5. Managing Files

1. Delete
2. Copy
3. Move
4. Search

5.1 Managing Files using GMC
5.2 Managing Files using Konqueror
5.3 Managing Files using Midnight Commander

5.1 Managing Files using GMC

To select a directory in the tree view simply use a single mouse click. This will change the main directory view, showing the files in the directory you have chosen. If there is a plus sign to the left of a directory name in the tree window, you may click on it to show sub directories. At this point the plus sign will have changed to a minus sign. If you click on the minus sign, the sub directory once again becomes hidden in the tree view and the plus sign reappears.

5.1.1 Selecting files

5.1.2 Deleting files

5.1.3 Copying Files

5.1.4 Drag and Drop for Copying

You may also bring up a menu which lets you decide what action to perform with a drag by using the middle mouse button to drag a file or pressing the Alt key while dragging a file. Once you release the drag you will get a pop-up menu which contains the options Copy, Move, Link, and Cancel Drag.

The motto is "There's More Than One Way To Do It"!

5.1.5 Moving Files

5.1.6 Searching for Files

1. Start at - The sub directory from where to start searching the file. If you want to search all the partitions enter `/' in this text box.
2. File Name - The name of the file which you want to search. You can use wild cards here.
3. Content - If you want to look into the contents of files for some particular text, enter that text in this text box.

5.2 Managing Files using Konqueror

5.2.1 Selecting Files

You can also select files using some wild cards.

• The wild card characters *, which matches any number of characters
• ? which matches a single character.

• flag*.png will select all file names starting with the letters "flag" and ending with ".png".
• memo?.txt will select memo1.txt and memo9.txt but not memo99.txt.

5.2.2 Deleting Files

• You can move it to the Trash directory, which is the safest method as you can get it back when you realize that you have made a mistake.
• You can just plain Delete it, which removes the entry from the directory and adds the disk area occupied by the file(s) to the system's list of free disk areas.
• Or you can Shred it, which is like Delete, but also overwrites the disk area occupied by the file(s) with random data. Useful for disposing of incriminating departmental memos or similar files when you don't want any trace of them to remain on your system.

Or, if you have "selected" the item, the Menu bar `Edit' menu will give you the choice of `Move to Trash', `Delete' and `Shred' options.

You can use your keyboard to delete.

• Del will move a selected item or items to Trash.
• Shift+Del will really, truly and irrevocably delete the selected item or items.
• Ctrl+Shift+Del will shred the selected item or items.

5.2.3 Copying Files

Or if the item is "selected" you can use the `Copy' button on the Tool bar or the Menu bar `Edit->Copy' item, or the Ctrl+C on your keyboard.

Navigate to the directory you want to copy the item into then `Paste' the item into the new directory.

5.2.4 Moving Files

5.2.5 Searching Files

In the Menu bar click on `Tools->Find file' option. This will embed the file finder application KFind into Konqueror's window.

Select the Name & Location tab, and enter the file name. Wild cards may be used as needed. The search begins in your home directory, but you can select any starting directory you wish by clicking on the `Look in' or `Browse' To start searching, click the icon (which looks like a magnifying glass over a sheet of paper) on the left of the tool bar. After a moment, a list of files will appear in the search results window. If they do not appear, you started the search in the wrong directory, made a spelling mistake in the name field, or no files meeting your search criteria.

You can supply more restrictions on your search criteria if you have more details about the file you are searching. There are more tabs where you can do this.

• Date modified-Here, you can specify that you only want to see files which were last touched in a given period of time. You can also specify that you only want to see files that were touched since a specified number of months or days ago.
• File type-If you know that the file was of a special type (e.g., a tar/gzip archive or a jpeg picture), you can tell KFind to find only this type of file.
• Text string-You can specify text that the file must contain.
• Size-If you know the file size, you can limit your search in this regard, as well.

5.3 Managing Files using Midnight Commander

The Midnight Commander provides a view of two directories at the same time.

You can execute commands from the Midnight Commander by simply typing them. Everything you type will appear on the shell command line, and when you press Enter the Midnight Commander will execute the command line you typed.

In this manual we will use the following abbreviations:
Cntrl-char means hold the Control key while typing the character char. Thus Cntrl-f would be: hold the Control key and type f.

5.3.1 Using Mouse

When you left click on a file in the directory panels, that file is selected; if you click with the right button, the file is marked (or unmarked, depending on the previous state). Marking multiple files is equivalent to selecting multiple files.

Double-clicking on a file will try to execute the command if it is an executable program; and if the extension file has a program specified for the file's extension, the specified program is executed.

5.3.2 Navigating

There are two directory panels in MC. If you want to switch from one panel to to another, i.e. if you are working on left panel and want to move to the right panel, you can do it by:

• Using the mouse, left click on the panel you want to make as your new panel. If you are in the left directory panel, clicking anywhere on the right directory panel will make the right panel your new panel.The selection bar moves from the old current panel to the new current panel.
• Tab
• Cntrl-i

5.3.3 Using Menus

The Left and Right Menus allow you to modify the appearance of the left and right directory panels.

The File Menu lists the actions you can perform on the currently selected file or the tagged files.

The Command Menu lists the actions which are more general and bear no relation to the currently selected file or the tagged files.

5.3.4 Selecting Files

Selecting multiple files is known as tagging/marking in MC. To mark a file click it with the right button, the file is marked (or unmarked, depending on the previous state). You can also tag files by using the Insert key or the Control-t.

Re tagging an already marked file untags it.

5.3.5 Deleting Files

5.3.6 Copying Files

5.3.7 Moving Files

During the process, you can press Ctrl-c or Esc to abort the operation.

5.3.8 Searching Files

The Find File feature first asks for the start directory for the search and the file name to be searched for. By pressing the `Tree' button you can select the start directory from the directory tree figure.

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