File Manager

What is a File Manager?

A file manager is a type of application that can move, rename, copy, delete, and list files in the computer, navigate through the hierarchy of folders, and create, rename, copy, delete, and list folders as well.

Operating systems for desktop computers typically come with a file manager installed by default. On Windows, the file manager is called File Explorer. On Linux, it depends mainly on which desktop environment (DE) is shipped with the distro: for example, it could be Nautilus (GNOME, Ubuntu), Dolphin (KDE), Thunar (XFCE), Nemo (Cinnamon, Linux Mint), etc.

Even if an operating system doesn't have a file manager, it's still possible to manage your files. That's because you'll have access to file-managing utility programs provided by the operating system. For example, if you installed Arch Linux, you wouldn't have a file manager until you installed one yourself. You could still manage your files with shell (terminal) commands such as:

• ls - lists files and folders in current directory.
• cd A - changes current directory to A.
• mv A B - moves or renames a file or folder A to filepath B.
• cp A B - copies a file from A to B.
• rm A - deletes a file A.
• rmdir A - deletes an empty directory A.