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Filesets and the Fileset Menu version: 0.2.0 created: 07/26/99 {03:46:54 pm} last update: 12/15/00 {04:15:17 pm} Filesets are lists of files that Alpha uses for multiple-file searches and tag searches, among other things. Typically, a user will set up several different file sets, for example: • all html files in a web site • all source files in a programming project • a local image of a remote cvs code repository • all files on a remote ftp site • all documents in a multi-part LaTeX document A fileset can be as simple as 'All files recursively contained within a given directory' or there can be much more complex membership rules. Alpha provides a menu into which you may wish to place your commonly used filesets. For each fileset you create, you may decide whether to place it into the menu (so you can use the mouse to select and edit a particular file), or whether to have it hidden. Hidden filesets are fully functional in every way to every other part of Alpha which interacts with filesets; they are simply not shown in the menu. In fact Alpha creates some 'hidden' filesets which you can use. One of these is a fileset containing all recently used files; another is a fileset containing all currently open windows. The reason these filesets are 'hidden' is that they are updated very frequently, and already feature in the Windows and Recent-Files menus, so there is little need for them to appear in the fileset menu. Activating the Fileset menu The Fileset menu, like all of Alpha's menus, is activated in the dialog "Config --> Preferences --> Menus…". Check the 'Fileset Menu' box among the global menus, and it should appear in the menu bar. For new users it is automatically activated by default, so it should already be in the menu bar. If icons are used in your menu bar, this menu looks like a stack of overlapping documents. If icons are not used, then this menu is simply called 'Fileset'. Getting started As an introductory example this section describes how to create a new fileset with all files in a folder. • Create a new fileset by selecting 'New Fileset…' in the Utilities submenu of the Fileset Menu. • You are now asked which type of fileset you want. Select 'From Directory' to create a fileset with the files in a folder. • You are now asked to give the fileset a name. Let's give it the name 'My fileset'. • Then you are asked to select the folder for the fileset. Select a folder/directory containing files you might like quick access to. • Next you are asked to give a pattern for the fileset specifying which files in the folder to include in the fileset. To include all files use the default pattern '*'. See the section File Patterns in the Alpha manual to learn about how to specify file patterns. • Next you are asked to specify a list of patterns for files you want to exclude from the fileset but which were included by the file pattern you just specified. Leave this blank for now. • Finally you are asked if you want save the fileset. Doing so will make Alpha keep the fileset the next time you run Alpha. Alpha now builds a new submenu of the Fileset menu called 'My fileset' with all the files in the folder you selected. Selecting a file in the submenu will open the file in Alpha. Your fileset can also be used for multi-file searching. In the Find dialog when selecting multi file searching, you can choose to search the files in your fileset. You can also do multi file search and replace in your fileset, by selecting 'Replace In Fileset' in the Utilities menu. Fileset types Some fileset types require that you give file patterns specifying which files to include in the fileset. Read the Section File Patterns in the Alpha manual to learn about how to specify file patterns. From Directory The basic type: create a fileset of all files in a given folder which match a given pattern. You have to specify: • The folder with the files. • A file pattern matching the files to include. • A list of patterns of files to exclude. From Hierarchy Takes the above one step further and allows filesets to include all files in a nested set of folders. You have to specify: • The base folder with the files. • The depth of nested folders. • A file pattern matching the files to include. Recurse In A simplification of 'From Hierarchy' which includes all files contained in the given base folder. Hence you only need to specify: • The base folder with the files. From Open Windows Make a fileset containing all currently open windows. Codewarrior Query the Codewarrior IDE for a list of all files in the current project. Think Query the Symantec Project Manager for a list of all files in the current project. Tex Make a fileset of all parts of a multi-part TeX/LaTeX document. Alpha's LaTeX mode understands these and will automatically send your TeX application the base .tex/.ltx file when you select 'Typeset' on any component part. Details about TeX filesets can be found in the LaTeX mode documentation. Ftp Make a fileset of files at a remote machine via ftp. You have to specify: • Host, path (optional), user id, and password • A regular expression (not a file pattern!) matching the files to include. Procedural Make a fileset from a Tcl procedure. This type requires that you write a Tcl procedure which returns a list of paths to all files in the fileset. When you create a new procedural fileset Alpha puts an empty procedure (with the correct name!) in your global preferences file. You must then write the body of this procedure. Procedural filesets are completely dynamic and will not appear in the Fileset menu. The following items will be added to the utilities menu if you use TeX filesets: Extract Eps BoxSizes Search all document parts for included eps graphics, extract bounding box information from the .eps files and insert it explicitly into the document (can lead to much quicker typesetting). Delete Eps Box Sizes Remove all the above bounding box information Hierarchical Bib Files Bibliography files may \input others, so they should be searched (the default is not to do this, because .bib files may be enormous). Non-text files By default only text files are included in the fileset. If the flag 'Include Non Text Files' is set, the fileset menu may contain files Alpha is not designed to open; these are sent to the Finder which will open them using whichever application created them. A common use of this feature is a hierarchical fileset containing a complete C or C++ project. Selecting any project source file will open that file for editing, and selecting the project file/debugging symbol file/... will open that using appropriate tool (Symantec Project Manager or Codewarrior IDE or Debugger,…) Another use can be to include images in a home page so you can quickly open them when you want to change the graphics. Fileset cache Rather than rebuilding the Fileset menu every time you launch Alpha, the menu is saved in a cache file. This is to speed up launching of Alpha as building the filesets may take a while if there are many of them. Therefore the fileset submenus may become out of date and you have to rebuild them. You can rebuild a single fileset either using 'Update Current Fileset' or 'Update A Fileset…' or rebuild them all using 'Rebuild All Filesets'. Current Fileset Some functions that use filesets operate on the 'current' fileset. The current file set can be selected in the 'Choose' submenu of the Utilities menu. There is also a flag 'Auto Adjust Fileset' which will switch the current filesets whenever the fileset menu is used to open a file. ====================================================================== Fileset Utilities The fileset utilities menu contains the following items: Edit Filesets… allows you to modify all details of all the filesets you have created. It also allows you to edit additional information which some packages might attach to each fileset (for example, whether to use a version control system for the files, or whether to use a particular tab size setting). New Fileset… Create a new fileset of one of the above six standard types (others may be added by writing your own Tcl code, see below.) Delete Fileset… Remove a fileset, permanently if desired. Print Fileset… Print all files in a fileset Update Current Fileset Re-build the current fileset from scratch Update A Fileset (hold down option) Lets you choose a fileset to rebuild. Rebuild All Filesets Total menu rebuild, including all ftp filesets. Choose A menu from which to set the current fileset. Hide Fileset If you have many filesets, some of which are only used for searching purposes, you can remove them from the menu. Fileset Flags See below for an explanation of the flags. Find Tag See Tags for information on this and the following item. Create Tag File The items below may not all work for all types of filesets. Browse Fileset… Opens a browser window containing all fileset items, from which any can be opened. Close Entire Fileset… Close all windows which belong to a given fileset. Fileset To Alpha… Convert all text files in a fileset to Alpha's creator. Open Entire Fileset… Open all files in a fileset Open Fileset Folder… Tells the Finder to open the base folder which contains a fileset. Rename Fileset… Change a fileset's name Replace In Fileset… Global search and replace in all files. Use this item with care! Stuff Fileset… If you have 'DropStuff' installed, you can archive a fileset. Word Count Count all words in a fileset. Fileset Preferences The following flags may be set: Auto Adjust Fileset Opening a file from the menu will adjust current fileset Include Non Text Files Files not of type 'TEXT' may be in the menu. Indent Fileset Items Visually format submenus if appropriate. Sort Fileset Items Force alphabetical ordering for all filesets Sort Filesets By Type Structure the fileset menu in a user-defined, type- dependent fashion; see the "Personalisation" section below. ====================================================================== Additional fileset information Some packages may attach pieces of data to each fileset. Examples could be the default tab size to use for a fileset (useful if the files use a different value to your own global default), or the type of version control under which the files are registered. Authors of Tcl extensions to Alpha use the proc: fileset::attachNewInformation to add such data. It automatically appears in the 'Edit Filesets' dialog. Personalisation As well as adjusting the aforementioned flags, the fileset menu allows complete user control of the structure of the menu in the following way: Set the 'Sort Filesets By Type' flag, and set the variable "filesetSortOrder" as follows: The structure of this variable dictates how the fileset menu is structured: '{pattern p}' Lists all filesets which match 'p' '-' Adds a separator line '{list of types}' Lists all filesets of those types. '{submenu name sub-order-list}' Adds a submenu with name 'name' and recursively adds filesets to that submenu as given by the sub-order. Leading, trailing and double separators are automatically removed. For example, the default value of this variable (more as an example than anything else) is: set filesetSortOrder { {pattern *System} {pattern Packages} \ {pattern Menus} {pattern Modes} {pattern Preferences} \ - {tex} - {pattern *.cc} {submenu Headers {pattern *.h}} \ - {fromDirectory think codewarrior ftp \ fromOpenWindows fromHierarchy} * } You can and should over-ride this in your global preferences file (copy and paste from here into a "prefs.tcl" file, then make your changes). Known problems with Alpha 7.x Alpha 7.x has hard-coded limits on the maximum number of items in a dialog. The "Edit Filesets" dialog, if you have many filesets (and have activated packages which attach additional information to each fileset), can easily surpass those limits, and the action will simply fail. In this case you will have to use the "Utilities --> Edit A Fileset" menu item. These hard-coded limits have been massively increased in Alpha 8.