The KFM Handbook: Usage
Description: kfm file manager KDE
Keywords: kfm file manager KDE

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### 3. Usage

### 3.1 Keyboard shortcuts

> `

>     Back in History                                 ALT + Left
>     Forward in History                              ALT + Right
>     One directory up                                ALT + Up
>     Open a file/directory                           Return
>     Open a popupmenu for the current file           ESC
>     Move among the icons                            Left/Right/Up/Down
>     Select/Unselect file                            Space
>     Scroll up fast                                  Page Up
>     Scroll down fast                                Page Down
>     Scroll right (on WWW pages)                     Right
>     Scroll left  (on WWW pages)                     Left
>     Scroll up    (on WWW pages)                     Up
>     Scroll down  (on WWW pages)                     Down
>     Copy selected file to clipboard                 CTRL + C
>     Paste files from clipboard to current directory CTRL + V
>     Select files by pattern                         CTRL + S
>     Open a terminal in the current directory        CTRL + T
>     Open new location                               CTRL + L
>     Find files                                      CTRL + F
>     Close window                                    CTRL + W

> `

### 3.2 How to install new data types

#### What are data types

A file contains only bits and bytes. One must know how to interprete them to give them a meaning. A usual method to archive this is to look at the filename. If it ends with `.gif` for example, you assume that it is a GIF image. That's what most desktop environments (further on called DE) do. KFM does this, too, since it is very fast, but not convenient. If the extension is not available one does not know of which data type the file is and that means in turn that KFM does not know which appliaction can deal with the data. So if KFM can not figure out the data type by extension it will have a look in the first bytes of the file and lookup some stuff in its magic file. This is called automatic-mime-type-detection-magic and works quite nice. So if the datatype has an entry in the magic file `$KDEDIR/share/mimelnk/magic`, then KFM would know that the file `MyGirlFriend` contains an image.

You must register data types in KFM. This poor little helper of yours must know common extensions of this data type, an icon, some descriptive text, perhaps a default application ( we will learn more about this later ) and the mime type.

#### What is a Mime Type

Mime types are an internet standard. This standard is a naming scheme for data types. A data types name is devided in two sections. The first one tells about the general kind of data ( image, video, audio, text ... ) and since there are different kinds of text ( C-sources, english text, ... ) and different formats for saving images and so on, the second part tells abou the special format. A good example is `image/gif`. The first part tell, its an image and the second one tells, it is saved in GIF format.

If you are not shure about the correct mime type, then have a look at the magic file, many many mime types are already registered there.

Usually this chapter is only of interest for system maintainers and application developers. A proper installed KDE should come with all this stuff already done, but some people always want to know how stuff works, so here we go.

The directory `$KDEDIR/share/mimelnk` contains many subdirectories which correspond to the first section of the mime type names. For example our example `image/gif` is represented by a file named `$KDEDIR/share/mimelnk/image/gif.kdelnk`. Every KFM config file has the `.kdelnk` extension. Sometimes KFM hides this extension, since it does not look very nice.

You will find out sooner or later that the directory structure in your global KDE directory is the same as the one in your `~/.kde` directory. As sysadmin on your local Linux box, you may usually want to edit the global configuration, while a user at the universities UNIX cluster may only edit his personal configuration. Everything we say about the `$KDEDIR` directory here, applies to the `~/.kde` directory, too. To edit the global config files in `$KDEDIR` you need a super users password, for the personal stuff of course not.

#### Internals

The config files are very simple and of course human readable. You can have a look at it here:

> `

>     # KDE Config File
>     [KDE Desktop Entry]
>     Type=MimeType
>     MimeType=image/gif
>     Icon=image.xpm
>     Patterns=*.gif;*.GIF;
>     Comment=Gif images
>     Comment[de]=GIF Dokument
>     Comment[nl]=Gif afbeelding

> `

You dont need to understand what this means, since KFM provides a GUI for you, that makes things much easier. Hackers never the less want to know and hack everything, so here is a brief description.

The first line is the header of every KDE config file. The `Type`line is included in every KFM config file to distinguish the purpose of the config file. This is followed by the mime types name, the icon, a `;` separated list of patterns and comments in english, german, ...

Now the hackers may leave this lesson.

### 3.3 How to install a new application

Every KDE application should come with its configuration files so there is no need for the user to edit them. But unless every distribution is KDE ready you may want to configure existing applications to work with KDE. In this lesson we try to install XV in the K Desktop Environment.

#### Why and where

Every application must put a config file in the directory tree `$KDEDIR/share/applnk`. In addition you have a local directory structure in `~/.kde/share/applnk` where you can install additional apps. These files will only be visible for you, not for other users. KFM and KPanel scan these directories on startup. KPanels system menu corresponds to this directory structure. The icons in this directory behave like real applications. You can click on them to start the application and you may drop files on them. It is sometimes a good idea to have such config files outside the `applnk` tree. They work in every directory, but only the ones in the `applnk` directory are scanned in on startup. So if you want to install for example XV as the default app for images, then you must move the config file inside this special tree. But perhaps there are some apps which you dont want to appear in KFM or KPanel but on your desktop, then you may of course create such config files on your desktop or elsewhere. The procedure is almost the same as the one we are describing here.

If KFM find a file it first tries to find out about its data type. After doing so it searches all applications which regsitered for this data type. If none is found the user is prompted. If only one is found or a default on was specified, KFM will use this one, otherwise KFM will make a guess. Using the right popup menu will show you a selection of all applications which registered for this data type.

#### Step by step

You may now continue with the next section while the hackers and developers may want to learn more internals.

The config file we want to create will look like this:

> `

>     # KDE Config File
>     [KDE Desktop Entry]
>     BinaryPattern=xv;
>     MimeType=image/gif;image/jpeg;image/tiff;image/x-xbm;image/x-xpm;
>     Comment=XV Image App
>     Comment[de]=XV Graphik Programm
>     Exec=xv %f
>     TerminalOptions=
>     Icon=image.xpm
>     Path=
>     Type=Application
>     Terminal=0
>     Name=XV
>     Name[de]=XV

> `

The first line contains some magic bytes and the second line contains a `;` separated list of names that the binary of this application may have. This way the binary gets a nice icon, too. The next line conatins a list of all mime types the app can handle, followed by the usual comments in different languages. the `Exec` tag contains the shell quoted command that will be executed to start the application. The `%f` is going to be replaced by the documents filenames, but see the next chapter for more details. The `Type` tag is needed like in every KFM config file. You can tell KFM to start the app in a terminal by setting `Terminal` to 1 and by setting some terminal options if needed. In addition the `Path` tag allows you to specify a working directory. The last two lines determine the name of the applicattion. This name is used in KFMs context sensitive popup menus for example. As with the comments you must provide a english version and may supply diffrent translations.

#### Secret tips

Most old style apps may need the `%f` argument. This means that they can only accept files on the local hard disks. If you use URLs never the less, KFM will download the files first and start the application afterwards. If the files are modified by the app, the user is prompted wether he wants them to be uploaded.

You may enter `%u` instead of `%f`. This will cause KFM to pass URLs to the application. External files are not preloaded. Some KDE apps support this cool feature.

There are addtional tags you may use. Here is a short list:

- `%k` The path and name of the config file itself. This is useful if the app you want to start should read/modify the config file that started it. This way you can for example implement simple printer representations. The same file that repesents the printer on your desktop stores your prefered printer settings. Use `%k` to pass the config file to the printer GUI.
- `%n` The filename of the documents without path.
- `%d` The path of the documents without file name. The `%d` and the `%n` tag together are the same as `%f`.
- `%c` Name of the application. This is the (possibly translated) title of the application, as set in the kdelnk file. This way you can set the title of the application.

### 3.4 Bookmarks

KFM enlarges the meaning of bookmarks. Bookmarks can refer to every file, that means apart from HTML pages and FTP directories documents, applications and `*.kdelnk` files. If a bookmark is selected in KFM, the convenient action follows; a document is opened, an application is started etc. To add a file to the collection of bookmarks, you only have to use the right mouse button on the file and select the entry 'Bookmarks'.

#### Editing Bookmarks

Each bookmark corresponds to a file in $HOME/.kde/share/apps/kfm/bookmarks. An entry in the bookmarks menu makes it easy to find this directory. Renaming a bookmark file also changes the bookmark menu immediately. If you open the properties for such a file, you can configure the bookmark, i.e. for example change the destination (URL) or the icon. You can move, copy and rename files in this directory tree as you desire. Please make sure that these files have a suffix `*.kdelnk`, so that KFM will easily distinguish them from 'normal' files.

#### Bookmark Tree

Creating a new directory in $HOME/.kde/share/apps/kfm/bookmarks will create a submenu of the bookmark menu at the same time. To add a bookmark to the new submenu, pop it up. The first entry will add a bookmark for the current URL.

#### Bookmarks outside KFM

The program krootwm allows the access on the bookmarks. Clicking the right mouse botton on the background of the desktop makes (besides other stuff) the bookmark menu appear. Changings on the bookmarks are not immediately applied to krootwm yet. At the moment you have to restart krootwm to do so.

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