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Ranger Cheatsheet
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ranger-cheatsheet.md

Ranger Cheatsheet

General

Shortcut Description
ranger Start Ranger
Q Quit Ranger
R Reload current directory
? Ranger Manpages / Shortcuts

Movement

Shortcut Description
k up
j down
h parent directory
l subdirectory
gg go to top of list
G go t bottom of list
J half page down
K half page up
H History Back
L History Forward
~ Switch the view

File Operations

Shortcut Description
<Enter> Open
r open file with
z toggle settings
o change sort order
zh view hidden files
cw rename current file
yy yank / copy
dd cut
pp paste
/ search for files :search
n next match
N prev match
<delete> Delete

Commands

Shortcut Description
: Execute Range Command
! Execute Shell Command
chmod Change file Permissions
du Disk Usage Current Directory
S Run the terminal in your current ranger window (exit to go back to ranger)

Tabs

Shortcut Description
C-n Create new tab
C-w Close current tab
tab Next tab
shift + tab Previous tab
alt + [n] goto / create [n] tab

File substituting

Shortcut Description
%f Substitute highlighted file
%d Substitute current directory
%s Substitute currently selected files
%t Substitute currently tagged files

Example for substitution

:bulkrename %s

Marker

Shortcut Description
m + <letter> Create Marker
um + <letter> Delete Marker
' + <letter> Go to Marker
t tag a file with an *
t"<any> tag a file with your desired mark

thx to the comments section for additional shortcuts! post your suggestions there!

@msanchezpolanco
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msanchezpolanco commented Apr 9, 2024

tag a file with your desired mark: t"<any> should be "<any>

@kachidk
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kachidk commented Apr 27, 2024

<delete> doesn’t delete files in v1.9.3

@webgtx
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webgtx commented Apr 29, 2024

doesn’t delete files in v1.9.3

Confirmed, if somebody knows why. Share the resources, or open the issue please. :shipit:

@GUNGODD
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GUNGODD commented Jun 23, 2024

Can anyone tell me how to open file Dir with kitty or other terminals, expect default gnome terminal
let e.g. .. /DIR/subdir/... and now I want to open this fire Dir with nvim using kitty

@Mik-813
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Mik-813 commented Aug 4, 2024 •
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"t"<any> tag a file with your desired mark"
It is not t"<any> it's just "<any>

@coufal
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coufal commented Aug 10, 2024

Here is how you can fix the delete key:

edit .config/ranger/rc.conf and add this line

map <delete> delete

iirc mac users were complaining because they kept hitting delete by accident and thus the defaults were changed

@Kiameow
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Kiameow commented Dec 1, 2024

dD invoke console ": delete", then hitting enter will do the deletion.
you can change the line map dD console delete to map dD delete in .config/ranger/rc.conf file to skip the enter step ;)

@gajakananoa-Raja
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gajakananoa-Raja commented Oct 24, 2025

@loup-brun
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loup-brun commented Nov 26, 2025

Is there a way to type shell commands and show the output?

@GiorgosChr I found that running a command, then piping the result to an interactive pager like less allows to view the output. Quitting the pager then returns to ranger.

For example, display a zip file’s contents (assuming it is highlighted in ranger, %f = current file, e.g. archive.zip):

:shell unzip -l %f | less

Inspect the listed files through less (or your favourite $PAGER), and finally press q to quit.

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