Last Updated on March 8, 2026
fex is a command-line file explorer inspired by Vim, exa and fzf, built with quick exploration and navigation in mind.
By using Vim-like keybindings, fex ends up being a near-effortless tool to zip around a file system.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Three modes:
- Default: used to navigate around a file system and enter one of the other modes.
- Search: toggled with
/, used to accept a query and find matching items in expanded directories.
Command: toggled with:, used to accept a shell command that is executed on enter. fex needs to be setup as a shell widget for this to work
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux and macOS.
Website: github.com/18alantom/fex
Support:
Developer: Alan
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
fex is written in Zig. Learn Zig with our recommended free tutorials.
Related Software
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|---|---|---|
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| Treemacs | Emacs Lisp | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
| browsr | Python | MIT License |
| termscp | Rust | MIT License |
| vim-fern | VimL | MIT License |
| tere | Rust | European Union Public License 1.2 |
| CHADTree | Python | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
| FileSSH | Rust | MIT License |
| Rust-Traverse | Rust | MIT License |
| fex | Zig | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
| transgender | Rust | BSD 2-Clause “Simplified” License |
| rovr | Python | MIT License |
| StygianSift | Rust | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 |
| Fortress | Fortran | MIT License |
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| Hop | Python | MIT License |
| FTB | C++ | MIT License |
| faint | Shell | GNU General Public License v2.0 |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |