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XFM(1) XFM(1)
NAME
xfm - X file and applications manager
SYNOPSIS
xfm [options ...]
DESCRIPTION
Xfm is a file and applications manager program for the X
window system. It provides virtually all of the features
that you would expect in a file manager - move around your
directory tree in multiple windows, move, copy or delete
files, and launch programs with simple mouse operations.
Directory displays are updated automatically in regular
intervals when the contents of the directory changes. The
integrated application manager provides a kind of
``shelf'' onto which you can place your favourite applica-
tions, as well as the files and directories you are cur-
rently working with. It also allows you to access differ-
ent groups of applications and files. User-definable file
types let you specify a command to be executed when dou-
ble-clicking on a file or dropping other files onto it.
Last not least, xfm can automatically mount and unmount
special devices like floppies as you open and close the
corresponding directories (mount points).
OPTIONS
Xfm accepts all the usual toolkit options. Furthermore,
the following options let you control which windows should
be displayed at startup.
-appmgr
Only display the application manager window.
-filemgr
Only display the file manager window.
If both -appmgr and -filemgr are specified, then the
applications and one file manager window will be dis-
played, which is also the default. If only -filemgr is
specified, the application manager will not be available
in this session.
RUNNING XFM FOR THE FIRST TIME
There are a number of configuration files which need to be
placed in your home directory in order to run xfm. To
install the default configuration files, run the program
xfm.install which will create a directory ~/.xfm and
install some files in there. These are your personal con-
figuration files, and may be edited to customise Xfm to
your own tastes.
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
USAGE
Most of it should be fairly obvious. There is one applica-
tion window and zero or more file windows in which direc-
tories (also termed folders) are displayed. In order to
perform an action, you either select items and then invoke
a menu operation, or you drag items from a file window to
a second (maybe the same) file window or the application
window. You can also double-click on an item to start a
corresponding action (like launching an application, edit-
ing a file, or changing directories), and press the right
menu button on an item to bring up a menu containing oper-
ations for a single file or application. Pressing the
right button on the background of the application window
displays the application menu. File operations are
accessed from the file window menu bar as usual.
The left-hand mouse button selects an item (and deselects
all others in the same window). The second button toggles
the selected state of an item.
You can drag with the left-hand button to another window
(or another icon, in general a valid destination will be
highlighted with a border when the cursor is over it) to
move files from one directory to another. The second but-
ton used in the same way will copy files. Applications can
be launched by dropping files on them; and installing
files and programs in the application manager can be done
by dropping files on the background of the application
window. Finally, new file windows can be opened by simply
dragging a directory icon to the root window.
The action taken when double-clicking on a file depends on
the type of the file. If it is a directory, it is dis-
played in the file window. If it is an executable, the
program is started. Other files are opened in the default
editor (specified by the defaultEditor resource), unless
another action is given in the xfmrc file (see CONFIGURA-
TION below).
Directories can be displayed in three different forms:
tree (display subdirectories in tree-like form), icon
(display directories and files as icons) and text (similar
to ls -l). These options are selected from the View menu.
In the tree form, clicking on the arrows takes you up or
down one level.
Directory displays are updated automatically in regular
intervals when the contents of the directory changes. You
can also explicitly request a folder update by double-
clicking on the directory name field of the corresponding
file window.
MENU COMMANDS
FILE MENU
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
File manipulation operations.
New...
Create a new (and empty) file.
Move
Rename a single item (directory or file) or move
selected items to another directory.
Copy
Create a copy of a single item under a new name or
copy selected items to another directory.
Link...
Create a symbolic link.
Delete
Delete the selected items.
Select...
Select items by pattern. The usual metacharacters are
recognized (*, ?, [ ]). (Currently there is no provi-
sion for escaping these.)
Select all
Select all items in the current directory (except the
parent directory).
Deselect
Deselect all items.
Quit
Terminate xfm.
FOLDER MENU
Operations dealing with directories and the file window.
New...
Create a new directory.
Go to...
Display the specified directory.
Home
Display your home directory.
Up
Display the parent directory.
Empty
Delete all items in the current directory.
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
Close
Close this file window.
VIEW MENU
Options for the directory display.
Tree
Select the tree form display.
Icons
Select the icons form display.
Text
Select the text form display.
Sort by name
Sort directory by name.
Sort by size
Sort directory by size.
Sort by date
Sort directory by date.
Hide folders
Suppress directory items.
Mix folders/files
Mix directories and other files.
Show hidden files
Show hidden files (files starting with a dot).
FILE POPUP MENU
Operations on a single file. This menu pops up when press-
ing the right mouse button on a directory or file icon.
Open
Edit
Open a new file window if the selected item is a
directory, otherwise edit the selected file.
Move
Move the selected item.
Copy
Copy the selected item.
Delete
Delete the selected item.
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
Information...
Display information about the selected item (file
size, permissions and such).
Permissions...
Change the permissions of the selected item.
APPLICATION MENU
Operations for managing the applications window.
Install...
Install a new application in the applications window.
Pops up a dialog form into which you can enter the
necessary information (see CONFIGURATION for a discus-
sion of the fields in this form).
Delete
Delete the selected items from the applications win-
dow.
Save setup
Save the state of the applications window in the
applications file (see CONFIGURATION below).
Load setup
Restore the setup from the applications file.
File window
Open a new file window.
Quit
Terminate xfm.
APPLICATION POPUP MENU
Operations on a single application item. This menu pops up
when pressing the right mouse button on an icon in the
application window.
Edit
Edit an application item. Pops up a dialog form which
allows you to change the configuration information
associated with the selected item (see CONFIGURATION
for a discussion of the fields in this form).
Move
Move the selected item to the bottom of the applica-
tions window. This operation provides a (rather awk-
ward) way of rearranging the order of application
items.
Copy
Copy the selected item to the bottom of the
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
applications window.
Delete
Delete the selected item from the applications window.
RESOURCES
Various aspects of xfm can be configured by changing cor-
responding resource settings in the applications default
file. Some important resources are listed below:
bitmapPath
pixmapPath
The path on which to search for bitmap and pixmap
icons, respectively.
applicationDataFile
configFile
devFile
The names of the application and configuration files
used by xfm (see CONFIGURATION). Normally, these will
be hidden files in your home directory. You may wish
to change this, e.g., if you want to provide a system-
wide xfmrc file. (The applications file should always
be kept in the user's home directory, such that each
user can save his/her private application settings.)
autoSave
Enable or disable automatic saving of application
files. When this feature is enabled (which it is by
default), then xfm saves your application setup (if
modified) whenever you switch to a new file (by means
of the LOAD action, see CONFIGURATION), or when you
terminate xfm.
doubleClickTime
Set the time interval in milliseconds for which a
sequence of two mouse clicks should be interpreted as
a double click. Default: 300.
updateInterval
Set the time interval in milliseconds in which to per-
form automatic folder updates. Default: 10000.
confirmXXX
Resources to request confirmation for various opera-
tions. XXX can be any one of Deletes, DeleteFolder,
Copies, Moves, Overwrite and Quit. By default these
are all enabled.
defaultEditor
The command with which xfm invokes your favourite
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editor.
BourneShells
xfm calls other programs by executing your shell (as
taken from the environment variable SHELL). Since
Bourne compatible shells need one extra parameter, xfm
needs to know about the type of the shell. If this
resource is not set (default), or is equal to the spe-
cial string AUTO, a quick-and-dirty test is done at
startup. This test will fail if the shell's initiali-
sation files cause some output. If this happens,
change these files, or set the BourneShells resource
to a comma separated list of full path names of Bourne
compatible shells. If your shell matches an entry in
this list, xfm will assume it is a Bourne shell.
There are way too many available resources to list them
all in this manual page, so please take a look at the
application defaults file for more information.
CONFIGURATION
Besides the application resources, xfm can be configured
by means of three different files, which are usually named
xfmrc, xfmdev and xfm-apps, and are located in the ~/.xfm
directory. These are plain ASCII files which can be edited
using any text editor. (Note that the xfm-apps file is
also written by xfm when invoking the corresponding menu
command, and when the autosave feature is enabled.) Any
line in these files which starts with a hash sign (#) is
interpreted as a comment; empty lines are ignored.
FILE TYPE CONFIGURATION
The xfmrc file specifies the types of ordinary (non-
executable, non-directory) files which xfm should recog-
nize. Each line has the following format:
pattern:icon:push-action:drop-action
As indicated, the different fields are separated by a
colon (use \: to escape the : character, and \\ to escape
the backslash character itself). The meaning of these
fields is explained below.
pattern
The filename pattern a file must match in order to
belong to this type. There are three types of pat-
terns: Literal patterns specify a literal filename
such as ``core.'' Suffix patterns specify a suffix the
filename must match, and are indicated by a leading
asterisk, as in ``*.c.'' (All characters following the
initial * are interpreted as literals; there is no
expansion of embedded wildcards.) Finally, prefix pat-
terns specify a prefix to be matched against the file-
name. They are denoted by a trailing asterisk, as in
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
``README*.''
icon
The name of the bitmap or pixmap file containing the
icon to be displayed for this file type.
push-action
The command to be executed when the user double-clicks
on a file of this type. This command is passed to the
shell (via -c), together with the name of the selected
file. The command is executed in the directory where
the selected file is located. The filename is avail-
able in the command as the positional parameter number
one, such that an action of the form xyz $1 invokes
the command xyz on the selected file. There are also
two special kinds of push actions built into xfm, EDIT
which invokes the default editor on the selected file,
and LOAD which loads the selected file as an applica-
tions file (discussed in Section APPLICATION FILES).
drop-action
Similar to the push action, this field denotes a com-
mand to be executed when a collection of selected
files is dropped onto the file. The absolute target
filename itself is available as positional parameter
$1, the remaining arguments denote the names of the
files dropped onto the target file. The command is
executed in the directory which contains the selected
files. No special built-in commands are available for
this type of action.
If an action field is empty, the corresponding action
defaults to ``do nothing.'' For instance, the following
entry defines an icon and an EDIT push action for .c
files:
*.c:xfm_c.xpm:EDIT:
As another example, here is an entry for compressed (i.e.
gzipped) tar files. The push action causes the archive to
be extracted, while the drop action replaces the contents
of the archive with the files which have been dragged onto
the archive:
*.tar.gz:xfm_taz.xpm:exec tar xfvz $1:exec tar cfvz $*
(Note the use of the shell's exec command. Since actions
are invoked through the shell, it is often useful to
replace the shell with the actual command which is to be
executed, in order to conserve memory space on small sys-
tems.)
It is possible that different patterns given in the xfmrc
file overlap. In this case xfm uses the first pattern
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
which matches. Therefore you should always list the more
specific patterns first. For instance, the following two
entries specify what to do with compressed tar files (spe-
cific case) and other .gz files (default case):
*.tar.gz:xfm_taz.xpm:exec tar xfvz $1:exec tar cfvz $*
*.gz:xfm_z.xpm:exec gunzip $1:
Xfm also enables you to prompt for additional parameters
before an action is executed. This is generally more use-
ful with application entries than with file actions, and
will therefore be described in the context of application
configuration, see PARAMETER DIALOGS below.
DEVICE CONFIGURATION
The device configuration file, xfmdev, lets you specify
which mount points xfm should keep track of, and which
actions to perform in order to mount and unmount the cor-
responding file systems. This allows you to access file
systems on special devices such as floppies, CD-Roms, etc.
in a transparent way. All you have to do is to enter a
directory named in xfmdev (e.g. by opening a file window
on it), and xfm will automatically perform the correspond-
ing mount action for you. Likewise, if you leave such a
directory, xfm invokes the corresponding unmount action.
(CAUTION: You still have to take care that you unmount a
file system, e.g. by closing every file window which has
been opened on it, before you physically remove the corre-
sponding medium.)
An entry of the xfmdev file has the following format:
directory:mount-action:umount-action
The directory field denotes the mount point of the file
system, mount-action the command to be executed in order
to mount the file system, and umount-action the command
for unmounting the file system. Here is a ``typical''
entry from my xfmdev file:
/disk/a:mount -t msdos -o user /dev/fd0 /disk/a:umount /disk/a
Of course, the details of how to mount a floppy file sys-
tem may vary from system to system, and you might have to
take special actions if you want to use mount as an ordi-
nary user. See mount(8) for details.
APPLICATION FILES
Application files are used to specify the contents of the
application window. Normally, these files are not altered
with a text editor, but are written by xfm using the cor-
responding menu operation or the autosave feature. An
understanding of the application data is necessary, how-
ever, if you want to edit an existing or create a new
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
entry using the Install and Edit options of the applica-
tions menu. Each entry has the following form:
name:directory:filename:icon:push-action:drop-action
The name and icon fields specify the name of the applica-
tion and a corresponding icon which should be displayed in
the application window. The push-action and drop-action
fields have the same meaning as in the xfmrc file: they
indicate the commands to be passed to the shell when the
user double-clicks on the icon or drops files onto it,
respectively. The directory and filename fields let you
specify a file to be passed to the application. These
fields are filled in by xfm when the user drags a file or
directory onto the application window. Xfm also properly
sets up the action fields when installing a file which has
a matching entry in the xfmrc file.
As usual, the target file (if specified) and any dropped
files are passed to the push and drop actions as the first
and the remaining parameters, respectively, see FILE TYPE
CONFIGURATION for details. The drop action is executed in
the directory containing the selected files, while the
push action starts in the directory specified by the
directory field, if it is nonempty, and in the user's home
directory otherwise.
In an application file, Xfm recognizes three special types
of built-in push actions. The EDIT action, as in xfmrc,
invokes the default editor. The OPEN action indicates that
the target file actually is a directory onto which xfm
should open a new file window when the user double-clicks
on the corresponding icon. Finally, the LOAD action tells
xfm that the target is an application file whose contents
are to be loaded into the application window. This action
allows you to manage different groups of applications. For
instance, you might have an entry loading a ``toolbox''
applications file from xfm-apps which in turn contains an
entry to reload the xfm-apps file. By these means, appli-
cation groups can be organized in a tree-like fashion.
Note that application files can also be loaded by a corre-
sponding file type entry, since the LOAD action is also
supported in the xfmrc file. (The OPEN action is not sup-
ported there, however, as it wouldn't make sense anyhow.
Note that you can only specify file types for regular
files.)
It is time for some examples. Here are three useful
entries from my xfm-apps files which I use to start an
xterm, my favourite editor, and print a file using lpr,
respectively:
Terminal:::xterm.xpm:exec xterm:
Editor:::editor.xpm:exec emacs:exec emacs $*
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
Printer:::printer.xpm::exec lpr $*
Xfm gives you great flexibility in configuring special
types of actions. For instance, the following entries can
be used to implement a simple trashcan feature and an
action to open a window on a floppy disk:
Trash::.trash:trash.xpm:OPEN:shift; mv $* ~/.trash
A\::/disk:a:disk.xpm:OPEN:
It is also instructive to take a look at how xfm sets up
the entries when you drag files or directories to the
application window. Play around with these features. It is
fun! Many things can be done, if not with a single command
then maybe with a tiny shell script.
PARAMETER DIALOGS
Xfm lets you prompt the user for additional parameters
when a push or drop action is invoked. In such a case, a
dialog form appears, with one field for each parameter,
into which the user can enter the required arguments. Cur-
rently, no checking is done on the supplied parameters; in
fact, the user can simply leave all fields empty. Parame-
ters are specified in an action using the form
%parameter-name%
where parameter-name is an arbitrary string not containing
the % character, which will be displayed in the dialog
form. (As usual, a literal % character can be escaped with
the backslash.) Xfm replaces each such %...% construct
with the corresponding value entered by the user.
For instance, here is an entry for the xfm-apps file which
invokes grep to search a given collection of files for a
regular expression the user is prompted for:
grep:::grep.xpm::grep '%Regular expression\:%' $*
More than one parameter field may be specified. For
instance:
find:::find.xpm:find %Directory\:% %Find expression\:%:
CONSOLE OUTPUT
Programs started by xfm inherit their standard output and
error streams from xfm. Therefore, if you start xfm from
your session or window manager instead of an xterm, you
should redirect xfm's standard output and error to some-
thing which you can read while xfm is running, if the win-
dow manager does not already do that for you. Usually, you
will reassign both stdout and stderr to /dev/console,
using the command:
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XFM(1) XFM(1)
xfm >/dev/console 2>&1
Then you can read error messages and other output produced
by launched applications in the console window on your
desktop (such as xconsole, or xterm -C).
ICONS
Xfm supports icons in both the X bitmap and Arnaud Le
Hors' XPM format. A collection of useful icons is
included in the distribution.
FILES
~/.xfm
Standard location for xfm configuration files.
SEE ALSO
X(1), xconsole(1), xterm(1), mount(8), Arnaud Le Hors: XPM
Manual. The X PixMap Format, Groupe Bull, 1993.
CAVEATS AND BUGS
xfm catches the TERM signal to gracefully terminate the
program, saving the current application file if the
autosave feature is enabled, and unmounting all open file
systems which have been mounted by xfm. However, some
window and session managers may not send TERM signals to
their client applications when terminating an X session.
Therefore it might be necessary to explicitly quit xfm or
manually save the applications file and close file windows
before exiting X.
xfm depends on your shell - see resource BourneShells.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1990-1993 by Simon Marlow
Copyright (c) 1994 by Albert Graef
AUTHORS
The original version of this program was written by Simon
Marlow (simonm@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk) at the University of
Glasgow. Albert Graef (ag@muwiinfa.geschichte.uni-
mainz.de) at the University of Mainz is the author of the
present version which contains many bug fixes and enhance-
ments.
X Version 11 10 February 1994 12