📅 June 25, 2024
Do you like the F3 dual-pane feature offered by Linux file managers, such as Nemo?
4pane is a dedicated file manager that offers similar navigation for easier drag and drop operations between multiple locations from a single window.
Installation
4pane is available for free from the Ubuntu repository.
sudo apt install 4pane
Or install from Synaptic Package Manager.
Why Called 4pane?
Have a look at 4pane in action to see why:
4pane lets you easily navigate two separate locations in your file system using four separate panes.
4pane consists of two sections, and each section consists of two adjustable panes for a total of four panes. The left pane in each section acts as a tree view that its corresponding right pane lists the contents of.
A file manager, such as Nemo, performs a similar action using two panes when you press F3.
Nemo file manager with two panes showing the same locations. F3 opens and closes the second pane.
Panes can also be arranged horizontally.
Pane arrangement is good, so you can adjust the view in almost any reasonable configuration to suit your needs.
Terminal Pane
A Linux essential!
4pane will open a terminal pane in addition to the file navigation panes. This terminal can have its own current working directory.
By default, the terminal uses a default, sans-serif font, but you can change it to monospace or any other font of your choice.
Customization and More
4pane offers a number of tweaks to make it your own. Aside from a few changes, the defaults work out well for me.
4pane lets you mount/unmount ISO images, perform compression/decompression, choose columns to display, and much of what you would expect from a file manager.
Save Upon Exit
Have a configuration you like? 4pane provides the option to save the pane configuration and paths, so the next time you open 4pane, it will resume where you left off. Even the terminal pane saves its current working directory to reopen where you last left off.
Conclusion
Linux is all about options and customization, and 4pane’s strength is its multi-pane layout to make it easy to perform tasks between two directory locations or mount ISO images or handle archives. Tasks, such as drag and drop and copy, are simple to do by dragging items between panes. If you open two file managers just to drag items from one to the other, then 4pane is that but in a single window. The provided help documentation is a notch above the rest and does a fine task of explaining what 4pane is and how to use it.
Again, this is about providing options to users, and 4pane achieves this well. The built-in, old-school folder icons might scream “out-of-date” and cannot be changed, but 4pane works perfectly in Ubuntu 24.04, and I have not encountered any issues. Anything I can do using Nemo I can do using 4pane.
I like it. This is a useful file manager for the times that I need its features.
Have fun!
Delightly Linux 