183 lines
6.4 KiB
HTML
183 lines
6.4 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
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<TITLE>The Moxfm File-Manager</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<CENTER><H2>A New Motif-based Revision of the Xfm
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File-Manager</H2></CENTER>
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by <B>Larry Ayers</B>
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<A HREF="mailto:layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us">
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<layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us></A><BR>
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Copyright (c) 1996<BR>
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<H5>Published in Issue #7 of the Linux Gazette</H5>
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<HR>
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<CENTER><H3>Introduction</H3></CENTER>
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Included with many Linux distributions is the Xfm file-manager,
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developed by Simon Marlow and Albert Graef. I used and appreciated this
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program when I first installed Linux, but when I upgraded the xpm
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libraries (which was necessary to allow many newer programs to
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function) xfm lost the ability to read icons, and I never could get it
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to work right. So I began trying out other x-window file-managers; one
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day a link on the WWW led me to Oliver Mai's home-page. His Motif-based
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revision of xfm sounded great, with many new features. I immediately
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downloaded the source package from ftp.x.org, only to find out that the
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Motif libraries are needed for successful compilation.
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<P> Back at Mai's home-page, I noticed that a statically-linked Linux
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binary was available for download as a uuencoded ascii file directly
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from the website. It didn't take long to download, and the
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installation was simply: <EM>make install</EM> and <EM>make
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install.man</EM>.
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<P>
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Since I began to use it the program has become indispensable to me.
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<HR>
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<CENTER><H3>Features</H3></CENTER>
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Moxfm expands upon the extensive feature set familiar to users of xfm.
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Oliver Mai has added seamless mounting of cdrom and floppy drives: click
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on /cdrom and the cdrom drive is mounted and its directory displayed.
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When you move on to another drive the cdrom is unmounted. This feature
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will conflict with the default setup of a Slackware installation in
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which the cd drive is mounted during bootup. A workaround for this is
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simply editing out the statement:
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<PRE>
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"if [ -r /etc/rc.d/rc.cdrom ]; then
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. /etc/rc.d/rc.cdrom
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fi "
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</PRE>
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from the /etc/rc.d/rc.M file.
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<P>
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One of the menu-bar commands which I use all the time is "start
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xterm" which opens an xterm in whichever directory is currently
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displayed. Let's say you've just downloaded source-code for something
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new. In the application window you bring up the <EM>Toolbox</EM> page,
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drag the *.tgz file over to the <EM>Untgz</EM> icon, and open up the
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newly created directory in the adjacent directory window. After reading
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the README and INSTALL files, you can bring up an xterm in the current
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directory and compile the source.
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<P>
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The optional separate application window holds several pages of
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categorized icons, which are easily editable and can represent
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applications, files, drives, etc.
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<P>
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Additional directory windows can be opened and drag and drop is
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well-supported; a limitation of the current beta (0.98) prevents you
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from moving files between partitions, but the soon-to-arrive version 1
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is supposed to support this.
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<P>
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In the best unix tradition all configuration is done with ascii text
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files. During installation a directory named ".xfm" is created under
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/etc/X11; this subdirectory contains several "dot-files" which allow
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extensive customization. One essential file is moxfmdev, which tells
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moxfm which directories you'd like your floppy and cdrom drives to be
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mounted upon.
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<P>
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Like fvwm, moxfm can look like an entirely different program at the
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end of a customization process. <P>Configuration file entries for the
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application-window icons can be easily edited by means of a
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right-mouse-button menu selection; after changing a setting, (perhaps
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the setting for the icon to be displayed), you can preview the changes
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and choose whether or not to save them.
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<P>
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In the forthcoming version 1.00, any application, drive, or device
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icon can be displayed directly on the desktop. The settings for these
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icons will be directly editable in the same way, and their positioning
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is variable as well.
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<P>
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Click here to see a screenshot of Moxfm:
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<P>
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<A HREF="./gx/ayers/moxfm.gif">Moxfm Desktop</A><BR>
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<HR>
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<CENTER><H3>Bugs and Drawbacks</H3></CENTER>
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<P>
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Sound too good to be true? You end up paying for these features
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with an increased load on your system. Moxfm seems to consistently use
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12-14% of total memory and the cpu usage varies from 7% to around 15%.
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<P>
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Startup time is a consideration; on my 80 mhz. 486 with 16 mb. of
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memory Moxfm takes around five seconds to appear.
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<P>
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Occasionally while trying to read a large directory (like /usr/bin)
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the program will appear to hang, but if you give it a moment it'll
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recover. (I usually switch to another desktop so screen-redraw won't be
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a factor)
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<P>
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Moxfm seems to have trouble with directories like /proc and /dev,
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which don't contain the usual sort of files. Killing and restarting is
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the quickest way to deal with situations like these.
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<P>
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I assume some of these glitches will be cured in the next release,
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but don't let them stop you from trying it out! It's worth the
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occasional problem.
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<P>
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Personally I like to have a good console-mode file-manager available
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as well; when working at a text-mode console the Midnight Commander is
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hard to beat.
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<HR>
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<CENTER><H3>Availability</H3></CENTER>
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<P>
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If you are fortunate enough to have the Motif libraries on your
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system you can download the pre-release version 1.00 source-code for
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Moxfm from Oliver Mai's home-page:
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<A HREF="http://ips105.desy.de:8675/~mai/moxfm">Moxfm Website</A>
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<P>
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For those without Motif the statically-linked binary (beta 0.98) is
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also there. The source code for version 0.98 is also at
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ftp.x.org/contrib/applications.
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<P>
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By the time you read this version 1 should have been released and
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hopefully Oliver Mai will have uploaded it to the big ftp sites.
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<P>
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Mr. Mai states that he will make available a statically-linked
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binary of version 1 soon after the release of the code.
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<P>
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Incidentally, I should mention that Moxfm is GNU software.
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<P>
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<HR>
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<CENTER><H3>Addendum</H3></CENTER>
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<P> Since writing the above I've had the opportunity to try out a
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preliminary version of moxfm version 1.00, and can report that many of
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the above drawbacks have been addressed; the speed and stability have
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improved, and several nifty new features have been added. In addition
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to the above-mentioned desktop icons, moving files and directories
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from one drive or partition to another is now supported.
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<P>
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Back up to the <A HREF="./lg_issue7.html">Linux Gazette!</A>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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