Install fdclone with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• fdsh

Project history

The English README says FDclone is a Unix file and directory maintenance tool and a clone of the MS-DOS FD utility made by A. Idei in 1989. Takashi Shirai wrote FDclone to preserve the familiar FD-style workflow for users moving from MS-DOS to Unix while implementing the program independently.

The official project page explains that FDclone 2.00 was a major change because it embedded shell functionality without using `system(3)`. FDclone 3.00 arrived seven years after 2.00 because network support required large changes to source organization and required libraries.

Adoption history

The official page describes FD as popular enough among Japanese MS-DOS users that its name became a synonym for file maintenance tools. FDclone carried that interaction model into Unix terminals, with attention to Japanese text handling, terminal behavior, archives, and a split-window browser.

The official history records portability and environment support over many years: Linux/ia64, Cygwin, NetBSD, MINIX, Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Darwin or Mac OS X fixes. The supplied package metadata also shows FDclone packaged by Homebrew, Debian/Ubuntu, and MacPorts.

How it is used

The English manual describes `fd` as a text-terminal browser with file lists, tree and archive browser modes, marked-file operations, function-key commands, and internal commands for copying, deleting, renaming, sorting, finding, packing, unpacking, and editing files.

The `fdsh` executable exposes the internal shell side. That makes FDclone unusual among file managers in package collections: it is both a visual terminal file manager and a shell environment shaped by its MS-DOS heritage.

Why package nerds care

FDclone is historically interesting because it preserves a Japanese DOS-era file-manager lineage inside Unix package managers. It is not a modern minimal CLI; it is a compatibility and culture artifact with deep terminal, Kanji, archive, network, and shell behavior.

For package maintainers, its significance is also practical: the official history shows long-running portability work across older Unix variants, Japanese encodings, Cygwin, Android, BSDs, MINIX, and MS-DOS build modes.

Timeline

• 1989: Original MS-DOS FD utility created by A. Idei.
• 2008: FDclone 3.00 added URL drive, socket redirection, and message catalogs.
• 2012: FDclone 3.01 added IME-related variables and frequency dictionary features.
• 2019: FDclone 3.01j fixed symbolic-link handling and Kanji conversion issues.

Related projects

• FDclone is directly related to the original MS-DOS FD file maintenance tool by A. Idei.
• The README also mentions an earlier Unix file maintenance tool named `fu`, whose users reportedly aliased it to `fd`, reinforcing the value of the FD name for DOS-to-Unix users.

Sources

• http://www.unixusers.net/authors/VA012337/soft/fd/index.html
• http://www.unixusers.net/authors/VA012337/soft/fd/README.eng.txt
• http://www.unixusers.net/authors/VA012337/soft/fd/HISTORY.eng.txt
• http://www.unixusers.net/authors/VA012337/soft/fd/fd_e.txt
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/fdclone