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Vifm is a curses based Vim-like file manager extended with some usefulideas from mutt. If you use Vim, Vifm gives you complete keyboard controlover your files without having to learn a new set of commands. It goes notjust about Vim-like keybindings, but also about modes, options, registers,commands and other things you might already like in Vim.

Just like Vim, Vifm tries to adhere to the Unix philosophy. So instead ofworking solutions which are set in stone user is provided with a set ofmeans for customization of Vifm to one's likings. Though builtinfunctionality should be enough for most of use cases.

Version 0.15. This file last updated on 28 September 2025.

More screenshots arehere.

A good idea for quick start might be skimming overcheatsheet for the mainmode (that is Normal mode), reading some sections on basic usage onthe wiki and looking at sample configuration file (run:edit $MYVIFMRC).

How well Vifm will serve you in part depends on how well you understand itsVim-like nature. The following posts are highly recommended reads to help youimprove with that:

• Seven habits of effective text editing by Bram Moolenar
• Your problem with Vim is that you don't grok vi by Jim Dennis

Below are some suggestions on how Vifm can be installed in variousenvironments using methods most native to them.

In case of a Linux distribution which doesn't package Vifm or which offers anoutdated version, an AppImage binary can be used to avoid compiling fromsources. This method of installation requires downloading an.AppImage fileon a system younger than 10 years with a FUSE-capable kernel and marking thatfile as executable.

As a convenience, here are commands that download AppImage binary for the latestrelease and save it as~/.local/bin/vifm (thanks to@benelan, seeGitHub#975).Note that helpers likevifm-pause (used by:!!) aren'taccessible in AppImage before v0.15.

curl -Lso~/.local/bin/vifm \"https://github.com/vifm/vifm/releases/latest/download/vifm-v$(        curl -Ls"https://api.github.com/repos/vifm/vifm/releases/latest"|        sed -nE'/"tag_name":/s/.*"v*([^"]+)".*/\1/p')-x86_64.AppImage"&& chmod +x~/.local/bin/vifm

wget -qO~/.local/bin/vifm"$(        wget -qO -"https://api.github.com/repos/vifm/vifm/releases/latest"|        jq -r'.assets[] | select(.name|endswith(".AppImage")) | .browser_download_url')"&& chmod +x~/.local/bin/vifm

GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.