pcm4 is a modern fork and complete rewrite of the classic PCManFM file manager, ported to GTK4 and Vala. It aims to preserve the lightweight, fast, and classic desktop experience while bringing the codebase into the modern era with robust Wayland support and modern GNOME platform technologies.
- GTK4 & Vala: Fully migrated from legacy C/GTK2/GTK3 to a modern, safe Vala and GTK4 architecture.
- Wayland Native Desktop: Uses
gtk4-layer-shellto provide a true, native desktop background and icon grid experience under Wayland compositors. - Meson Build System: Fast, clean, and modern builds using Ninja and Meson.
- Classic UX: Keeps the traditional paradigm of file management (detailed lists, classic context menus, desktop icons) without sacrificing modern toolkit benefits.
Ensure you have the required dependencies installed: GTK4, GLib, Vala, Meson, Ninja, and optionally gtk4-layer-shell for Wayland desktop support.
meson setup build
ninja -C build
./build/pcm4pcm4 is a fork created and actively maintained by:
- David Marquez (@djmbdv) - djmbdv@gmail.com
This project is built upon the monumental work of the original PCManFM authors. We deeply respect and acknowledge their contributions to the open-source community:
- Hong Jen Yee (PCMan) pcman.tw@gmail.com - Original creator of PCManFM.
- Andriy Grytsenko (LStranger) andrej@rep.kiev.ua - Long-time maintainer and developer.
- Ingo Brückl - Developer and contributor.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.