu, right-click and select "Add a submenu".
It will create a submenu named "Submenu name" with inside one entry name "Hotdir name".
Obviously, with the fields below you may give a significant name to the submenu.
From there, you may add new entry, move other entries inside that new submenu, etc.
Please note you may move or cut-and-paste a submenu, which make your life simpler when rearranging your Directory Hotlist.
Having many entries one after the other is nice but by adding some separators to create categories may bring order to your listing.
So to add a separator, simply place the cursor where you want the separator, right click and do "Add a separator".
In the configuration Directory Hotlist tree, it will show you a line with dots but once in the main panel with the Directory Hotlist popup, you'll see a nice menu separator.
As described above, with the drag-and-drop and the cut-and-paste, you can certainly re-arrange the Directory Hotlist entries the way you wish.
But if you agree to work with alphabetical name, you may use the included sort functions.
The idea of the sort is simple: place the current selection where you want to sort and then select the sort function you want by pressing the "Sort..." button that will bring up a popup menu.
The five available choices gives you all the latitude you may wish on this matter:
Like written earlier, any sort will not move an item to go over a separator.
Just to make sure you see the meaning of not crossing a separator when doing a sort, see the following example.
The "Root" folder will always remain above the other after the sort *because* there is a separator there.
The separators are really useful for this matter.
Not only it makes things more clear, it is useful as delimiter when doing sort!
Here follows less frequent actions related with Directory Hotlist but still useful to know.
As your Directory Hotlist grows in quantity of directory shortcuts, you may want to backup it "just in case" an accident happens to don't lose these valuable links.
To do that, on right of configuration screen you have a button named "Backup".
Press on it and in the menu select "Save a backup of the current Directory Hotlist".
It will then save the current list into a file into a "Backup" folder present into the Double Commander defined config directory.
The filename will include the current date and time.
Please also note the extension of the file which is ".hotlist".
Similar as above, you click on the same button named "Backup".
In the submenu select "Restore a backup of Directory Hotlist".
From the file requester that will appear, select the backup you want to restore.
When you restore a backup, it will first erase the current Directory Hotlist and then add the ones from the backup file.
If you just want to restore just certain entries from the backup file, you may do "Import" and point the backup file.
Double Commander will then prompt you to indicate which entries from the backup file you want to restore.
If you have more than a computer, or if you have a fellow accessing the same servers as you, you may want to be able to export your Directory Hotlist, or part of it, so on the other computer you'll have the same directory shortcuts without having to enter them one by one.
To do that, first click the button "Export" and then select "...to a Directory Hotlist file (.hotlist)".
It will then prompt you to enter the filename and file location of the export file you want to create.
Then you will be asked to select what you want to export.
You may export the whole tree or you may select the entries one by one.
You may select a whole submenu also by selecting the submenu name without having to select the entries inside.
Please use Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking to select the different entries you want to export.
Then, on the other computer, you will click the "Import" button and then select the menu item "from a Directory Hotlist file (.hotlist)".
From the file requester, point the file to import.
Similar as with the export, you may import the whole thing but you're also offered to select specific entries you want to import.
The entries you import will be added at the end of yours.
Double Commander may also export/import Directory Hotlist to/from the one of Total Commander.
Let's suppose you want to import some entries from Total Commander, here is what to do.
From the Directory Hotlist configuration screen, click the "Import..." button and select "...from "wincmd.ini" of TC".
Then select in the file requester the location of the "wincmd.ini" file of your Total Commander.
If you don't know where is that file, in Total Commander, click the "Help" menu and then click "About Total Commander...".
The location of the .INI file will be written there.
Then will appear a tree with the directory entries that has been read from the Total Commander .ini file.
From that tree you may import ALL the entries or you may select them one by one, as you wish.
Please use Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking to select the different entries you want to import.
The entries you import will be added at the end of yours.
Then, as a reverse operation, you may export all or part of your Double Commander Directory Hotlist to the Total Commander's one.
To do that, click the "Export..." button and select one of the two possible exportations to Total Commander.
If you know what you're doing and accept to replace the whole entries of Total Commander's Directory Hotlist, you may select "to a "wincmd.ini" of TC (erase existing)".
And again here, you may select if you want to export the whole thing or just select the ones you want to export.
Please use Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking to select the different entries you want to export.
Maybe you should have Total Commander closed when you do that and then re-open Total Commander after and see what've got.
Total Commander does not offer you easy ways to structure and sort easily your entries of the Directory Hotlist as Double Commander does.
So you may import your Total Commander's Directory Hotlist to Double Commander, then re-arrange it, sort it, structure it, etc. and then export it back to Total Commander!
*Note: Effort and tests has been made to make sure application will not corrupt the Total Commander configuration .INI file.
But certainly backuping it prior to export to it some entries would be a good practice and is encouraged.
Obviously you're doing this at your own risk!
...a risk to discover a nice program like Double Commander!
With time, it might happen you Directory Hotlist would have entries pointing to directory that would not exist anymore.
To find these entries, in the Directory Hotlist configuration screen, click the button labeled "Miscellaneous".
Then select "Scan all hotdir's path to validate the ones that actually exist".
This will allow make the application to scan the all the directories your shortcuts are pointing.
If one is missing, a missing icon will be shown on left of the entry.
Submenu branch with at least one missing entry will also shows a special icon showing an entry is missing.
So from there you may either erase the entries since their pointing directory that don't exist anymore or keep them.
Why keeping them? Simple. In a context where Double Commander would be used on a USB memory stick to a computer to another, it might be totally normal to have directories that won't exist on a computer that were existing on the previous one.
But if so, how does the "Scan all hotdir's path to validate the ones that actually exist" function will help you?
It's because by doing this, it will also remove these entries from the Directory Hotlist popup menu from the main panel.
These entries referring to non-existing folder won't be shown!
They won't be erased permanently from the Directory Hotlist internal list.
They will simply not be shown from the popup menu for the session.
See the result of the previous example.
When setuping your Directory Hotlist for a new situation, it might happen you would like to add many directories at once to the Directory Hotlist.
There are two ways you can do that.
First method: directly from the main frame with the selection
This is easy: you simply select the directories you want to add, you invoke the Directory Hotlist popup menu and you select at the end of it "Add x selected directories".
The directories will be added to the configured addition position.
If you're configured to add via the "smart" method, it's nice to see how well they are placed!
Second method: similar to first one but with the Directory Hotlist configuration window and main panel shown simultaneously
This is also easy: you first invoke the Directory Hotlist configuration window.
Then you place your selection where you want the new directories where you want them to be added.
You then press the "Add" or "Insert" button and click "Current selected or active directories of active frame".
You will see them added or inserted and ready to be sorted, renamed and arranged to your wishes.
That one is almost an hidden feature.
As presented in point 2.7 of this page, you might have configured the Directory Hotlist entry to also switch the directory of the inactive frame to switch to a specified target directory.
But sometimes, it might be desirable to don't have the target folder to switch but only the main active frame.
You may avoid this by this little trick: having the Ctrl key on the keyboard pressed when you click the shortcut in the Directory Hotlist popup menu.
If the Ctrl key is hold press at the moment you click the shortcut, only the active frame will switch, the target won't.
That one also is almost an hidden feature.
As you are in browsing in the Directory Hotlist popup menu, it happen you see a typo you wish to correct or something that is not organize the way you want.
Certainly you can then click lower to go in the configuration, search in the tree where it was, and then proceed to your correction.
But there is a little trick to do better, quicker and simpler.
While in the Directory Hotlist popup menu, have the Shift key on the keyboard pressed when you click the menu item where you wish to directly go in the configuration window to configure to your taste.
If the Shift key is hold press at the moment you click the shortcut, DC will bring you to the configuration screen with the selection ready to be edited to your wish.
You won't have to search for it in the list!
In the Directory Hotlist configuration screen there is a checkbox called "In popup, show[path also]".
This option, when checked, will instruct Double Commander to show directly in the popup entry the complete path where the shortcut is pointing.
So you'll see not only the hotdir name you gave, but it will show also the full path where it will jump if you click.
That one might be annoying since it adds a lot of text on screen and we might be tired to see this.
But in some circumstances, especially with the special dirs regarding the windows defined directories and also the environment variables pointing directories.
It's nice to have a direct overview to where each one is pointing.
In the "Special Dirs" section of the Directory Hotlist popup menu, you'll see you can have environment variables.
It's not necessary ALL the variables that are in fact a directory.
In the Directory Hotlist Configuration, you may check the option "Show only valid %env_var%".
When this option is checked, DC will try to eliminate from the menu the environment variable that looks like a valid path, at least for the beginning of it.
It will not necessary search and validate if path is actually present to don't slow down for no real need, but will quickly eliminate the obvious non-pertinent ones.
There are maybe some other little possibilities and function with the Double Commander Directory Hotlist feature that are present in the application and not describe here.
It's hard (and sometimes annoying even if still necessary) to keep up to date a help file like this.
But certainly you'll figure most of it and this help section at least cover the most important points of the matter.
A: Double Commander is a cross-platform, twin-panel file manager. Details see here.
Q: What's new in this version?
A: List of changes can be found on the Wiki page. But the project is now under development, so later nightly builds contain many new features and improvements.
Q: Is it a Total Commander for Linux?
A: No, this is another program from other developers. It now supports Windows, GNU/Linux operating systems with toolkits GTK2 and Qt and Mac OS.
Q: What is the difference between this program and my favorite file manager (Total Commander)?
A: The goal of the project is to create a program close to TC in operation and with maximum compatibility via the plugins and configuration files. However, Double Commander has some important advantages: it's free to use, works with different operating systems, and is open source.
Q: I have a 64-bit Operating System. Can I download Double Commander for it?
A: Yes, builds for x64 exist under all supported platforms.
Q: How can I contact the developers of Double Commander?
A: The project's official forum or GitHub.
Make sure you are using the latest version of the program and it's a good idea to check the development (alpha) version before reporting a bug or requesting a new feature.
Q: Which version do I download?
A: If you have KDE or LXQt — download a Qt-build; in other cases (Gnome, Xfce, LXDE) a build for GTK toolkit. But this is not strict rule.
Q: Where is the project repository?
A: Repositories for GNU/Linux (CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu):
And you can download installation packages deb, rpm or "portable" (binaries packed with bz2) from the official site. Also you can download the source code and compile DC for yourself.
Q: Plugins from Total Commander do not work?!
A: They work, but not all of them. Plugins from TC compiled for Windows can only be used with Windows version of Double Commander. But if the plugins have open source code, you can try to build them for GNU/Linux (or maybe ask the plugin developer to do it :)).
Q: Can I get access to network resources like in Nautilus or Thunar?
A: Yes, DC can use Gvfs. Gvfs supports many protocols: NFS, SMB, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, MTP, mobile phones (Windows, Android, Apple), media players and other.
First, packages gvfs and gvfs-backends should be installed (also add gvfs-fuse, it can be useful). Keep in mind that some distributions have not packages gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse, because they are part of package gvfs, or it can be several packages with names gvfs-backends-* or gvfs-*.
Now insert Gvfs path in the address bar: click by right mouse button at address bar to edit it (or call internal command cm_EditPath).
For example, access to
ftp://ftpuser@ftpserversmb://servername/sharename/davs://servernameWell, for access to FTP (for SSH+SCP too) and SMB you can use default WFX plugins ftp and samba.
Q: How can I change color settings for the panels?
A: To change the color, you must go to Configurations > Options... > Colors > File panels. These are global settings for both panels and can be overridden, see Configurations > Options... > Files views > Columns > Custom columns.
Q: What are buttons R and All in the color settings?
A: They are as follows:
R — restore color to the default.
All — apply selected color to all columns.
Q: Some text in a column overwrites another column's text!
A: Configurations > Options... > Files views > Columns, set checkbox "Cut text to column width".
Q: How to associate my own icons with some file types?
A: You must do the following: Configurations > Options... > File associations.
Q: How to create a splitter on the buttons panel?
A: Add a button from the category separator.
Q: Does DC has other icon themes?
A: Now we know only one small theme DoubleMac, but the installation instruction is outdated (see below).
You can make icon theme yourself, it's easy (we will use the name "MyDCTheme" as an example).
How to make:
- open DC folder and see directory structure of "pixmaps/dctheme";
- make copy of "dctheme" with name "mydctheme";
- open "mydctheme/index.theme" and change the theme name: replace "Name=DCTheme" on "Name=MyDCTheme";
- now replace icons.
Notes:
1. Don't use the default icon replacement! Your icons will be replaced after DC update.
2. If you want to keep some existing default icons then just delete them in "mydctheme" and DC will use them from default theme.
3. Some nonstandard icon sizes (such as 40x40, 60x60 and so one) uses for HiDPI monitors.
4. Also see <CustomIcons>.
How to install:
1. Portable version
Copy (or move) your "mydctheme" folder to the "pixmaps" folder near doublecmd.exe, restart DC, go to "Configuration" in the main menu > Options... > Icons > Icon theme, choose your theme and restart DC again.
2. Installed version
Go to "Configuration" in the main menu > Options... > Configuration > Directories > Icon themes:, here you will see list of possible directories.
Don't use /usr/share/doublecmd/pixmaps, C:\Program Files\Double Commander\pixmaps or other system directory: this requires root/admin rights, also this would be a intervention to the packages manager's work in Linux or DC installer for Windows.
DC usually suggests the following additional path (besides the "pixmaps" folder near doublecmd.exe):
If the directory doesn't exist, create it.
Now restart DC, go to "Configuration" in the main menu > Options... > Icons > Icon theme, choose your theme and restart DC again.
Q: How to make function keys and address bar bigger?
A: The size depends on the font size, three ways exists:
1. Simple and fast: you can use Ctrl+mouse wheel, it works for the following interface elements or part of DC:
- file list in left and right panels;
- current directory (address) bar;
- function key buttons bar;
- TreeView menu;
- search results in find files dialog;
- internal editor;
- internal viewer (if viewer shows text then this action will change font size, if image then action will work as zoom in/zoom out commands).
2. Go to "Configuration" in the main menu > Options... > Fonts.
Note: All possible are available in version 1.0.0+ only, for 0.9.x and below additionally see the third item.
3. Close DC > open doublecmd.xml > find tag <Fonts></Fonts> and change <Size> of the interface element manually.
A: You must do the following: Configurations > Options... > File views > When selecting file with spacebar, move down to next file (as with insert).
Q: Is there an ability to create a file operations queue?
A: A file operations queue was implemented in version 0.4.6 alpha, and was added to the next stable release.
Q: Ctrl+A doesn't work, how to enable it?
A: You must do the following: Configurations > Options... > Keys > Hot keys > In the category "Main", scroll to see command cm_MarkMarkAll and set Ctrl+A shortcut key for it.
Q: When all files are selected in a directory, there is no way to deselect them using a mouse.
A: Several ways:
Q: How to create my own context menu in this program?
A: Add button to the toolbar of the category "menu". See this section for an example.
Q: How to customize the context menu, for example, add the item "Open With"?
A: This can been incorporated into Double Commander; however, it's easy to add a command to the "Actions" submenu of the context menu. Here is an example of how to open any directory with root privileges:
Dir in the popup.folder in the popup.Open as rootpkexec doublecmd %pA: See description of <AutoExtractOpenMask>.
A: Yes, it is possible: go to Configurations > Options > File operations and enable "Process comments with files/folders".
Q: Editor and browser windows appear in random positions, when Compiz is enabled.
A: Edit Compiz settings: place windows > windows with fixed positions and window rules > fixed size windows.
(class=Doublecmd) & (title=/)
Q: Internal editor has a strange font — horizontal characters overwrite each other.
A: You must use monospace fonts in the viewer and editor.
Q: Viewer does not work with a few images, but works with most.
A: A component used to view the images did not support some JPEG files.
Q: On some text files lines go beyond the window's edge.
A: Use "Show as Wrap text" option in the viewer.
Q: Can you add column editing feature (like in Notepad++, UltraEdit etc)?
A: Internal editor supports column and line selection modes and multi-carets, see keyboard shortcuts here.
Q: Is it possible to add support SVG in the viewer?
A: Supported via librsvg:
Linux: install package librsvg.
Windows: needs libcairo-2.dll, librsvg-2-2.dll and libgobject-2.0-0.dll (+ all dependencies), for example, you can take DLLs from GIMP. You should copy this DLLs to Double Commander folder or in PATH.
Q: How can I use regular expressions to search in UTF-8?
A: This feature has been added to version 1.0.0. Needs PCRE2 library with support 8-bit code units and Unicode support enabled (usually enabled by default):
Q: I didn't find a suitable date format for file panels in the list! How to add my own?
A: Date and time format is easy configurable: go to Configurations > Options > Files views > Formatting > Date and time format and use this table.
Q: Is it possible to add support SVG thumbnails in thumbnails view?
A: It's already supported, see Is it possible to add support SVG in the viewer?
Q: I want to see the filenames in the "Name" column with extensions, can I do it?
A: Yes, it's possible. Go to "Configuration" in the main menu > Options... > Files views > Columns > Custom columns,
now create a new column set or change existing default set: by default, DC uses GETFILENAMENOEXT field for name, use GETFILENAME instead.
Q: Is it possible to sort folders by clicking on column header ("Date", "Size" and so on)?
A: Yes, you can enable this feature: go to "Configuration" in the main menu > Options... > Files views > Sorting > Sorting directories and use "sort like files and show first" or "sort like files".
A: This server requires session reuse support and ftp.wfx supports it, but needs the OpenSSL libraries: put libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll near doublecmd.exe or in the PATH.
Search tool capabilities are grouped by tabs, we can switch between the tabs using Alt+1...Alt+4 key combinations.
In addition, some functions can be accessed from the main menu of this window.
On this tab we can search for files by name and their content.
Line Start in directory specifies directory to start search, by default will be use the current directory of the active panel.
Additional options for specifying file search locations:
Opened tabs — only directories of opened tabs will be used.
Selected directories and files — if enabled, the search will be conducted only among selected files and folders in the active panel.
Follow symlinks — if a symbolic link to a directory is found, the target directory will be read and used, otherwise this symbolic link will be considered a regular file.
Exclude subdirectories — a list of subdirectories to be excluded from the search.
Search subdirectories can have:
current dir only,
select number of levels (from 1 to 100),
all (unlimited depth).
This setting controls the depth of the search in the filesystem tree. If set to "current dir only", the search will only be conducted in the directory specified in "Start in directory" (not in any subdirs).
Line File mask sets the mask for the search.
Additional options:
Search in archives — if enabled, Double Commander will try to additionally read the contents of all archives in the search directory(ies). The list of supported formats depends on the added packer plugins.
Search for part of file name — should be disabled if we want to use exact file name.
Regular expression — if enabled we can use regular expressions.
Exclude files — a list of file names to be excluded from the search.
Note: File mask, Exclude files, Start in directory and Exclude subdirectories allow to enter several values, separated with semicolon ";" without spaces. If we need to find a file with semicolon in the name, we have to enable regular expressions.
If the Find text in file checkbox is enabled, the process will search for the specified text in the files. We can also replace this text with any other text, specified in the line Replace by by enabling the checkbox.
Additional options:
Find files NOT containing the text — displays files, that do not have the text specified in Find text in file.
Case sensitive — indicates that uppercase should be distinguished from lowercase, e.g. "Fallout" and "fallout" would be different.
Hexadecimal — searches for hexadecimal characters (case insensitive, with or without spaces between characters, for example, "C0 C1 C2" or "c0c1c2").
Office XML — enables a search in Microsoft Office (DOCX, XLSX) and OpenOffice/LibreOffice (ODT, ODS) files.
Also we can set encoding (UTF, ISO, KOI, DOS, ANSI etc.) and enable regular expressions.
Use Shift+Del to remove unnecessary entries from the input fields history.
The Start button starts search, Cancel stops search and Close closes the Find files window.
New search — clears the old results and allows to start a new search (also with new conditions).
Last search — loads parameters from the previous search (in the current session, before closing Double Commander).
Tab Advanced allows to specify additional conditions: date, time and age of file (by modification date), minimum and maximum file size, as well as file attributes.
File attributes can be specified manually or using a small assistant on the Add button (see below for more details on using file attributes). The Help button opens the next subsection of this page.
Here we can also choose to search for duplicate files using the following one or more criteria:
compare file names;
compare file sizes;
compare file hashes: BLAKE2s (x32) or BLAKE2b (x64) checksum will be used;
compare file content (byte-by-byte comparison).
In the result will be shown file names, group number of matching files and file locations.
To search for specific attributes we must enter a string pattern, which specifies which attributes are searched for, and if they should be enabled or disabled.
A single attribute is represented with the following format:
<attribute>+ or <attribute>-
The plus sign means that the file must have that attribute set, a minus sign means that the file must not have that attribute set.
The various <attribute> identifiers are as follows:
| Attributes in Windows | |
|---|---|
| Attribute letter | What it stands for |
a | archive |
c | compressed (NTFS compression) |
d | directory |
e | encrypted (EFS encryption) |
h | hidden |
l | symlink |
p | sparse |
r | read only |
s | system |
t | temporary |
| Attributes in Unix/Linux (Permissions) | |
|---|---|
| Permissions letters | What it stands for |
ur | user read |
uw | user write |
ux | user execute |
gr | group read |
gw | group write |
gx | group execute |
or | others read |
ow | others write |
ox | others execute |
us | set user ID |
gs | set group ID |
sb | sticky bit |
| Attributes in Unix/Linux (File Types) | |
|---|---|
| File Types letters | What it stands for |
b | block |
c | character |
d | directory |
f | fifo |
l | symlink |
r | regular |
s | socket |
In Unix/Linux we may also use octal representation of permissions. For example 0750 is the same as ur, uw, ux, gr and gx combined.
Several attributes may be combined together with an AND relationship. Just specify one pattern after another.
For example: r+s+h+ matches files that have all three: read-only, hidden and system attributes set.
Furthermore, such groups of AND attributes may be combined together with an OR relationship. This is done by using the "|" character (vertical bar).
For example: r+|s+h+ matches files that have either:
It is possible to negate AND sequences using "!" character specified at the start of the sequence.
For example: !r+s+h+ matches files that don't have all three: read-only, hidden and system attributes set. The matched file may have none, one or more of those attributes set, but not all of them.
Negation only applies to AND sequences, thus pattern !r+|!s+h+ matches files that either:
r-)| Example in Windows | |
|---|---|
| Examples letters | How it is interpreted |
a+s-h- | matches files that have archive attribute set and don't have neither system nor hidden attributes set |
e+|c+ | matches files that are either compressed or encrypted |
d- | matches files but not directories |
| Example in Unix/Linux | |
|---|---|
| Examples letters | How it is interpreted |
uw+|gw+|ow+ | matches files that are writeable either by user, group or anybody else |
222+ | matches files that are writeable by user, and by group, and by anybody else |
d+ox+ | matches directories that are accessible by anybody |
!700+ | matches files that are not fully accessible to the user |
Search with the search (DSX) and content (WDX) plugins (description of plugin types and their installation is described here).
An example of images search by width with minimum and maximum values:
The DSX plugins interface allows to send them parameter values from the "Standard" and "Advanced" tabs, the exact list of passed values depends on the capabilities of a particular plugin.
WDX plugins complement the search, their fields can be combined according to the following rules:
AND (all match) — all conditions must match.
OR (any match) — one match is enough.
Operator and Value depend on the type of data returned by the plugin field: number, string, date, time or boolean type. For some numerical values, we can choose a unit of measurement (for example, for size or duration). The following compare operations are supported:
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
= |
equal |
!= |
not equal |
=(case) |
equal, case sensitive |
!=(case) |
not equal, case sensitive |
> |
larger |
< |
smaller |
>= |
larger or equal |
<= |
smaller or equal |
contains |
string contains specific text |
!contains |
string does not contain specific text |
contains(case) |
string contains specific text, case sensitive |
!contains(case) |
string does not contain specific text, case sensitive |
regexp |
string matches regular expression |
!regexp |
string does not match regular expression |
Tab Load/Save — allows to save search parameters so they can be used again later.
Also, here we can see the templates created in the Colors > File types settings section and in the Select a Group command dialog.
There is a field with a hint under the list of templates: for the selected template, the values of File mask and Start in directory (if it was saved) are displayed.
This tab contains results of the search (just a list of full filenames) and has the following buttons:
View — opens selected file in the viewer (F3).
Edit — opens selected file in the editor (F4).
Go to file — closes search window and sets cursor on the selected file in the panel.
Feed to listbox — transfers a list of the found files in the active file panel.
Additional parameters associated with the search tool are presented on the File operations > File search settings page.
File search:
Search for part of file name — If unchecked, Double Commander will search for the exact name match.
When launching file search, clear file mask filter — If enabled, Double Commander will automatically clear the File mask field each time.
Current filters with "New search" button — sets the state of the rest of the search parameters: Double Commander will keep them, reset to default state or ask.
Show menu bar in "Find files" — This menu contains the commands of the find files dialog (also hotkeys are shown) and items for quick jump to this section of settings and to the hotkey settings.
Default search template — We can choose one of the previously saved search templates and Double Commander will use its parameters as default parameters each time when we open the find files dialog.
Text search in files:
Use memory mapping for search text in files — Copies the file into virtual memory before performing the search. It's faster, but needs a more powerful computer.
Use stream for search text in files — Splits file into parts, then the search begins (slower, but fewer resources are required).
Welcome to Double Commander!
Double Commander — is a project started by Russian programmer Alexander Koblov (Alexx2000@mail.ru), as a fork of Sexi Commander (author — Radek Cervinka, radek.cervinka@centrum.cz).
On the Sourceforge download page you can see several versions of DC available for download.
First, you must choose which operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD), whether 32 or 64 bit and then you may select the version to download.
For Windows there is an executable file .exe or an archive .zip (which is the so-called portable version).
For Linux there are versions for most popular Linux distributions and desktop environments.
You can download compiled deb packages for Debian-based distributions (e.g, Ubuntu) and/or rpm for Linux Mandriva.
Also available is a portable version of the archive tar.xz, it is the same source from which you can build the program yourself.
For various DE there are versions, based on GTK2 toolkit and based on Qt.
On the first launch Double Commander will automatically detect the system language, and set it for the interface. DC is translated into many languages. The language can be changed in the menu via Configuration > Options... > Language.
Also Double Commander determines and uses the current system theme. It looks like this (Ubuntu, two themes and two icon sets):
As can be seen from the figure, there are left file panel, a command line and a lower window that is a log viewer (it shows all the actions from the file manager).
The Windows version of Double Commander is compatible with more than half of the many plugins from Total Commander (TC). The Linux version has no such compatibility.
DC does comes pre-installed with some WCX-type (archiver) plugins to work with cpio, deb, rpm, bz2, rar, zip, tar, gz, tgz archives as directories (virtual file system, VFS), WFX plugin for FTP access, some content plugins (WDX), also a search plugin (DSX) and a lister videoplayer plugin (WLX) for Linux. Other plugins can be installed manually.
Double Commander's interface.
The Menu Bar provides access to all the features of Double Commander. But do not forget that the majority of actions can be performed in other ways: by using hot keys or buttons on the toolbar.
This menu contains almost all the actions that can be made on files. Please consider all the items:
Create Hard Link... (internal command cm_HardLink). With this item, Double Commander creates a hard link to the file under the cursor, and places it in a folder, open on the adjacent panel.
Link name — here is the path to the link and its name. The name is the last word after the last slash in the line.
Existing destination — the object, on which the link is created.
Create Symbolic Link... (internal command cm_SymLink). All like the hard link above, but link is symbolic.
Create Directory (internal command cm_MakeDir) — creates a new subdirectory in the current directory, the file name under the cursor will be offered.
Create Shortcut (Windows only) — Double Commander creates a shortcut (Microsoft Windows .lnk file) to the file under the cursor, and places it in a folder, open on the adjacent panel.
Change Attributes... (internal command cm_SetFileProperties) — allows to change timestamps and attributes (Windows) or file permissions (Linux and other Unix-like systems), including subfolders or not.
Show file properties... (internal command cm_FileProperties) will show the default "Properties" dialog (Windows) or Double Commander own dialog (Linux and other Unix-like systems) like this:
which indicates the file or folder name, size, write and last access time, and also owner and group. On the "Attributes" tab you can change the access to the file (if you have the rights to do so). The "Plugins" tab is optional and is only available if you have a suitable content plugin (in this case it was deb.wdx).
Using item Edit comment... (internal command cm_EditComment) you can create or change file comments, which stored in a file descript.ion. Supports UTF, ISO, KOI and ANSI encodings.
Comments only work with normal files on the local file system, but not on remote or virtual file systems (e.g. on FTP server, in archive, etc.).
Calculate Occupied Space (internal command cm_CalculateSpace) item calculates the size of selected objects in rounded units and in bytes.
Compare by Contents (internal command cm_CompareContents) shows a window with two panels with the files to compare (usually text).
It's a simple visual comparison and merging tool with a typical features: navigation between differences (next, previous, first or last), copying blocks of text from right to left and from left to right, editing files in-place, undo and redo the last changes, saving with a different name and other.
Options:
Auto Compare — Automatic comparison when changing the Ignore Blanks and Ignore Case parameters. And also when selecting a new file.
Ignore Blanks — If enabled, multiple spaces will counted as one.
Ignore Case — If enable, uppercase and lowercase will not be distinguished.
Line Differences — If enabled, differences within the lines will also be shown.
Binary mode — result is presented in binary form.
Keep scrolling — allows synchronized scrolling (vertical and horizontal).
Also see description of <Added>, <Deleted> and <Modified> parameters here.
The two files will be chosen as follows
If two files are selected in the active panel, they will be opened in the compare tool.
If only one file is selected, it will be compared with the selected file in the inactive panel.
If only one file is selected, and nothing is selected in the inactive panel, it will be compared with a file in the second panel, having the same name (if it exists) or with a file under the cursor.
If nothing is selected, the file under the cursor will be compared with a file in the other panel, having the same name (if it exists) or with a file under the cursor.
Multi-Rename Tool (internal command cm_MultiRename)
Allows renaming any files by defined mask. For example, some files with different names could be renamed into Picture1, Picture2, Picture3, etc. First, select files to be renamed and then start this tool (see figure above). There you can see the old and new names for your files.
See this page for detailed descriptions.
By selecting item Pack files (internal command cm_PackFiles) we call a standard dialog to pack files to the zip, tar and other archive formats: the list of supported formats depends on the added packer plugins and external archivers.
Also we can unpack files via Extract Files (internal command cm_ExtractFiles). The same dialog is called when you copy files from the archive.
In the Extract files matching file mask line, you can specify a mask, determining which files will be unpacked. The history of masks can be found in the drop-down list. The next line specifies the destination directory (where the archive will be unpacked). It can be changed manually or by clicking on the browse button at the far right.
Checkbox Unpack each archive to a separate subdir (name of the archive) creates a folder in the destination with the same name as the archive and extracts the files into that folder. You can extract several archives at once with this option and each will be extracted into its own folder in the destination. By default it is unchecked and its state is not saved for the next call of the extract command.
Unpack path names if stored with files — If checked, the directory structure in the archive will be kept. Otherwise, all files will be extracted without re-creating the directory structure.
Checkbox Overwrite existing files disables confirmation of overwriting existing files.
Test Archive(s) (internal command cm_TestArchive) will validate the integrity of the content of selected archive files or file under cursor. If archive content is corrupted, error message will be reported. The list of supported formats depends on the added packer plugins and external archivers.
Items Split file and Combine files (internal commands cm_FileSpliter and cm_FileLinker)
Split the file to directory — specifies destination folder for the split files.
File size — select size of split parts. You can also enter your own value. Presets are:
1457664 B — 3.5" — Floppy drive 3.5;
98078 KB - ZIP 100 MB — ZIP drive;
650 MB - CD 650 MB — CD drive size;
700 MB - CD 700 MB — CD drive size;
4482 MB - DVD+R — DVD drive size.
On click OK button you get several files with the extension ".split" in the target directory. To combine the file again, select all ".split" parts and click Combine files (cm_FileLinker). You also need to specify the order of split parts to combine.
This function is very useful, if you have small drives and large files. It is possible to move the file parts.
Item Calculate check sum... (internal command cm_CheckSumCalc) is used to calculate the checksum to check files integrity. The following checksums are available: BLAKE2 (BLAKE2s, BLAKE2sp, BLAKE2b, BLAKE2bp), BLAKE3, CRC32, HAVAL, MD4, MD5, RIPEMD128, RIPEMD160, SFV, SHA, SHA2 (digest sizes 224, 256, 384 or 512 bits), SHA3 (digest sizes 224, 256, 384 or 512 bits), Tiger/192.
Save checksum file(s) to: — line specifies name and path to the calculated checksum.
Create separate checksum files for each file — if checksum calculates for multiple files, this option allows to create separate checksum files for each target file.
Choose your preferred checksum and — select algorithm which will calculate checksums.
Item Verify Checksum... (internal command cm_CheckSumVerify) will start verification the list of checksums from the checksum file under the cursor. Also you can run this command by double mouse clicking on the checksum file (or using the Enter key).
Double Commander can check files one by one: select the file, run this command, now enter its checksum (or paste from the clipboard) and select the algorithm.
You can use checksum files, which generated by other programs, but first make sure Double Commander supports their algorithm and format.
Item Wipe (internal command cm_Wipe) for secure deletion (shortcut Alt+Del by default): before deleting from the hard disk, the selected file will be renamed with a random name, and its contents will be overwritten with zeros, ones or random data. You can set number of wipe passes in Configuration > Options... > File operations. Directories and links will just be renamed before deleting.
Item Delete (internal command cm_Delete) — will delete the selected files or the file under the cursor to trash (recycle bin) or permanently. By default, Double Commander moves files to trash, you can change this in Configuration > Options... > File operations. Deleting to trash can might not be available for all platforms.
To delete files inside archive (in this case the files will be deleted directly), you need to add a suitable WCX plugin or configure an external archiver, also the archive format must support the delete operation.
Item Exit (internal command cm_Exit) — closes Double Commander.
There are some commands in this group with which you can select files in different ways.
First and second items Select a Group and Unselect a Group (internal commands cm_MarkPlus and cm_MarkMinus). These commands select groups of files by a mask. With this mask you can specify file names or extensions.
E.g. select all files that have the extension .txt. Also there is a drop down list with masks history.
Third and fourth items Select All (internal command cm_MarkMarkAll) and Unselect All (internal command cm_MarkUnmarkAll). They make it possible to select or unselect all items from the panel quickly.
Fifth item is Invert Selection (internal command cm_MarkInvert). It makes currently selected files unselected and vice versa.
Sixth and seventh items Select All with the Same Extension (internal command cm_MarkCurrentExtension) and Unselect All with the Same Extension (internal command cm_UnmarkCurrentExtension). These functions help to select and unselect files with the same extension as the file under the cursor.
Eighth and ninth items Save Selection (internal command cm_SaveSelection) and Restore Selection (internal command cm_RestoreSelection). The first command will save in internal buffer current selected items. Then later, the second command could be use to re-select again the same items that were selected before.
Tenth and eleventh items Save Selection to File (internal command cm_SaveSelectionToFile) and Load Selection from File (internal command cm_LoadSelectionFromFile). Like the previous commands, but using a plain text file (one filename per line).
Twelfth item is Load Selection from Clipboard (internal command cm_LoadSelectionFromClip). Will select files and folders by the list from the clipboard (one filename per line).
Thirteenth and fourteenth items Copy Filename(s) to Clipboard (internal command cm_CopyNamesToClip) and Copy Filename(s) with Full Path (internal command cm_CopyFullNamesToClip). First command copies the selected file list to the clipboard, second copies too, but with full file paths.
Fifteenth item is Copy all shown columns (internal command cm_CopyFileDetailsToClip). Will copy file information of selected items onto the clipboard: one file per line and the contents of the columns will be tab-delimited.
The last item is Compare Directories (internal command cm_CompareDirectories). Will select the items, in both active and inactive panels, that are not present in the opposite panel (by default only files will be selected).
First item is Search (internal command cm_Search). This tool is designed to search for files and folders at the specified criteria. Can also be used to search by file content. See this page for detailed descriptions.
New search instance... (internal command cm_AddNewSearch) — opens a new instance of Search dialog window with default settings. It will also allow to launch a new search instance to search something else while a long search is in progress.
View current search instances (internal command cm_ViewSearches) — will show a window with a list of search instances with brief information (status, number of files found, if finished, and file mask) and the ability to switch to one of them.
Fourth item is Directory hotlist (internal command cm_DirHotList). This command is the same as pressing the "*" button.
Selecting this item we get a popup menu with the Directory Hotlist, in which we can choose:
switch current path of active frame to a pre-configured directory from a list your made;
add new bookmark: current directory, selected directory (more than one if needed) or directory under cursor;
configure existing bookmarks.
Please see the dedicated Directory Hotlist help page about how to use and configure it.
Synchronize dirs... (internal command cm_SyncDirs) open the directory synchronization tool: the directories of the left and right panel will be scanned, you will see the differences in their content and you can make them the same.
Run Terminal (internal command cm_RunTerm) opens a terminal at the current directory (settings at Tools).
Execute internal command (internal command cm_DoAnyCmCommand) opens a window with a list of all internal commands and their description. Commands are grouped by category, quick filter and sorting are available: you can execute the selected command, copy its name, or open the Internal commands page (some commands support parameters).
Flat view (internal command cm_FlatView) will scan all the directories of panel to show all content in one single panel.
Open VFS List (internal command cm_OpenVirtualFileSystemList) will open a list of added file system plugins (WFX plugins) that use their own file systems or provide access to other file systems and devices (local or remote).
Swap Panels (internal command cm_Exchange) swaps left and right file panels with all opened tabs.
Target = Source (internal command cm_TargetEqualSource) opens the same directory in the inactive file panel.
Show Occupied Space calculates and shows the total size of all files in the sub-folders of the current directory. The <DIR> text in the Size column of the active panel is replaced with the total size.
Network Connect — will open a list of added file system plugins (WFX plugins), as the Open VFS List command in the "Commands" menu.
Network Disconnect — will close the active network connection.
The next items are for Windows only.
Map Network Drive and Disconnect Network Drive — will call the Windows system dialogs to connect and disconnect network drives.
Copy names with UNC path — will copy the full file name on the network to the clipboard: server name, share name, and relative file path.
This group manages the tabbed file panels.
New Tab (internal command cm_NewTab) — adds a new tab on the active panel (with the current path) and switches to it.
Rename Tab (internal command cm_RenameTab) — allows to change the title of the current tab.
Open Folder in a New Tab (internal command cm_OpenDirInNewTab) — opens a new tab for the directory under the cursor, but does not switch to it (i.e. in the background).
Close Tab (internal command cm_CloseTab) — closes the active tab and switches the panel to the next tab (or the previous tab, if you close the last tab).
Close All Tabs (internal command cm_CloseAllTabs) — closes all inactive tabs. If they consist of locked tabs, it will prompt for confirmation.
Close Duplicate Tabs (internal command cm_CloseDuplicateTabs) — Double Commander will check the list of opened tabs and close duplicate tabs (separately for each panel!), only the first of them will be saved (counting from the left).
Tab Options — Using this submenu you can change the state of the tab:
Normal (internal command cm_SetTabOptionNormal) — will make the tab normal: the usual tabs that Double Commander creates by default.
Locked (internal command cm_SetTabOptionPathLocked) — makes the tab locked, trying to change to another directory within this tab will prompt to open in a new tab.
Locked with Directory Changes Allowed (internal command cm_SetTabOptionPathResets) — if you lock a tab with this method, you can change to another directory within this tab, but after switching to another tab (or Double Commander is restarted) the tab will revert to the locked tabs original directory.
Locked with Directories Opened in New Tabs (internal command cm_SetTabOptionDirsInNewTab) — When you try to enter in any directory inside the panel, that one will be opened in a new tab.
The rest of the items of this submenu will do the same, but for all tabs at once.
Note: By default, Double Commander will not allow to close a locked tab without confirmation (item Confirm close locked tabs in the folder tabs settings section).
Switch to Next Tab (internal command cm_NextTab) and Switch to Previous Tab (internal command cm_PrevTab) — respectively switches to the tab on the right (next) and to the tab on the left (previous).
Save Tabs to File (internal command cm_SaveTabs) and Load Tabs from File (internal command cm_LoadTabs) — The names of the current tabs and their associated directories can be saved in a .tab file and loaded from such a file.
Save current tabs to a New Favorite Tabs (internal command cm_SaveFavoriteTabs) — will save in the set of Favorite Tabs the current opened tabs. Later on, on request, you may reload these saved setup using the next menu item.
Load tabs from Favorite Tabs (internal command cm_LoadFavoriteTabs) — will show a popup menu with the ability to select one of the previously saved sets of tabs.
The last two items are for quick jump to the folder tabs and Favorite Tabs settings sections.
This menu contains a list of your saved Favorite Tabs and some commands for working with them.
Save current tabs to a New Favorite Tabs (internal command cm_SaveFavoriteTabs) — will save in the set of Favorite Tabs the current opened tabs.
Resave on the last Favorite Tabs loaded (internal command cm_ResaveFavoriteTabs) — will resave the current tabs configuration over the last loaded Favorites Tabs entry.
Reload the last Favorite Tabs loaded (internal command cm_ReloadFavoriteTabs) — reload again the last Favorite Tabs setup that was loaded, i.e. this command is used to restore a saved set "as is".
The next item Configuration of Favorite Tabs is for quick jump to the Favorite Tabs settings section.
Manages the displayed contents of the file panels.
The first three items allow to switch the view of the file list:
Brief view (internal command cm_BriefView) — Just the name of the files. If possible, more than one column. Options are available in Configuration > Options... > Files views > Brief.
Full (internal command cm_ColumnsView) — One file per line, with default or user defined columns. Options are available in Configuration > Options... > Files views > Columns.
Thumbnails (internal command cm_ThumbnailsView) — Files shown as small images. If possible, in more than one column.
Quick View Panel (internal command cm_QuickView) — opens file in viewer program, but content of selected item shown in opposite panel. As we navigate to next items, displayed content is updated.
Tree View Panel (internal command cm_TreeView) — shows the directory tree for the active file panel. Internal command cm_FocusTreeView switches focus between current file list and tree (shortcut Shift+Tab by default).
The next five items: Sort by Name (internal command cm_SortByName), Sort by Extension (internal command cm_SortByExt), Sort by Size (internal command cm_SortBySize), Sort by Date (internal command cm_SortByDate), Sort by Attributes (internal command cm_SortByAttr) — allows to choose different sorting orders for the files. Also you can click the left mouse button on the column headers to change the sort order.
Reverse Order (internal command cm_ReverseOrder) — invert the sort order for the active panel.
Refresh (internal command cm_Refresh) — makes Double Commander refresh the panels.
Show Hidden/System Files (internal command cm_ShowSysFiles) — controls the display of files and folders, which have the "hidden" or "system" attribute (Windows) or the name with a dot character in the beginning (Linux and other Unix-like systems). Same as the setting in the configuration — Show system and hidden files.
Horizontal Panels Mode (internal command cm_HorizontalFilePanels) — sets the position of file panels: two vertical ones disposed in left/right or two horizontal ones disposed in top/bottom.
Operations Viewer (internal command cm_OperationsViewer) — shows a window with a list of file operations. You can change the order of operations in the queue, stop or pause a task.
First item is Options (internal command cm_Options), it opens the "Options" window, see description on dedicated help page.
Other items: quick jump to some settings sections (Directory Hotlist, Favorite Tabs, file associations, folder tabs and archivers) and commands Save Position and Save Settings.
Here you can get help information (this documentation) and information about the program:
Contents — opens help index page.
Keyboard — opens keyboard shortcuts page.
Visit Double Commander Web page — go to project homepage if you are online.
About — shows information about the program version and the developers.
The toolbar is holding buttons to execute internal command and launch our applications.
A default configuration is propose but we will certainly each and every one configure it to our needs since it's probably the most configurable part of Double Commander.
That's why a dedicated page is made just for that under this link.
The Drives button bar helps you to change the drive quickly with one mouse click. Right click shows the context menu that contains operations such as mount/unmount, format, etc. (depends on the OS and drive type).
Helps to change drive, also contains additional information (size, free space) and navigation buttons — « * \ .. ~ < ».
Internal commands are cm_LeftOpenDrives for left panel and cm_RightOpenDrives — for right panel. Default shortcuts: Alt+F1 and Alt+F2, but they won't work in most Linux Desktop Environments, just replace them.
Internal command cm_SrcOpenDrives will show this menu for active panel.
Additional navigation buttons:
"*" — shows the bookmarks hotlist, see the dedicated Directory Hotlist help page for details;
"\" or "/" — go to the system drive (Windows) or to the file system root (Linux and other Unix-like systems);
".." — go to the parent directory;
"~" — go to your home directory;
"<" and ">" — commands cm_LeftEqualRight and cm_RightEqualLeft.
Display tabs. Click on tabs with left mouse or you can use the keyboard to navigate tabs (Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab by default). Locked tabs are marked with an asterisk (if Show locked tabs with an asterisk * is enabled).
Displays the name of the current directory. A left mouse click on this directory bar drops down a directories history (internal command cm_DirHistory) which allows to quickly navigate back to previous directories.
A right mouse click on the directory bar will allow to copy the pathname to the clipboard or enter a new path manually.
It is now also possible to click on parts of the directory bar to quickly navigate back in the directory structure. Very handy if you want to go to a parent directory back many levels. This is known as a "breadcrumb" navigation feature.
Shows the column names. On left click sorts files by column. On right click shows a menu to change and edit custom column style set.
Default, File count — existing styles.
Configure custom columns — opens Files views > Columns > Custom columns section.
Shows size of selected items of the total size and also shows total items selected of total items in the panel.
Use to enter commands manually. Path to active directory shows in line beginning (C:\Program Files\Double Commander\ in screenshot). Right button opens history of commands.
Right mouse click will show the usual input box menu that contains standard commands Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All and submenu Insert Unicode Control Character.
Displays F3 - F9 hotkeys. Enables you to select commands with a mouse click.
Created by Rustem (dok_rust@bk.ru)
English version by Rod J (rodmac_shiels@hotmail.com)
