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STree - The ST Filetree Scan Utility ==================================== Version 1.04 Written by Stephen Hebditch (C) 1991 TQM Communications ------ There's a file you *know* is on your hard disk somewhere but you can't remember just where. Looks like it's time to dig out that unfriendly TTP file finder. If you can remember where that is, and what you're supposed to type in the launch box. Or maybe installing a big new application has gone wrong. It seems to have created new folders and files on several partitions, but you're not sure what they're called or where they are. Looks like you'll have use the desktop to check each folder in turn. Or perhaps you could dig out that command line shell and work out a simpler way to do it. Perhaps not... Makes you wonder why you bought a machine with a user-friendly graphical user interface. Maybe you should be using STree. STree is a desktop accessory for the Atari ST / STE / TT which lets you search for files on your hard disk matching a specification and then manipulate them using a TT style desktop. Just click on STree in the accessory menu and up pops a dialog box. You can then enter your search specification, including:- o File mask with full Unix(tm) style wildcarding. o Drive partitions to search. o Path to start searching from on each drive. o Depth of folders to search down to. o File attributes (read only, hidden, system & archive). o Date stamp range. o Time stamp range. o File size range. o ASCII or hex strings to search for within a file. STree will then begin its search, building up a list of matching files. Once this is complete, a window will open containing the list. From here you can carry out all the standard file operations, just like the Desktop: copy, move, delete, print, rename, change file attributes, text file view, saving and printing the file list as well as being able to sort the list by folder, filename, type, date and size. And there's the same keyboard shortcuts you'll find on Atari's new desktop. A SUBTLE HINT ------------- STree is SHAREWARE. If you use STree then you are expected to become a registered user by sending us ten pounds sterling, including VAT. Here's what you get in return... o We'll try and help you with any problems that you may have with STree. Details of the many ways you can contact us are given later. o If you have any suggestions for improvements for future versions then we'll be much more likely to take note of them. o You will usually be able to upgrade to new versions of STree at no cost. You can do this by sending us a blank disk and return postage. We will also e-mail upgrades to UK mail addresses. o You will be able to purchase STree Plus at a greatly reduced price. This commercial product is currently scheduled for release in late Summer 1991 and will feature a large number of enhancements to make STree even more indispensable. To register, send a cheque, postal order or international money order, made payable to 'TQM Communications', to the following address:- STree Registrations TQM Communications BCM Box 225 London WC1N 3XX ENGLAND We will also accept banknotes in any currency at the current exchange rate, but please be sure to wrap these safely. If you require a VAT receipt, please enclose a self-addressed envelope, with appropriate stamps if you are in the UK or an International Reply Coupon elsewhere in the world. A pre-formatted registration form for you to print out and complete can be found in 'POST.ME'. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ------------------- System STree should work on any ST, STE or TT. Screen resolution STree needs a screen resolution of at least 640 x 200. Memory STree will work in any memory size, but 1M+ is preferred. You may find that if STree is opened in some applications then there is not enough room in memory for a full list of files that match your specification. In this case, you will need to return to the Desktop to carry out your search. In its dormant state STree needs approximately 90K of memory. It is not possible to open the accessory if there is less than 24K free memory available. Each matching file STree finds takes up 88 bytes in memory and if you search for strings in files a 16K buffer is needed. INSTALLATION ------------ Copy STREE.ACC and its resource file STREE.RSC to your boot drive (or wherever your other accessories reside). By default, STree uses UK style dates (DD/MM/YY). If you want to use American style dates (MM/DD/YY), rename STREE.ACC to STREE_US.ACC. If you want to use European style dates (YY/MM/DD), rename STREE.ACC to STREE_EU.ACC. Then, to activate the accessory, simply hit the reset button. If STree cannot operate in the screen resolution, or if it cannot find STREE.RSC then you will be informed with an alert and STree will not appear in the Desk menu. TOS 1.0 and TOS 1.2 have a bug which only allows you to visit a maximum of 40 folders in any session. If STree finds more than this number while searching your hard disk then TOS will crash. (You can tell if you have these versions of TOS from the 'About desktop...' dialog box on the Gem Desktop. TOS 1.0 has the '(c) 1985' message. TOS 1.2 has the '(c) 1985/86/87' message.) You can work around this problem by installing an Atari program called FOLDRNNN.PRG in your AUTO folder. This increases the 40 limit by an extra NNN folders. For example, if you have 100 folders on your hard disk, then you should rename FOLDRNNN.PRG to FOLDR080.PRG - allowing an extra 20 folders for use from the floppy. Alternatively, upgrading your Atari to TOS 1.4 will solve the problem forever and give you much faster disk access. SPECIFYING A SEARCH ------------------- Clicking on the STree entry in the Desk menu will bring up the STree specification dialog box. This contains a number of fields and buttons as described below. All of these can, of course, be used in combination with each other. Search mask This is the filename to search for, including wildcards. The first time STree is used in each session this will be set to '*.*' (search for everything). The wildcards operate in a slightly different way to the normal GEMDOS method. '*' will match any string of characters, or no characters at all. '?' will match any single character. (Under GEMDOS '*' will match any characters up to the '.' separator or the end of the filename and '?' will match any single character or, before a separator or end of name, no characters.) This is best explained with examples. *.* - Match any filename. *.DOC - All files with type DOC. FRED.* - Files with name FRED and any type. FRED*.* - Files which begin with FRED. *FRED.* - Files with FRED at any position in the name but nothing following and any type. *FRED*.DOC - Files with FRED at any position in the name and the type DOC. *.? - Files with a single character type. *.?* - Files with a type one character long or more. *FRED??.DOC - Files with FRED at any position in the name followed by two characters and the type DOC. *FRED* - Files with name FRED anywhere in the name and no type. This method of wildcarding is of much more use when searching for a file, and apart from '?' wildcards is fully compatible with GEMDOS operation. Drives These buttons select which drives you wish to search. Drives which do not exist are disabled. At the start of the session all hard disk drives will be selected. Path This is the path at which you wish to start searching on each drive. If the chosen path does not exist on a drive, then it will be bypassed in the search. Clicking on the path will bring up the file selector. This will be positioned at the first drive selected on the specification dialog box and the current path. Normally you will only want to search a path on one drive. Anticipating this, all other drive buttons will be deselected after clicking on OK in the file selector. Attributes You can search for files with particular attributes. Under TOS 1.4 and above these are as follows:- Archive When a file is created or modified the Archive attribute will be set. A hard disk backup program will normally reset this bit when the file has been backed up. System When set, a file will not appear on the Desktop or in the file selector as long as the Read Only or Archive attributes are not set. Hidden As for System. Read Only When set, a file cannot be deleted or written to. Files can be retrieved which have an attribute Set, Reset or Both - corresponding the [S], [R] and [B] buttons. Bytes You can search for files that contain a particular ASCII or hexadecimal string. To search for an ASCII string, the [ASCII] radio button must be selected and the string entered in the Bytes field. If the string is entirely in upper case letters then the search is done case blind. e.g. If you enter the string 'ATARI' then 'Atari', 'ATARI' and 'atari' will all match. If you enter the string 'Atari' then only 'Atari' will match. To search for a hexadecimal string, the [HEX] radio button must be selected. The hex string must be of even length - add a leading zero if necessary. e.g. '01FE30' rather than '1FE30'. If the [Present] radio button is selected, then files containing the string will be retrieved. If the [Not Present] radio button is selected, then files that don't contain the string will be retrieved. Date and Time You can search for files that were modified between particular dates and / or times. There are several options for specifying the range of dates and times:- Files modified Enter the date in the From __/__/__ after a date field. You can also specify a time as well in the From __:__ field if required. e.g From 02/10/90 will retrieve all files modified after 02/10/90. Files modified Enter the date in the To __/__/__ before a date field. You can also specify a time as well in the From __:__ field if required. e.g. To 12:00 09/10/90 will retrieve all files modified before midday on 09/10/90. Files modified Enter the start date in the From between two dates __/__/__ field and the end date in the To __/__/__ field. You can also specify times on those particular days if required. e.g. From 02/10/90, To 12:00 09/10/90 will retrieve files modified between midnight on 02/10/90 and midday on 09/10/90. From 16:00 05/10/90, To 17:00 05/10/90 will retrieve files modified between 4pm and 5pm on 05/10/90. Files modified Enter the start time in the From after a time __:__ field. e.g. From 09:00 will on any day retrieve all files that were modified after 9am. Files modified Enter the end time in the To __:__ before a time field. e.g. To 22:30 will retrieve on any day all files that were modified before 10:30pm. Files modified Enter the start time in the From: between two times __:__ field and the end time in the on any day To __:__ field. e.g. From 01:45 To 02:00 will retrieve files modified between 1:45am and 2am. See INSTALLATION for details of how to set the date format for your country, if necessary. Size You can search for files on the basis of their size. To retrieve files greater than a particular size, enter it in the From ________ field. To retrieve files less than a particular size, enter it in the To ________ field. You can specify a range of sizes by entering both values. Depth This specifies how deep you wish to search from the start path. e.g. If the path is '\' and the depth is specified as 0 then only files residing in the root directories will be retrieved. If the path is '\STREE' and the depth is 2, then files will be retrieved from STREE itself, files in a directory below STREE and files in a directory below that. You can search a maximum of 10 levels deep. Info This button displays the STree information dialog box, with details of our address and brief shareware details. Scan This button begins the scanning of the drives for files matching your specification. If there are any errors in the specification (invalid dates, no search mask, no drives selected, etc.) then an alert will inform you of the problem and you will not be able to proceed with the scan. Exit This button returns you to your currently running application or the GEM Desktop. SEARCHING --------- Once you have clicked on the [SCAN] button, or pressed <RETURN> STree will begin scanning the selected drives for files matching your specification. As each new folder is accessed, its path will be displayed on the screen. If you are searching for a string in a file, then the time the scan takes will be much longer than normal. At any time during the scan, you can press <UNDO> to abort the scanning operation. This will bring up an alert box to check that you do really want to do this. If there are no files matching your specification then this will be reported and you will return to the specification dialog box. If there is not enough memory to hold the full list of matching files then you will be informed of this, and can then manipulate those files that were able to be retrieved. STREE DESKTOP ------------- When one or more files have been found which match your specification a window will be opened containing the STree Desktop. This has been designed to be as similar to the GEM Desktop (or rather the new Desktop on the TT and STE) as possible, so using it should be second nature. Most operations are loop-alike: when more than one item is selected, the operation is carried out on each in turn; when the operation on each item is successfully completed, the item is deselected. Note that it is not possible to top other windows or select menu items whilst STree is open. However, all the normal window handles can be used. (This restriction has been imposed because of problems dynamically allocating memory during an accessory session with early TOSes.) The main part of the screen contains the list of files. Each file entry (or item) shows first the path then the name, type, size, date and time. If the path is too long then not all of these may be present. Above this is the info line. When no items are selected this shows the total number of items in the list and their combined size. If one or more items are selected then this shows the number of selected items and their combined size. To the left of the window is a block containing three icons and two menu titles. Items dragged to the icons carry out their respective functions. The two menus are spring-loaded pop-ups. Pressing the mouse down on a title results in the appropriate menu appearing. The mouse can then be dragged until it is over the required choice and released. All the various functions available are described below. Selecting items Selecting items is almost exactly the same as the GEM Desktop. Clicking on an item selects it and deselects all other items. Clicking on an item whilst pressing <SHIFT> toggles that item between selected and deselected whilst leaving all other items unaffected. You can rubber-band items by holding the mouse down and dragging from between items or away from the items but still in the white space. This will select all the items you loop, and deselect all others. Pressing <SHIFT> down at the same time will prevent other items being deselected. Unlike the original Desktop on the ST, scrolling the window will not deselect the items it contains. To make all the items in the list selected, choose the 'Select all' option from the File menu or press <E>. To make all the items in the list deselected, click outside the items area or press <RETURN>. Sort by From the View menu you can choose how items are sorted: by folder, name, type, date and size. The currently selected sort is checked. When you first enter the STree Desktop, files are sorted by folder. If you have a long list of files, the sorting make take several seconds. Open file You can view a text file by double clicking on an item. Alternatively you can select an item then choose the 'Open file' option from the File menu or press <O>. When the screen is full you will get a '-- More --' prompt. Pressing <Q>, <CONTROL><C>, <UNDO> or the right mouse button will return you to the STree Desktop. Pressing <D> or <CONTROL><D> will scroll by half a page. Pressing <RETURN> will scroll by one line. Pressing <SPACE> or the left mouse button will display the next page. At the end of the file, you will be presented with the '-- End of file --' prompt. Pressing any key or mouse button will return you to the STree Desktop. Show info To show information about a file or files, select one or more items then choose the 'Show info...' option from the File menu or press <S>. You will be presented with a dialog box showing the filename, size, date and time last modified and its attributes. You can change the filename by entering a new name in the field. You can change an attribute by clicking on the appropriate buttons. Clicking on the [OK] button will modify the name and / or attributes. [Skip] will leave this file untouched and still selected and move on to the next item. [Cancel] will return you to the STree Desktop. Copy file(s) To copy one or more files, select the required items and drag them to the Disk icon. A dialog box will appear confirming the copy operation and the number of items to copy. Clicking on [OK] will present the file selector, from where you can choose the path to copy the files to. Clicking on [OK] again here will begin the copy operation. As each file is copied its filename is displayed on the screen. You can abort the operation at any time by pressing <UNDO>. If a file already exists, then you are given the option to change the destination filename. Clicking on [OK] will copy using the name in the destination filename field. [Skip] will skip copying this file and leave it still selected. [Cancel] will abort the entire copy operation. Note that if you overwrite a file that is present elsewhere in the list then that item will not be updated with the new file details! If this happens you should do another scan. Move file(s) The process of moving a file or files is almost identical to Copy file(s). Select the required item(s) and drag them to the Disk icon, holding down the <CONTROL> key when you release the mouse button. The dialog will confirm that you have chosen to move rather than copy. At the end of the move operation, the pathnames of the files will have been updated with the new path at which they reside. Delete file(s) To delete one or more files, select the required items and drag them to the Trash icon. A dialog box will appear confirming the delete operation and the number of items. Clicking on [OK] will begin the deletion of the files. As each file is deleted, its filename is displayed on the screen. You can abort the operation at any time by pressing <UNDO>. At the end of the delete, the files are removed from the item list. If there are no items left then you will be presented with an empty desktop. Print file(s) To print one or more files, select the required items and drag them to the Printer icon. A check will be made that the printer is online, allowing you to switch it on or return to the desktop if it isn't. As each file is printed, its filename is displayed on the screen. At the end of each file, a form-feed will be output. You can abort the print operation at any time by pressing <UNDO>. Save list You can save the file list to disk. Choose the 'Save list...' option from the File menu or press <W>. A file selector will appear from which you can select the path and filename for the list file. Each line in the file will be in the same format as the screen display. Print list You can print the file list on your printer. Choose the 'Print list' option from the File menu or press '>' (<SHIFT><.>). Lines are printed in the same format as the screen display, with a maximum length of 80 characters. New list To return to the Specification dialog choose the 'New list...' option from the File menu or press <L>. Close list To return to your application or the GEM Desktop, choose the 'Close list' option from the File menu or press <C>. DESKTOP OPERATION SUMMARY ------------------------- Copy file(s) Drag items to disk icon Move file(s) Drag items to disk icon, holding <CONTROL> Print file(s) Drag items to printer icon Delete file(s) Drag items to trash icon Open file [O] Menu selection. Double click on item. Show info [S] Menu selection. Select all [E] Menu selection. Deselect items <CR> Click on desktop. Save list [W] Menu selection. Print list [>] Menu selection. New list [L] Menu selection. Close list [C] Menu selection. Click on close window. Move up <UP> Click on up arrow. Move down <DOWN> Click on down arrow. Sort by folder Menu selection. Sort by name Menu selection. Sort by type Menu selection. Sort by date Menu selection. Sort by size Menu selection. CONDITIONS OF USE ----------------- STree is SHAREWARE, copyright 1991 TQM Communications. All rights reserved. This program may be freely distributed provided the following conditions are met. The STree program file, resource file and this documentation must all be included. No charge, other than basic online charges or media costs, may be levied. The program file, resource file and this documentation must not be altered in any way whatsoever. STree must not be sold or included with any commercial product without the express written permission of TQM Communications. This documentation must not be reprinted without the express written permission of TQM Communications. If you use this program, you are expected to become a registered user by sending TQM Communication a payment of 10 pounds sterling. DISCLAIMER ---------- TQM Communications makes no warranty of any kind in respect to this documentation and the software described. The user assumes any risk as to the quality and performance of this product. In no event will TQM Communications be liable for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from any defect in the performance and use of this product. All trademarks acknowledged. CONTACT INFORMATION ------------------- Mail : TQM Communications BCM Box 225 London WC1N 3XX ENGLAND Telephone : 081 509 0729 (24 hour answerphone) Fax : 081 509 0729 Telex : 9312132846 (TQ G) Usenet : steveh@cix.compulink.co.uk steveh%cix@ukc.ac.uk ...ukc!slxsys!cix!steveh Dialcom : 10074: MIK1278 Prestel : 011111896 HISTORY ------- V1.00 - 28 Mar 91 Initial release. V1.01 - 10 Apr 91 Minor improvement of scanning efficiency. V1.02 - 5 May 91 Under TOS 1.04 onwards, the file selector appends a '*.*' if a wildcard wasn't supplied. STree will now accommodate for this feature. Previously it prevented the setting of a search path and a copy / move destination path so those functions did not work. If a file is deleted and the slider is at the bottom of the list, then it will now be correctly repositioned afterwards. Viewing a file is now faster, with improved mouse operation. The computer will no longer crash if ^C is pressed whilst the screen is filling. V1.03 - Not released to general public V1.04 - 23 May 91 The screen presentation has been improved. Windows open below STree won't now show old screen sections when STree is searching. Screen redraws when a copy, move, print or delete is cancelled are now carried out correctly. While searching, the Undo key is now checked every 16 files for normal searches and after every file when a byte string is included in the specification. Previously Undo was only checked at the start of each folder. Print List now outputs a form-feed at the end of the list. Some previous compatibility problems with a small number of programs have now been fixed. Previous incompatabilities with NVDI and some other replacement screen drivers have been fixed. ---- END OF DOCUMENTATION