🌊 Flux

Flux is the fastest modern GUI file manager on Linux. It combines a minimalist, high-performance architecture with the sleek aesthetic of Libadwaita, delivering a native desktop experience with zero compromise on speed.

Why Flux?

#CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (6 Cores, 12 Threads @ 3.7GHz Base / 4.6GHz Boost)
#Methodology: High-precision time.perf_counter() differential, IPC event stream.

~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py flux-fm
Startup Time: 113.18 ms    # 18-run mean (range: 110.73 - 117.08 ms, uncached)

# --- GUI File Managers ---
~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py pcmanfm
Startup Time: 134.43 ms    # warm: 132.32 ms
~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py spacefm
Startup Time: 169.31 ms    # warm: 169.15 ms
~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py thunar
Startup Time: 289.60 ms    # warm: 182.37 ms
~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py nautilus
Startup Time: 742.84 ms    # warm: 449.54 ms

# --- Terminal Emulators (Performance Baseline) ---
~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py kitty
Startup Time: 107.45 ms    # warm: 107.29 ms
~ ❯❯❯ python measure_app_speed.py alacritty
Startup Time: 107.44 ms    # warm: 71.08 ms

Unrivaled Cold Launch: The fastest modern GUI file manager on Linux-outperforming traditional lightweight C benchmarks like PCManFM and Thunar while launching up faster than mainstream alternatives, with zero background pre-warming daemons.
Asynchronous Heart: Driven by a non-blocking Tokio and Rayon pipeline, chunked directory loading and background thumbnail workers ensure the UI thread never stutters or drops frames.
Zero Clutter: A sleek, native Libadwaita interface with a dynamic header and adaptable grid/list views that prioritize your files over bulky window chrome.
Shortcut First: Built from the ground up for keyboard-centric workflows, featuring vim-like speed, editable breadcrumb navigation, and an embedded VTE terminal that syncs directories on the fly.

Features

Navigation

Autoplay video previews: automatically plays a loop preview when a single video file is selected.
Dual view modes: responsive grid cards and compact list view
Breadcrumb navigation supporting local paths, /archive:// virtual roots, and network URIs
Forward/backward history (Alt+Left, Alt+Right, Backspace, mouse side buttons)
Automatic UI sync on filesystem changes via GIO directory monitors
Configurable sorting by Name, Date, Size, or Type with Folders First toggle

Search & Filtering

Instant filename filter - type to filter the current directory live.

Size filter - mathematical operators directly in the search bar:

Pattern	Matches
`>10MB`	Files larger than 10 MB
`<500KB`	Files smaller than 500 KB
`10MB..50MB`	Files between 10 MB and 50 MB
`>1GB video`	Size + name combined

Supported units: B, KB, MB, GB, TB.

Deep content search - prefix with : to search inside file bodies recursively:

:term - search all files
:.rs:term - scope to an extension
:.rs,py:term - multiple extensions

Session glob / MIME filter - filter the current directory by pattern or type:

*.png, *.rs - extension globs
image/*, video/*, audio/* - built-in category shorthands
application/zip, image/png - any system MIME type (resolved via /usr/share/mime/globs)

Advanced Search Dialog (F12) - modal combining name, content, extension, date range, size constraints, and recursion depth toggles.

Tag search - FreeDesktop user.xdg.tags xattr system with SQLite indexing. Use #tagname or :tag:name to filter globally, with a dedicated tag navigator.

Quick List / Triage Panel

Temporary pinned directory panel for fast multi-directory cycling:

Insert - pin current path
Tab / Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp - cycle entries
Ctrl+End - clear

File Operations

Background task queue with speed, elapsed time, and ETA
Conflict resolution dialog with auto-rename, Replace All, Skip All policies
Undo/Redo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z) for renames, moves, and trash
Clipboard: file lists, text-to-file, HTML, and image-to-file buffers
Protected system path guards preventing accidental deletion of root/OS paths

Context Menus & Custom Actions

Primary menu - right-click
Secondary MIME-matched menu - Ctrl+Right-Click, matched per file type
Visual Menu Editor (F9) - reorder, add, and configure DSL action rules without touching config files

Custom Icons

Assign any image (.png, .jpg, .webp, .svg) or symbolic theme icon to files and folders (F3)
Reset to system default (Ctrl+F3)
Associations are re-keyed automatically on rename, move, and drag-and-drop

Integrated Terminal (`F4`)

Embedded terminal pane directly below the file grid
OSC 7 sync - cd in the terminal automatically navigates the file manager
Auto-adapts colors to the active Libadwaita theme
Idle detection via TIOCGPGRP before directory respawns

Properties & Inspection

File identity: symlink targets, extended attributes, inodes, device IDs
Security: Shannon entropy, SHA-256 hash, ELF architecture/endianness
Media: image dimensions, audio/video duration via ffprobe, line/word/TODO counts
Git: commit history for files under version control
Default app handler - view and reassign MIME type associations

📦 Archive Browsing (`/archive://`)

Browse archive contents as a virtual filesystem without extraction.

Format	Backend	Password
`.zip`	`zip` (deflate, bzip2, zstd, aes)	Yes
`.7z`	`sevenz-rust` (AES256)	Yes
`.rar`	`unar` / `unrar`	Yes
`.tar`, `.tar.gz`, `.tgz`	`tar` + `flate2`	No
`.tar.bz2`, `.tbz2`	`tar` + `bzip2`	No
`.tar.xz`, `.txz`	`tar` + `xz2`	No
`.tar.zst`, `.tzst`	`tar` + `zstd`	No
`.tar.lz4`	`tar` + `lz4_flex`	No
`.iso`	ISO 9660 reader	No
`.deb`	ar + tar	No
`.gz`, `.bz2`, `.xz`, `.zst`, `.lz4` (standalone)	Streaming decoders	No

🔒 LUKS Encrypted Volumes

Magic-byte detection of LUKS containers and partition images
Integrated passphrase dialog, keyfile-based unlock via udisksctl
Eject automatically locks the dm-crypt device and detaches the loop

Requires cryptsetup and udisks2.

🌐 Network Browsing

Integrates with GVFS for remote filesystem access. Connect via Ctrl+Shift+L.

Protocol	Scheme
SMB/Samba	`smb://`
SFTP	`sftp://`
FTP / FTPS	`ftp://` `ftps://`
WebDAV / HTTPS	`dav://` `davs://`
NFS	`nfs://`
AFP	`afp://`
MTP	`mtp://`
Google Drive	`google-drive://`

Active mounts appear in the sidebar with eject controls. Network bookmarks persist in config.toml.

Requires gvfs and relevant backend packages (e.g. gvfs-smb, gvfs-sftp).

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
`F1`	Keyboard shortcut reference
`F2` / `Ctrl+I`	Inline rename
`F3`	Set custom icon
`Ctrl+F3`	Reset custom icon
`F4`	Toggle integrated terminal
`F5`	Refresh current directory
`F9`	Visual menu editor
`F10`	Open preferences
`F12`	Advanced search dialog
`Ctrl+F`	Search / filter bar
`:term` / `:.ext:term`	Start content search
`Esc`	Cancel content search
`Ctrl+H`	Toggle hidden files
`Ctrl+L`	Go to location
`Ctrl+Shift+L`	Connect to server
`Ctrl+T`	Edit tags for selection
`Ctrl+Shift+T`	Open tag navigator
`Ctrl+S`	Cycle sort criteria
`Ctrl+Shift+S`	Toggle sort order
`Shift+S`	Toggle folders first
`Ctrl+A`	Select all
`Ctrl+C / X / V`	Copy / Cut / Paste
`Ctrl+Shift+C`	Copy absolute path of selected items
`Ctrl+Shift+V`	Create symbolic link from clipboard paths
`Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V`	Create hard link from clipboard paths
`Delete`	Move to trash
`Ctrl+Z`	Undo
`Ctrl+Shift+Z` / `Ctrl+Y`	Redo
`Backspace` / `Alt+Left`	Go back in history
`Alt+Right`	Go forward in history
`Enter`	Open selected file or directory
`/`	Navigate to root directory
`Insert`	Pin to quick list
`Tab`	Next quick list entry
`Ctrl+PageUp/Down`	Previous / next quick list entry
`Ctrl+End`	Clear quick list
`Ctrl+Insert`	Pin current dir to sidebar permanently
`Ctrl+Scroll`	Resize grid items
`Ctrl+Middle Click`	Open folder in new window
`Ctrl+Shift+F7`	Open memory debug profiler

Testing

350+ tests covering core services, UI logic, utilities, and security invariants
Fuzzing via libFuzzer on all parsers (archive URIs, glob patterns, search queries, media probes)

sh tests.sh

# Fuzzing (requires nightly Rust)
cd fuzz/fuzz_targets
python fuzz.py --level default                       # 10k iterations
python fuzz.py --target fuzz_glob --level medium     # 50k
# Levels: default (10k), medium (50k), high (200k), extreme (1M)

Extra Themes

git clone https://github.com/killown/flux-themes.git
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/flux/themes
cp flux-themes/themes/* ~/.local/share/flux/themes/

Installation

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install libadwaita-1-dev libgtk-4-dev libpango1.0-dev libgraphene-1.0-dev \
  libcairo2-dev libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-dev libpoppler-glib-dev ffmpeg imagemagick icoutils

Arch Linux

sudo pacman --needed -S libadwaita gtk4 glib2 pango graphene cairo gdk-pixbuf2 poppler-glib ffmpeg imagemagick icoutils

Fedora

sudo dnf install libadwaita-devel gtk4-devel pango-devel graphene-devel cairo-devel \
  gdk-pixbuf2-devel poppler-glib-devel ffmpeg ImageMagick icoutils

git clone https://github.com/killown/flux.git
cd flux
cargo build --release

Tech Stack

Rust 1.75+ - memory safe, zero-cost abstractions
Relm4 + GTK4 - native GNOME experience
Tokio - non-blocking async I/O
SQLite (rusqlite) - tag indexing and persistent state

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes please open an issue first. Run the test suite before submitting.

License

GPLv3

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
fuzz		fuzz
menus		menus
packaging/flatpak		packaging/flatpak
po		po
screenshots		screenshots
scripts		scripts
src		src
tests		tests
themes		themes
.gitignore		.gitignore
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
build.rs		build.rs
config.toml.example		config.toml.example
flux.desktop.in		flux.desktop.in
flux.svg		flux.svg
template.svg		template.svg
tests.sh		tests.sh

Navigation Menu

Repository files navigation

🌊 Flux

Why Flux?

Features

Navigation

Search & Filtering

Quick List / Triage Panel

File Operations

Context Menus & Custom Actions

Custom Icons

Integrated Terminal (`F4`)

Properties & Inspection

📦 Archive Browsing (`/archive://`)

🔒 LUKS Encrypted Volumes

🌐 Network Browsing

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Testing

Extra Themes

Installation

Tech Stack

Contributing

License

About

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages

Latest commit

History

Folders and files

Repository files navigation

🌊 Flux

Why Flux?

Features

Navigation

Search & Filtering

Quick List / Triage Panel

File Operations

Context Menus & Custom Actions

Custom Icons

Integrated Terminal (F4)

Properties & Inspection

📦 Archive Browsing (/archive://)

🔒 LUKS Encrypted Volumes

🌐 Network Browsing

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Testing

Extra Themes

Installation

Tech Stack

Contributing

License

About

Resources

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Releases

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Integrated Terminal (`F4`)

📦 Archive Browsing (`/archive://`)