select — Minimal TUI File Manager

A small, dependency-light terminal user interface (TUI) for basic file operations: browse directories, select files, copy/cut/paste, delete, filter and toggle hidden files. The project is intended to be installed as a single command-line application named select and provides an installer script (select.sh) that sets up a Python-based TUI binary in ~/.local/bin and adds a shell alias for convenience.

Overview

select is designed to be minimal, fast, and easy to use from any POSIX-compatible shell. The installer script select.sh bundles a standalone Python3 script into ~/.local/bin/select and updates the user’s shell configuration (for example ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc) to add an alias and prepend ~/.local/bin to PATH.

Key features

• Navigate the filesystem in a curses-based TUI
• Select multiple files
• Copy, cut and paste files and directories with conflict resolution
• Delete selected files with confirmation
• Toggle hidden files and filter by name
• Small single-file installation and uninstallation

Requirements

• Unix-like system (Linux, macOS)
• Python 3.6+ with the curses module available (macOS ships curses; on some Linux systems you may need libncurses and the Python curses bindings)
• A POSIX shell (zsh, bash, etc.) to run the installer

The tool attempts to detect your shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc / ~/.bash_profile) and update it. It creates ~/.local/bin if missing.

Installation

In order to install: using the included select.sh installer script.

1. By the repository:

git clone https://github.com/aryansrao/select.git && cd select && bash select.sh

2. Install directly from GitHub (raw installer) — one-liner using curl:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aryansrao/select/main/select.sh -o /tmp/select.sh
bash /tmp/select.sh

3. Download only the runtime (advanced):

If you prefer to install only the Python runtime created by the installer, run the installer on another machine or extract the code block from the installer and place it into ~/.local/bin/select, then make it executable:

# create target dir if missing
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"

# write the python script to ~/.local/bin/select and make executable
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aryansrao/select/main/select.sh | sed -n '/^cat > "\$INSTALL_DIR\/$APP_NAME" << \x27EOFPYTHON\x27/,/^EOFPYTHON$/p' | sed '1d;$d' > "$HOME/.local/bin/select"
chmod +x "$HOME/.local/bin/select"

# add to PATH (append to your shell rc if you want persistent access)
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> "$HOME/.zshrc"  # adapt to your shell
source "$HOME/.zshrc"

Note: the previous command extracts the embedded Python program from the installer script. Use with care and verify the downloaded content.

Uninstallation

To uninstall using the installer helper (if previously installed via select.sh), run the installer script and choose Uninstall from the menu or run the select.sh and choose the appropriate option.

Manually remove:

rm -f "$HOME/.local/bin/select"
# remove alias and PATH lines from your shell rc (example for zsh):
sed -i.bak '/# File Manager/d; /alias select=/d; /export PATH=.*\.local\/bin/d' "$HOME/.zshrc"
source "$HOME/.zshrc"

The installer also creates backups of your shell rc before editing (timestamped backups in the same directory).

Usage

Launch the file manager by typing:

select            # opens current directory
select ~/some/path  # open a specific path

Basic keys (inside the TUI)

• Up / k: move cursor up
• Down / j: move cursor down
• Space: toggle select for the highlighted item
• Enter / l: open directory
• c: copy selected
• x: cut selected
• v: paste clipboard into current directory
• d: delete selected (prompts for confirmation)
• X: clear clipboard
• h: toggle hidden files
• /: enter a filter string (Esc clears the filter)
• a: select all visible items
• A: clear selection
• q: quit

Notes on behavior

• When pasting, name conflicts are auto-resolved by appending _1, _2, … to the filename until an unused name is found.
• Deleting directories uses recursive deletion.

Example workflows and curl commands

Install via curl and run immediately:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aryansrao/select/main/select.sh -o /tmp/select.sh && bash /tmp/select.sh

Download only the runtime (extract from installer) and inspect before installing:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aryansrao/select/main/select.sh -o /tmp/select.sh
sed -n '/^cat > "\$INSTALL_DIR\/$APP_NAME" << \x27EOFPYTHON\x27/,/^EOFPYTHON$/p' /tmp/select.sh > /tmp/select_runtime_block.txt
# inspect the extracted runtime
less /tmp/select_runtime_block.txt
# once satisfied, extract the inner block (remove the heredoc markers) and write to ~/.local/bin/select
sed -n '2,$p' /tmp/select_runtime_block.txt | sed '$d' > "$HOME/.local/bin/select"
chmod +x "$HOME/.local/bin/select"

Run the TUI against a directory mounted over the network or an external drive to perform bulk file operations safely:

select /Volumes/ExternalDrive/Downloads

Configuration and internals

• Installer script: select.sh (Bash)

  • Detects user shell and chooses a shell rc file (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile) to update
  • Creates ~/.local/bin and writes the embedded Python runtime into ~/.local/bin/select
  • Makes runtime executable and appends an alias alias select="$HOME/.local/bin/select" and export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" to the shell rc
  • Backups of the shell rc are created before modification

• Runtime: single-file Python TUI using curses

  • Main class: FileManager built around a curses event loop
  • Core state: current_dir, selected (set), clipboard (list) and clipboard_mode (‘copy’|‘cut’)
  • File operations rely on shutil and pathlib for cross-platform behavior

Security and safety

• The runtime performs destructive operations (delete, move). Use with care. There is a confirmation prompt before deletion.
• When running installer commands fetched from the web, inspect the script before running.