A graphical file and desktop manager for the x window system
tkdesk [-configdirdir] [-debug] [-default] [-develop] [-iconic] [-layoutfile] [-startdirdir] [-twm] [-?|--help]
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.
The listboxes contained in the file browser and list windows display the contents of their respective directory. They provide the following mouse button bindings:
Select the file under the mouse pointer, deselect all others.
Select or deselect the file under the mouse pointer, without deselecting any other file.
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.
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).
Select the file under the mouse pointer, and ask for a command to be executed on that file.
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).
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.
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.
Switch on "debug mode". This generates some output on stderr that may be used for debugging purposes.
Let TkDesk read its configuration from its library directory. This means that TkDesk will start using the default configuration.
Switch on "development mode". This adds a "Development" submenu to the "TkDesk" menu.
Open all file browser and list windows in iconic state when TkDesk starts up.
Load and save TkDesk's window layout from and to file. If file doesn't exist the default layout is used.
Display dir in the first file browser window that's opened.
Some window managers, namely twm cannot handle icon windows correctly. TkDesk uses these for colored icons. This options switches to monochrome icons.
Displays the command line options available.
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).
Definition of the application bar.
Definition of the button bars used in file browser and file list windows, and of directory-specific button bars.
Contains a list of menu entries that will be added to the "Commands" menu.
Definition of the contents of the "Directory" menu and of actions performed when specific directories are opened.
Defines how files and directories are displayed, both by default and on a per-object basis (using shell-like "glob" patterns).
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.
Definition of the file- and directory-specific popup menus. Also contains the definition of the popup menu used in the "Copy, Move, ..." dialog.
Defines which command should be used for playing sounds, if any, plus defines which sounds should be played at which TkDesk event.
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.
The static version of TkDesk is affected just by one environment variable:
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:
Location of the Tcl library files.
Location of the Tk library files.
Note that other more general variables like PATH may also affect TkDesk.
Christian Bolik ([email protected])
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.