Like ls, list provided files or the files they contain if they are directories, but send the list to your editor where you can manipulate the list before files are renamed/removed according to your changes.
Manifest lines start with an identifying number and a tab, followed by the filename. To remove a file, simply remove the line. To rename a file, change the file name without changing the identifying number.
Each changed file in the manifest will be renamed, adding the suffix .vils.tmp before the operation is applied. This is to ensure that operations don't interfere with each other, for example so that you can swap filenames.
vils prefers using your $VISUAL editor, but will fall back to $EDITOR if
that is empty or unset and finally just vi if neither is set.