How to define new commands in the ranger file manager?

Question

I would like the ability to define new commands in the ranger file manager by typing something like:

:newcmd myarg

and run arbitrary code with it.

The command definition should also have access to the program's state, e.g., current directory and selected files.

Is there a way to do that?

Disclaimer: I've created this question and self-answered it because of the lack of good sources on this subject. Additional answers are more than welcome.

Answer 1

Edit ~/.config/ranger/commands.py to contain something like:

from ranger.api.commands import *

class newcmd(Command):
    def execute(self):
        if not self.arg(1):
            self.fm.notify('Wrong number of arguments', bad=True)
            return
        # First argument. 0 is the command name.
        self.fm.notify(self.arg(1))
        # Current directory to status line.
        self.fm.notify(self.fm.thisdir)
        # Run a shell command.
        self.fm.run(['touch', 'newfile')

Now you can type:

:newcmd myarg

to run the defined command.

More options can be found at: https://github.com/hut/ranger/blob/9c585e48e14525f11d2405ea0bb9b5eba92e63e9/ranger/config/commands.py

You can then go one step further and define a map for it, e.g.: add to ~/.config/ranger/rc.conf:

map ,n console newcmd
map ,m newcmd default-arg 

And now you can just type:

• ,n to write newcmd on the status line, and get ready for the user to input the first argument
• ,m and run the command immediately with a default argument

Tested on ranger 1.6.1.