FAR Manager screenshot |
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| Developer(s) | Eugene Roshal (1996–2000) FAR Group (2000–present) |
| Initial release | September 10, 1996[1] |
| Stable release |
2.0 build 1807 (Feb 03, 2011) |
| Preview release |
2.0 build 1641 (August 16, 2010) |
| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | Russian/English |
| Type | File manager |
| License | revised BSD license |
| Website | farmanager.com |
FAR Manager (short for File and ARchive Manager) is an orthodox file manager for Microsoft Windows and a clone of Norton Commander. FAR Manager uses the Win32 console and has a keyboard-oriented user interface (although limited mouse operation, including drag-and-drop, is possible).
Originally, FAR Manager was written by Eugene Roshal (the creator of WinRAR), but since 2000 the development is carried on by a team called the FAR Group. The project's Unicode branch (2.0) is open-source (under the revised BSD license). FAR Manager is often viewed as a very customizable file manager and text editor, and a free alternative to Total Commander.[2][3][4][5]
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FAR Manager features an internal viewer and editor, customizable user menus, tree views, file search, compare, integrated help, and a task switcher for its tools. Its standard functionality can be expanded with macros (which allow limited scripting) and plugins.
FAR Manager's default interface combines two file panels with a command prompt. Panels may be fully customized as to which columns are shown and in which order, and operations may be done to and from either panel. The file panels support wildcard selection, advanced filtering, sorting and highlighting. The file panels and the command prompt are both active at the same time (they are interacted with using different keys), and most features can be accessed using keyboard shortcuts (the key bar at the bottom displays the function key actions for the currently held down modifier keys).
FAR's standard functionality can be greatly extended with macros (limited scripting language, primarily used to record keypress sequences) and plugins. Standard plugins installed by default include FTP, Windows network, extensible archive file support and temporary panel (sandbox) virtual file systems, a process list, print manager, filename case converter, and several editor plugins to format, wrap, and otherwise alter text.
Third-party plugins are available from the PlugRing repository and plugin announcement forum (in Russian). Some popular plugins include regular expression search and replace (both in the text editor and across multiple files), syntax highlighting and auto-completion for the text editor, SFTP/SCP and Windows Registry virtual file systems, 7-zip integration, a hex editor and a picture viewer (which overlays a DirectX surface over FAR's console window).[6][7] It is worth noting that wrappers are available which allow using some Total Commander plugins with FAR Manager, and vice-versa. Plugins can be authored using the native C/Pascal API,[8] or using wrappers which permit plugin development in other platforms and languages, such as .NET (including PowerShell),[9] and Lua.[10]
FAR Manager is available under the revised BSD license.
Originally, FAR Manager was available as 40 days shareware for everyone except for citizens of the former USSR countries, who could use it as freeware for non-commercial use only.[11] On October 26, 2007, the source code for the Unicode development version (1.80, later renamed to 2.0) was released under the revised BSD license.[12][13][14] On May 17, 2010, the 1.x branch has also been released under the revised BSD license, albeit without source code.[15]
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