nnn

Developer(s)	Arun Prakash Jana[1]
Initial release	April 13, 2017; 6 years ago (2017-04-13)[1]
Stable release	4.9[2]  / 27 August 2023
Repository	github.com/jarun/nnn
Written in	C
Operating system	Linux FreeBSD macOS OpenBSD Haiku
Size	243 KB (tar.gz source)[3]
Available in	English only[3]
Type	File manager
License	BSD-2-Clause[4]
Website	github.com/jarun/nnn

nnn (shortened as n³) is a free and open-source, text-based file manager for Unix-like systems. It is a fork of noice^[5][6] and provides several additional features,^[7][8] while using a minimal memory footprint^{[9][better source needed]} It uses low-level functions to access the file system and keeps the number of reads to a minimum, allowing it to perform well on embedded devices.^{[10][non-primary source needed]} As the base program follows a minimal design philosophy, additional features and functionality are available via user plugins.^{[11][better source needed]}

Operation

Each instance of nnn provides four "contexts", or tabs, which allow to browse multiple directories within the same instance. From within nnn, basic file operations such as adding,^[12] duplicating, moving, removing and renaming files are available.^[7] Additionally, it supports mass file renaming and mounting remote drives via sshfs. One unique feature is that separate instances of nnn can share the selection that has been made in one of the running instances.^{[13][non-primary source needed]}

The file structure can be browsed with the keyboard or mouse.^[12][14] In larger directories, it is recommended to filter out the results via a text search string or regular expression.^[14]

Configuration

nnn retains most of its configuration to environment variables or command line arguments.^[7] Additional functionality can be installed via plugins that can be activated via an extra menu or adding keybindings for them.^{[15][better source needed]}