In this post, I will share a tip on using Vifm as the default file manager.

vifm-tab script

This script allows me to use Vifm as a single instance and when I want to open a directory that utilizes xdg-open to launch the default file manager, it opens in this instance’s new tab.

For this script to work you need to set the server name in your vifmrc:

let $VIFM_SERVER_NAME = v:servername

Save this script to your PATH: (I’ve added some comments inside the script so you can adjust to your needs.)

#!/bin/sh

if [ -n "$*" ]; then
	if [ "$1" = . ]; then
		# Browsers are passing . as an argument and setting PWD for dir path
		cmd="tabnew | cd \"$PWD\""
	else
		cmd="tabnew | cd \"$*\""
	fi
else
	cmd=redraw
fi

if [ -n "$(vifm --server-list)" ]; then
	vifm --server-name vifm --remote -c "$cmd"
else
	if [ -t 2 ]; then
		# When you call vifm-tab from terminal this will set terminal instance
		# to 'vifm' so you can assign window rule in your wm
		xdotool getactivewindow set_window --classname vifm &
		vifm -c "$cmd"
	else
		# You can adjust this to your terminal and shell:
		alacritty --class vifm -e sh -c "vifm -c '$cmd'; zsh" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
	fi
fi

Now you can open vifm with vifm-tab and pass your path as an argument to open in this single instance.

Setting vifm-tab as a default file manager

Create vifm-tab.desktop file under ~/.local/share/applications/ with the following content.

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=System;FileTools;FileManager;Utility;ConsoleOnly;
Comment=Vi[m] like ncurses based file manager
Exec=vifm-tab %F
GenericName=File Manager
Icon=vifm
Name=Vifm (Tab)
Terminal=true
TryExec=vifm
Type=Application
Keywords=File;Directory;Browse;
MimeType=inode/directory;

Now you can set vifm-tab as the default file manager:

xdg-mime default vifm-tab.desktop inode/directory

You can find my vifm config and scripts here.