patrol is a console data explorer with VI key bindings. It provides a minimalistic and nice curses interface with a view on the data hierarchy. It is a fork of the ranger file manager adding a client-server protocol to handle arbitrary data.

This file describes patrol and how to get it to run. For instructions on the usage, please read the man page (man patrol in a terminal). See HACKING.md for development-specific information.

For configuration, check the files in patrol/config/ or copy the default config to ~/.config/patrol with patrol --copy-config (see instructions).

The examples/ directory contains several scripts and plugins that demonstrate how patrol can be extended or combined with other programs. These files can be found in the git repository or in /usr/share/doc/patrol. -->

A note to packagers: Versions meant for packaging are published as GitHub releases.

• Authors: see AUTHORS file
• License: GNU General Public License Version 3
• Website: https://patrol-org.github.io/
• Download: https://patrol-org.github.io/patrol-stable.tar.gz
• Bug reports: https://github.com/patrol-org/patrol/issues
• git clone https://github.com/patrol-org/patrol.git

• An easily maintainable data explorer in a high level language
• A quick way to switch node and browse the data tree
• Keep it small but useful, do one thing and do it well
• Console-based, with smooth integration into the unix shell

• UTF-8 Support (if your Python copy supports it)
• Multi-column display
• Support any data with client-server provider
• VIM-like console and hotkeys
• Tabs, bookmarks, mouse support...

• Python (>=2.6 or >=3.1) with the curses module and (optionally) wide-unicode support
• A pager (less by default)

For general usage:

• python-bidi (Python package) to display right-to-left file names correctly (Hebrew, Arabic)

For enhanced functionalities (with builtin providers):

• jc for many cli commands

Use the package manager of your operating system to install patrol. You can also install patrol through PyPI: pip install patrol-cli. However, it is recommended to use pipx instead (to benefit from isolated environments). Use pipx run --spec patrol-cli ranger to install and run ranger in one step.

Note that you don't have to install patrol; you can simply run patrol.py.

To install patrol manually:

sudo make install

This translates roughly to:

sudo python setup.py install --optimize=1 --record=install_log.txt

This also saves a list of all installed files to install_log.txt, which you can use to uninstall patrol.

After starting patrol, you can use the Arrow Keys or h j k l to navigate, Enter to act on a node or q to quit. The third column shows a preview of the current node children. The second is the main column and the first shows the node parents.

Patrol can automatically copy default configuration files to ~/.config/patrol if you run it with the switch --copy-config=( rc | ... | all ). See patrol --help for a description of that switch. Also check patrol/config/ for the default configuration.

• To get the most out of patrol, read the Official User Guide.
• For frequently asked questions, see the FAQ.
• For more information on customization, see the wiki.