lvdExplorer

An open-source, Qt6-based multi-pane file manager for Windows and Linux, with powerfull integrated search, grep and file hashing.

www.lvdopen.eu · www.lvdsystems.eu

Download the latest release

Features

• Multi-pane, multi-tab browsing — 1, 2 (Commander-style side-by-side, or stacked), or 4 panes, each with its own tab bar; quick-switch icons and Ctrl+1/2/3/4.
• Fast on purpose — directory scans run off the UI thread and stream in as they complete, so a slow network share or a folder with 100k+ files never freezes the app.
• Session save/restore — window layout, every pane's tabs, sort order, and columns come back on next launch; named sessions via Session → Sessions....
• Instant filter + threaded Finder — per-pane substring/regex filter, plus a dockable recursive file finder (Ctrl+F) that streams results as it searches.
• Real drag & drop — between panes/tabs and to/from Explorer/Nautilus, routed through a cancelable progress queue with a live dialog.
• Native shell integration (Windows) — the real IContextMenu shell menu, Open Terminal Here, native Properties (incl. combined multi-select properties), all reachable from the app's own context menu.
• File ops — batch rename (pattern or find/replace), MD5/SHA-1/SHA-256 checksums, folder compare, new folder, all via the same cancelable job queue as copy/move/delete.
• Per-pane read-only lock — a checkbox that blocks delete/rename/move in that pane without a separate "are you sure" for every click.
• Light/dark theming and a keyboard shortcut editor — every shortcut in the app is rebindable, with conflict detection.
• Ships two ways — a portable .zip/Inno Setup installer on Windows, an AppImage on Linux.
• GPLv3, no telemetry, no accounts.

Building

Requires Qt 6.5+ (developed against 6.11.1) and CMake 3.23+.

Windows (MSVC)

Run from a "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022" (or after calling vcvarsall.bat x64) so cl.exe is on PATH:

cmake --preset windows-msvc
cmake --build --preset windows-msvc

The windows-msvc preset points CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH at C:/Qt/6.11.1/msvc2022_64 — edit CMakePresets.json (or create a CMakeUserPresets.json, already git-ignored) if your Qt install lives elsewhere.

Linux

cmake --preset linux
cmake --build --preset linux

Requires a system Qt6 (qt6-base-dev or equivalent) with Widgets on the CMake package search path. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install cmake ninja-build qt6-base-dev qt6-svg-dev \
    qt6-l10n-tools qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools pkg-config

Testing

ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Covers the async search engine, the copy/move/delete job queue (including the read-only-lock rejection paths), folder comparison, and the keyboard shortcut registry.

Packaging (Linux)

bash packaging/linux/build-appimage.sh

Builds Release, downloads linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy-plugin-qt on first run (cached under packaging/linux/tools/, not vendored), and writes lvdExplorer-<version>-x86_64.AppImage to dist/. Needs curl, pkg-config, and file on PATH in addition to the build dependencies above.

An AppImage is only as portable as the oldest glibc/libstdc++ it was built against, so the release published on the newest build machine available (glibc 2.39+) won't run on something like Ubuntu 20.04. Two optional env vars build a second, older-baseline AppImage instead of replacing the default one:

QT_PREFIX_PATH=/opt/qt/6.5.3/gcc_64 OUTPUT_SUFFIX=ubuntu2004 \
    bash packaging/linux/build-appimage.sh

QT_PREFIX_PATH points the build at a non-system Qt (e.g. an aqtinstall prefix, needed on a base old enough to predate Qt6 in its own package repos), and OUTPUT_SUFFIX keeps the two builds' build directories and output filenames from colliding. The published lvdExplorer-<version>-x86_64- ubuntu2004.AppImage was built this way (Ubuntu 20.04 + Qt 6.5.3), covering roughly Ubuntu 20.04+/Debian 11+/Fedora 31+ and similar; the plain lvdExplorer-<version>-x86_64.AppImage covers the newest distros but needs glibc 2.39+.

Packaging (Windows)

Scripts under packaging/windows/ produce distributable builds; both build Release from scratch, so no separate build step is needed first.

# Self-contained .zip with Qt DLLs bundled (windeployqt) and the
# lvdExplorer.ini marker that switches the app into portable mode:
powershell -File packaging\windows\make-portable-zip.ps1

# Inno Setup installer (requires Inno Setup 7's ISCC.exe):
powershell -File packaging\windows\build-installer.ps1

Both write to dist/. Pass -QtBinDir <path> if your Qt install isn't at C:\Qt\6.11.1\msvc2022_64\bin, and build-installer.ps1 also takes -IsccPath <path> if Inno Setup isn't at its default location.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Participation is covered by the Code of Conduct.

License

GPLv3 — see LICENSE.