RetroDir manual

1. Getting started

Download RetroDir.dmg, open it and drag RetroDir to Applications. The first time you open it, macOS asks you to confirm an app downloaded from the internet; click Open. RetroDir is signed and notarized, so this happens only once.

• Two panels. The active panel has the highlighted cursor bar. Most commands act on the active panel, and copy or move into the other one.
• Function keys. The bottom bar shows what F1–F10 do. Hold Shift, Option or Ctrl to see the alternate commands. On a MacBook, hold fn, or use Cmd-1…Cmd-0 as F1…F10 (Cmd-Shift-6 = Shift-F6, Cmd-Option-7 = Alt-F7).
• "Alt" means the Option key throughout RetroDir and this manual.
• The mouse works too. Click to select, double-click to open, right-click to toggle selection, scroll with the wheel, and click the menu bar or the key bar.

2. The panels

Moving around

Brief and full views

Ctrl-2 shows the full view with size, date and time columns. Ctrl-1 switches to brief view, which lists names only in several columns, so you see more files at once.

Panel menu and sorting

Press F9 and choose Left or Right for the panel menu. Sort by name, extension, time, size or unsorted with Ctrl-F3…Ctrl-F7; Ctrl-F9 reverses the order. Choosing the current sort again also reverses it.

Hidden files

Ctrl-H shows or hides hidden files (names starting with a dot, and files macOS marks hidden). Hidden entries are drawn dimmed.

Filter

Ctrl-F limits the panel to files matching one or more masks, for example *.swift,*.md. Choose Clear to show everything again.

Go to a folder

Ctrl-G jumps to any folder by typing its path. ~, absolute and relative paths all work.

Volumes and places

Alt-F1 (left panel) and Alt-F2 (right panel) list the root folder, your home folder and common places, iCloud Drive, and every mounted volume with its free space.

3. Selecting files

Commands act on the selected files, or on the file under the cursor if nothing is selected. Selected files are shown in yellow, and the panel footer totals their size.

Quick search

Hold Option and type letters, or press Ctrl-S and type, to jump to the first matching name. Ctrl-S again finds the next match.

4. File operations

Copy

The destination defaults to the other panel's folder; you can edit it before confirming. Copies use APFS clones when possible, so even large files copy instantly on the same disk, and they keep permissions, dates, extended attributes and ACLs.

When a file already exists, RetroDir asks what to do: Overwrite, overwrite All, Skip, Skip all, keep the Newer file, or Cancel.

Rename or move

Make folder

Move to Trash

F8 moves files to the Trash, so you can put them back from Finder. You can turn the confirmation off in Options → Confirm delete.

Attributes and symlinks

Files → Attributes… (also in the user menu) changes permissions in octal, hides a file from Finder, and can apply changes to a folder's contents. Files → Symlink in other panel creates a symbolic link to the current file in the other panel.

5. Clipboard & Finder

6. Viewer

F3 opens the file under the cursor in a full-screen viewer. Large files open instantly because they are memory-mapped rather than loaded. Binary files open in hex automatically. On a folder, F3 calculates its size instead (see Folder sizes).

7. Editor

F4 opens the built-in editor for quick changes without leaving the keyboard. The status line shows the line, column, encoding and line endings. Shift-F4 creates a new file and edits it.

8. Info & Quick View

Info panel

Ctrl-L turns the other panel into an Info panel: macOS version and memory, the volume's size and free space with a usage bar, and the current folder's contents and size. Press Ctrl-L again to go back.

Quick View

Ctrl-Q previews the file under the cursor in the other panel, and follows the cursor as you move. It shows text, hex for binary files, images, and the contents of zip and tar archives.

9. Archives

Alt-F5 packs the selected files. The format follows the archive name's extension: .zip, .tar, .tar.gz / .tgz, .tar.bz2 or .tar.xz. Alt-F6 unpacks the archive under the cursor into the other panel's folder.

10. Finding & navigating

Find files

Alt-F7 searches the current folder for file names matching a mask, optionally containing some text, with options for subfolders, case sensitivity and hidden files.

Folder history and hotlist

Alt-F12 lists the folders you've visited recently. Alt-F10 or Ctrl-D opens the folder hotlist, your list of favourite folders: Insert or Cmd-N adds the current folder, Delete removes one, Enter goes there.

Compare folders

Commands → Compare folders compares the two panels and selects the files on each side that are different or newer, ready to copy across.

Folder sizes

F3 on a folder calculates its total size and shows it in the size column. Commands → Calculate folder sizes does it for every selected folder.

11. Command line & console

Just start typing in the panels: your text goes to the command line, and Enter runs it with zsh in the active panel's folder. The output appears in the console behind the panels. Ctrl-O hides or shows the panels so you can read it. cd changes the panel's folder (cd -, cd ~, cd .. work).

Interactive programs such as vim, top and ssh need a real terminal. Use the built-in terminal for those.

12. Built-in terminal

Cmd-T splits the window: both panels stay on top and a full terminal opens underneath. Each tab runs your login shell, so ~/.zprofile, ~/.zshrc, Homebrew paths, ~/.ssh and ssh-agent all work. It's full xterm-256color emulation: vim, htop, ssh, tmux, mouse support and true colour.

Tabs and working folders

Each tab keeps its own working folder. Browsing in the panels never moves a shell. When you press Cmd-T from a panel, RetroDir switches to a tab that's already in that panel's folder, or opens a new tab there, so a shell that's busy with something else (an ssh session, an editor) is never touched. With the terminal focused, Cmd-T opens a new tab in the current tab's folder.

To sync on purpose: Cmd-Shift-D moves the current shell to the active panel's folder, and Cmd-Shift-P moves the active panel to the shell's folder.

Renaming tabs

Tabs are named after the shell and its folder. To give a tab your own name, press Cmd-Shift-R or double-click the tab. Reset goes back to the automatic name.

Terminal keys

While the terminal is open, typing in the panels goes straight to the shell.

13. User menu

F2 opens a menu of handy actions for the file under the cursor or the selection: reveal in Finder, open Terminal.app here, Quick Look, open with the default app, copy paths or names, Get Info, attributes, symlink, compress or extract, folder sizes, compare folders, disk usage (du), git status, git log, make executable, a SHA-256 checksum, and a new file.

14. Pull-down menus

F9 opens the menu bar; use the arrow keys and Enter, or click. Every command shows its shortcut. Left and Right are the panel menus.

15. Themes & settings

The Options menu holds the colour theme, font size (Cmd-+ / Cmd--), hidden files, and the delete and quit confirmations. RetroDir remembers your panels, sort order, histories, hotlist, theme and terminal size; Save setup (Shift-F9) saves them right away.

Frost (translucent)

Frost (new in 1.1) makes the window translucent: panels, menus, dialogs, the console and the built-in terminal become tinted glass, and whatever is behind the window shows through, blurred. Text stays fully opaque, so it's as readable as the other themes. It looks best over a colourful desktop or with other windows behind RetroDir.

Classic themes

16. Help & licences

F1 shows the complete keyboard reference inside the app. Options → About RetroDir shows the version and disclaimer, and Options → Licences shows the full MIT licence texts for RetroDir and SwiftTerm.

17. Keyboard reference

The function keys at a glance. Every other shortcut is in the section for its feature above.

With Ctrl: Ctrl-F3…Ctrl-F7 sort by name, extension, time, size or unsorted, and Ctrl-F9 reverses the order.