Tracker is Vitruvian’s file manager. It’s the window you get when you double-click a folder, and it’s how you move, copy, rename, and organize your files.
Navigation mode
Tracker defaults to navigation mode: a single window with a navigator panel, rather than one window per folder. Opening a folder navigates inside the current window instead of spawning new ones, so you don’t collect windows as you browse.
Tracker can also work in spatial mode, the classic style where every folder opens in its own window and remembers its size, position and icon layout. Turn off single window browsing in the Tracker preferences to switch.
Icons
Icons display at 48px by default. On the desktop and in Tracker windows they snap to a grid, so they line up neatly when you drag them around. You can turn this off in the Tracker preferences.
Attributes
Vitruvian stores file metadata in Linux extended attributes rather than sidecar files. When Tracker shows you a file’s icon or type, it’s reading that metadata. Files carry their application signature, MIME type and any attributes applications wrote to them. The Filesystem Layout page has the details.
Tracker uses the node monitor to follow changes, so a file created in a terminal appears in the open window without a refresh.
What Tracker can do
- Browse directories and copy, move, rename, delete files.
- Open files in the right application based on their type.
- Drag and drop files between windows and onto applications.
- Templates for creating new files of types you set up.
- Add-ons add custom actions to the context menu.