Far Manager

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Far is my favorite shell. It is not only file/archive management, it is powerful editor, huge number of plugins, powerful macro engine.

• First of all
  • There are two platforms (?)
  • There are three (already) branches of Far Manager
  • There are several types of plugins
• 1. Downloads / Installation
• 2. Install plugins to your’s mind
  • Examples
  • Main plugins sources
  • Developer sites
• 3. Help, FAQ, Documentation
• 4. Control
• 5. Automation

First of all

There are two platforms (?)

• x86 (32-bit binaries) it works everywhere, beginning from Windows 2000 SP4 with one hotfix.
• x64 (64-bit binaries) it requires 64-bit OS.

And yes, plugins compiled for x86 does not works in x64 Far Manager and vice versa. You owe to use appropriate plugin versions.

Most developers create binaries with obvious names.

This is the general mistake of new users. They install x64 Far Manager and try to use x86 versions of plugins. So, they ask ‘Why plugin does not appear in the list?’

IMHO, there is no considerable difference between them, but not every plugin has x64 version.

I’m using Far 3.0 x86 version (my primary OS is Win 7 x64).

There are three (already) branches of Far Manager

• 1.x (closed) oldschool version. It is ANSI (OEM to be more precise), so it can’t deal with unicode characters out of system OEM codetable. However, some users believe ‘the best the enemy of good’ and do not switch to newer versions. All settings are stored in registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Far.
• 2.x (closed). General difference - unicode support (file system, editor, viewer). There was API break, but 2.x natively supports most of 1.x plugins via internal plugin wrapper. All settings are stored in registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Far2.
• 3.x (current). General difference - Far Manager settings and native (3.x) plugins settings are stored in SQLiteDB. API was completely redesigned (and is not stable for current day). Many bugfixes and improvements. Far 3.x can still deal with ANSI plugins (from Far 1.x), but due to API break can’t work with ‘old’ unicode plugins (from Far 2.x).

There are several types of plugins

• Panels. This is most common type. Examples:
  • Miscellaneous archives: Arclite, Observer, MultiArc (from Far 1.7x) - these are the basic
  • Remote access: Network, Pocket and Phone, Shell extension, SFTP/SCP/FTP/FTPS/WebDAV, Registry and so on
• C0 panel plugins. These plugins work in panels, but do not emulate virtual file system. They provide data for special ‘С0’ column for real file system:
  • ver_c0 - show versions for PE files (exe, dll, sys, ocx, …)
  • svn_c0 - revision and status, only svn 1.6.x
  • pdf_c0, html_c0 - show title of document
  • mp3_c0 - artist/title for MP3 files (ID1)
  • diz_c0 - descript.ion, files.bbs, etc.
• Modal. In most cases these plugins execute some specific action. Examples:
  • Uninstall - display list of installed applications and allows Modify/Repair/Uninstall. This is the same as Windows ‘Uninstall or change a program’ but much faster and support fast filtering.
  • HexEditors - as is :)
  • Bulk file renamers
  • Picture viewers, Audio/Video players, yes, it is possible in console :)
  • Unicode CharMap
• Editor related
  • Searching, sorting, filtering, line wrapping, syntax highlighting…
• Non-categorized. These plugins can’t be placed in specific category, for example
  • Regular Expression Search - it works in Editor and panels

1. Downloads / Installation

• Download Full version from official site. Does not matter whatever you use - msi installer or 7z package.
• (Optionally) update binary files with my Far3bis. List of improvements here. In breaf - improvements of plugin manager (AltShiftF9), optimization of C0 column.

After installing (unpacking) Far Manager you have such directory structure (by example of Far 3.x).

2. Install plugins to your’s mind

There are thousands of plugins written for many years. There are many sources, where you can download them.

Installing chosen plugin (in most cases) means create subfolder in ‘Plugins’ and unpack plugin distribution to this folder.

To make Far Manager load new plugins you may:

• Simply restart Far Manager
• or, for bis versions, press Alt+Shift+F9 in panels to open ‘Plugins configuration’ menu, and press Ctrl+R
• or, navigate to plugin folder, type in command prompt load:plugin_file_name.dll and press Enter.

Examples

• (Note, this plugin already included in the latest Far distro). You have downloaded FarColorer_far3_1.0.3.10.7z (syntax highlighting in editor). This archive already contans root folder ‘FarColorer’. So, just unpack 7z package to ‘Plugins’ and restart far. Note, this 7z package contains both x86 and x64 versions of FarColorer.
• You have downloaded RegEdit3.1.1.36.2580.7z. This package does not have root folder, so create and unpack package files to Plugins\RegEdit. Note, this 7z package contains both x86 and x64 versions of plugin.

Main plugins sources

• PlugRing
• Plugin announces (Russian)
• Plugin dashboard 1, dashboard 2.

Developer sites

• Regeditor, Picture View, ImpEx (PE browser), Far3wrap and others and old mirror.
• MacroLib, Unicode CharMap, Visual Compare, and others
• Macros repository
• Observer multi-format (msi/pst/iso/mime/pdb) browser
• farplug-alvls
• Hexitor (Hex editor), Media Info, Image Info, SQLiteDB, Disk menu and others
• (Note, this plugin already included in the latest Far distro). Colorer (syntax hilighting in Editor, even in truecolor)
• Many plugin sources

3. Help, FAQ, Documentation

Unfortunately for non-Russian speaking users, most of resources are in Russian. However, you may use google translate, or ask competent users, for example, on official forum. Or, may be, on SuperUser.

• Far 3.0 FAQ (Russian)
• Links for plugin developers

4. Control

Far have oldschool and intuitive NC-like interface :)

Look on keybar press modifiers (Alt/Ctrl/Shift) and you’ll see function keys actions. Most useful are (in panels).

This is very brief list of key combos, read F1 for more information.

5. Automation

One of most powerful options of Far Manager are Macros. There are two styles of Macro.

• Sequence of recorded keypresses. This is very useful, when you need to repeat multiple times one routine operation, or for simplifying access to most useful operations.
  • For example, how to create oldschool keymapping - Esc turns panels on/off.
    • Press Ctrl+. (Ctrl and Dot on main keyboard) to start recording (red R lights in upper-left corner)
    • Press keys, the sequence: Ctrl+O
    • Press Ctrl+. again, recording stopped, Far shows small dialog ‘Press the desired key’.
      • Some ‘keys’ may be selected only from drop-down list. Choose Esc from there and press Enter.
      • If you press Ctrl+Shift+. instead of Ctrl+., you may change recorded sequence after choosing desired key.
    • Press Enter to confirm key selection.
  • If you want to use recorded macro in future sessions, you owe to save it
    • Press Shift+F9 in panels and confirm saving
    • or, type in command line macro:save and press Enter.
  • If you do not need recorded macro anymore
    • Press (twice) Ctrl+. Ctrl+.
    • Choose macro key
    • Press Enter, confirm deletion
• Scripts, written on Macro language. There are several ways to create such macros
  • Press Ctrl+. any keys (Space for example), Ctrl+Shift+. choose the key, and press Enter. Far opens dialog with recorded key sequence. You can modify it there.
  • Use MacroLib. This plugin (my choice for Far 2.x) simplify creation, editing, maintaining and calling Far Macros. Read plugin documentation for description of fml (text) file format.
  • Use *.farconfig files. Generally, these files may contain any Far Manager settings, not Macros only. Import them with command far.exe /import <farconfig-file>.