External Applications
When you double-click on one of the rows on the main dialog, FreeFileSync opens the operating system's file browser
by default:
Windows: | explorer.exe /select, "%local_path%" & exit 0 |
macOS: | open -R "%local_path%" |
Linux: | xdg-open "$(dirname "%local_path%")" |
To customize this behavior, or integrate other external applications into FreeFileSync,
navigate to
Menu → Tools → Options → Customize context menu and add or replace a command.
All entries can be accessed quickly by pressing the associated
numeric keys 0–9 or via the context menu that is shown after a right mouse click.
The
first entry can also be executed by
double-clicking on an item.
In addition to regular
Macros, the following special macros are available:
Macro |
Description |
%item_path% |
Full file or folder path |
%local_path% |
Creates a temporary local copy for files located on SFTP and MTP storage. Identical to %item_path% for files on local disks and network shares. |
%item_name% |
File or folder name |
%parent_path% |
Parent folder path |
Note: To refer to the item on the opposite side, append "
2" to the macro name: e.g.
%item_path2%,
%local_path2%,
%item_name2%,
%parent_path2%.
Examples:
- Start a file content comparison tool (WinMerge):
"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe" "%local_path%" "%local_path2%"
opendiff on macOS (requires Xcode):
opendiff "%local_path%" "%local_path2%"
- Show file in Windows Explorer:
explorer.exe /select, "%local_path%" & exit 0
Note
Explorer.exe does not set an exit code, but FreeFileSync will show an error message
if it does not find exit code = 0 ("Success").
To mititage, append (&) the command exit 0 which sets the exit code explicitly.
- Open command prompt for the selected item:
start cmd.exe /k cd /D "%parent_path%"
Note
FreeFileSync hides the console window, so start opens a new window.
cmd.exe /k runs the following command without exiting.
cd navigates to the directory, even if it's on a different volume (/D).
- Copy item path to Clipboard (as alternative to CTRL + C)
echo %item_path%| clip
- Write list of selected file paths to a text file:
echo %item_path% >> %csidl_Desktop%\file_list.txt
- Preview files using Quick Look on macOS:
qlmanage -p "%local_path%"
Note
Macros need to be protected with quotation marks if they resolve to file paths that could contain whitespace characters.