NAME¶
TkDesk - a Graphical File and Desktop Manager for the X Window System
SYNOPSIS¶
tkdesk [
-configdir dir] [
-debug]
[
-default] [
-develop] [
-iconic]
[
-layout file]
[
-startdir dir] [
-twm]
[
-?|
--help]
DESCRIPTION¶
TkDesk provides a rich set of functions to help you manage your files and
efficiently navigate your file systems. It also provides several desktop and
system managing capabilities such as accessing the external devices of your
workstation, starting programs, monitoring the system load and mailbox etc.
The main parts of TkDesk are the following:
1. One or more
file browser windows (or just "browsers"). These
display the contents of the currently selected directory in the rightmost
listbox and the contents of a configurable number of parent directories in the
listboxes left to it. In addition this window contains a menu bar, a button
bar, and a status bar.
2. One or more
file list windows. These display the contents of just the
currently selected directory. These windows also contain a menu bar, a button
bar, and may also contain a status bar.
3. An
application bar (or "appbar"). This is a set of buttons
displaying icons or other graphical output that can be configured to execute
certain commands. All of the buttons provide a possibly cascaded popup menu
that is accessed by pressing the right mouse button over any appbar button.
Files may be dragged from any file browser or list window and dropped onto
appbar buttons that have been configured to be drag'n'drop targets. The
contents of the appbar is configured in the "AppBar" configuration
file (located in "~/.tkdesk").
4. The
built-in editor (or just "editor"). The editor provides
multiple buffers in the same window, virtually unlimited "undo",
marks, search and replace, etc. Files may be dropped onto any editor window
from TkDesk's file listboxes or the desktop.
BASIC USAGE¶
The listboxes contained in the file browser and list windows display the
contents of their respective directory. They provide the following mouse
button bindings:
- Single-1
- Select the file under the mouse pointer, deselect all others.
- Control-Single-1
- Select or deselect the file under the mouse pointer, without deselecting
any other file.
- Shift-Single-1
- Select all files between and including the one under the mouse pointer and
the one that was last selected by Single-1 or Control-Single-1. Deselect
all others.
- Double-1
- Select and open the file under the mouse pointer, deselect all others. The
command that will be used to open the file is the first entry of the
file's popup menu (see next item).
- Control-Double-1
- Select the file under the mouse pointer, and ask for a command to be
executed on that file.
- Press-2
- Used to initiate a drag and drop operation. Valid drop targets are all
other file listboxes, appbar buttons that have been configured to be
drag'n'drop targets, editor windows, and the root window (a.k.a.
desktop).
- Press-3
- Display the file's or directory's popup menu. The contents of these menus
are configured in the "Popups" configuration file (located in
"~/.tkdesk").
The display options of any file listbox can be configured through the menubutton
right above the listbox, displaying the name of the displayed directory, and
the file mask currently set. It can also be used as a drag and drop source (by
pressing mouse button 2) and target.
TkDesk makes heavy use of cascading popup menus. Basically in every text entry
field that's used for entering paths of file names pressing the right mouse
button brings up a popup menu of parent directories. Next to most test entry
field there is a menu button displaying a turned-over triangle that gives
access to a menu containing a history of entered strings.
OPTIONS¶
- -configdir dir
- By default TkDesk reads its configuration either from the files contained
in the directory "~/.tkdesk" (see section FILES below),
or if it does not exist, from TkDesk's library directory (usually
"/usr/local/lib/TkDesk"). This options lets TkDesk load its
configuration files from directory dir.
- -debug
- Switch on "debug mode". This generates some output on stderr
that may be used for debugging purposes.
- -default
- Let TkDesk read its configuration from its library directory. This means
that TkDesk will start using the default configuration.
- -develop
- Switch on "development mode". This adds a
"Development" submenu to the "TkDesk" menu.
- -iconic
- Open all file browser and list windows in iconic state when TkDesk starts
up.
- -layout file
- Load and save TkDesk's window layout from and to file. If
file doesn't exist the default layout is used.
- -startdir dir
- Display dir in the first file browser window that's opened.
- -twm
- Some window managers, namely twm cannot handle icon windows
correctly. TkDesk uses these for colored icons. This options switches to
monochrome icons.
- -?, --help
- Displays the command line options available.
FILES¶
All of the following configuration files are accessible directly inside the
"Configuration" submenu of the "TkDesk" menu. The default
application bar contains the same menu in the first button (the one with the
comet).
- ~/.tkdesk/AppBar
- Definition of the application bar.
- ~/.tkdesk/ButtonBar
- Definition of the button bars used in file browser and file list windows,
and of directory-specific button bars.
- ~/.tkdesk/Commands
- Contains a list of menu entries that will be added to the
"Commands" menu.
- ~/.tkdesk/Directories
- Definition of the contents of the "Directory" menu and of
actions performed when specific directories are opened.
- ~/.tkdesk/FileTags
- Defines how files and directories are displayed, both by default and on a
per-object basis (using shell-like "glob" patterns).
- ~/.tkdesk/Local
- Initially, this file does not exist. If it does though, it is sourced
(evaluated) when TkDesk starts up. This is the right place to put any
local extensions.
- ~/.tkdesk/Popups
- Definition of the file- and directory-specific popup menus. Also contains
the definition of the popup menu used in the "Copy, Move, ..."
dialog.
- ~/.tkdesk/Sounds
- Defines which command should be used for playing sounds, if any, plus
defines which sounds should be played at which TkDesk event.
- ~/.tkdesk/System
- Contains definitions of colours and fonts to be used, which commands
should be used for copying, deleting etc. Also contains options that
affect the built-in editor and some other configuration variables.
ENVIRONMENT¶
The static version of TkDesk is affected just by one environment variable:
- TKDESK_LIBRARY
- This determines where TkDesk will look for its library (by default usually
"/usr/local/lib/TkDesk").
The dynamically linked version is affected by the following variables:
- TCL_LIBRARY
- Location of the Tcl library files.
- TK_LIBRARY
- Location of the Tk library files.
Note that other more general variables like PATH may also affect TkDesk.
SEE ALSO¶
cd-tkdesk(1),
ed-tkdesk(1),
od-tkdesk(1)
AUTHOR¶
Christian Bolik (Christian.Bolik@mainz.netsurf.de)
BUGS¶
TkDesk may still have problems with files containing spaces, brackets, and
braces. This is due to the fact that the largest part of TkDesk is written
using Tcl, the Tool Command Language created by John Ousterhout, for which
these characters are "special" in some respects.
If you can't get the application bar back on the screen, delete the line
starting with "Toplevel dsk_appbar" from the file ~/.tkdesk/_layout
and restart TkDesk.
Some Sun machines seem to have problems with Drag&Drop. It seems these
problems go away when a more recent X server is used.