dolphin

Launch the file manager

$ dolphin

$ dolphin [path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...]

$ dolphin --select [path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...]

$ dolphin --new-window

$ dolphin --split [path/to/directory1] [path/to/directory2]

$ dolphin --daemon

$ dolphin [[-h|--help]]

dolphin [OPTIONS] [URL...]

URL...
    One or more file paths or directory URLs to open. For example, dolphin ~/Documents or dolphin /var/log.

--new-window
    Opens the specified URLs in a new Dolphin window, regardless of whether another Dolphin instance is already running.

--select <URL>
    Opens the parent directory of <URL> and selects the specified file or folder within that directory. For example, dolphin --select ~/Documents/report.pdf.

--show-places
    Ensures the Places panel (navigation pane) is visible upon opening the Dolphin window.

--hide-places
    Ensures the Places panel (navigation pane) is hidden upon opening the Dolphin window.

--version
    Displays the Dolphin version information and exits.

--help
    Displays a list of general command-line options for Dolphin and exits.

Dolphin is the default file manager for the KDE Plasma desktop environment. It is designed to be user-friendly while offering robust features for navigating, organizing, and managing files and folders.

Key capabilities include tabbed browsing, split views, multiple view modes (icons, details, columns), an integrated terminal panel, a customizable toolbar, and comprehensive network browsing support (FTP, SFTP, Samba, WebDAV). Dolphin supports plugins for extended functionality and is known for its speed and flexibility. It aims to provide a pleasant and efficient file management experience, making it easy to perform common operations like copying, moving, deleting, and renaming files, as well as more advanced tasks.

Dolphin is primarily a graphical application; its command-line usage is mainly for opening specific paths or controlling the initial state of its graphical window. It requires the KDE Plasma desktop environment or at least the Qt libraries to run. It is not designed for non-interactive scripting or command-line file manipulation tasks, for which traditional CLI tools like ls, cp, mv, rm are more appropriate.

Dolphin is deeply integrated with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, leveraging KDE Frameworks for core functionalities. This includes KIO (KDE Input/Output) for network transparency, allowing seamless access to remote file systems (FTP, SFTP, Samba, WebDAV) as if they were local files, and KWallet for secure password management.

Dolphin supports various plugins and service menus that extend its capabilities. These can include integration with version control systems (like Git or Subversion), enhanced image previews, file checksum tools, and custom actions accessible via the context menu.

Dolphin was first released in 2006 as part of KDE 4.0. Its development aimed to provide a dedicated, lightweight, and modern file manager for KDE, separating its functionality from Konqueror, which previously served as both a web browser and a file manager. This separation allowed Dolphin to be optimized purely for file management, leading to improved usability and performance. It quickly became and remains the default KDE file manager due to its intuitive interface and robust feature set.

konqueror(1), nautilus(1), thunar(1), ls(1), cd(1), cp(1), mv(1), rm(1)