72 lines
3.6 KiB
Text
72 lines
3.6 KiB
Text
LYNX FILE MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
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New facilities have been added since Lynx 2-3 to provide support
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for managing files on the local filesystem. These facilities allow
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the user to delete, rename, and re-locate files and/or directories and
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to create and/or upload new files and directories. This will mainly
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be of interest to systems administrators who are interested in running
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lynx as a restricted shell in order to provide controlled access to a
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range of services (as in a freenet). It may also be of use at sites
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where some of the users are experiencing difficulty with the raw Unix
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interface.
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Support for the new facilities is enabled at compile time by defining
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the variable `DIRED_SUPPORT' in the `MCFLAGS' list in the Lynx
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Makefile, and in the WWW makefile `CommonMakefile'. Runtime support
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for disabling the facilities is provided by way of the restriction
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`dired_support' which can be set on the command line for a particular
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session.
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The Makefile also provides additional compile time flags for
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controlling the extent and application of the file management
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facilities; specifically, `OK_TAR' which enables support for creating
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and expanding tar archives, `OK_GZIP' which enables use of gzip to
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compress and decompress files, and `OK_OVERRIDE' which allows access
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to the file management facilities directly from the keyboard in
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addition to access by way of a file management menu.
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There are two possible modes of operation; the first in which a single
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file management menu is invoked via the `f', or `F' key; the second,
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in which the more often used facilities are made available directly
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from the keyboard in addition to access via the menu. The second
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method provides a much better user interface but requires re-mapping
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some of the keys from their standard lynx interpretation, temporarily
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when file management mode is in effect. For example, if OK_OVERRIDE is
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defined at compile-time, then the line at the bottom of the screen, in
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novice mode, will be
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C)reate D)ownload E)dit F)ull menu M)odify R)emove T)ag U)pload
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rather than the standard second noviceline,
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H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list
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when the user is browsing part of the file system. If OK_OVERRIDE is not
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defined then all access to file management functionality must be by way
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of the menu. The only exception is that the facility to tag files for
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subsequent removal and/or re-location is always available directly from
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the keyboard using `t', and `T'.
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This is a first release of the file management enhancements and suggestions
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for improvements are welcome. Among the enhancements which are currently
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being considered are facilities for changing file access attributes, and
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a facility for listing and extracting part of an archive.
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In order to use the file management facilities you may either point
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the program at a directory on the command line or point the program at
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an html file which contains a link of the following form:
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<a href="file://localhost/~/"> Manage Personal Directory ? </a>
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where the anchor `file://localhost/~/' implies a reference to
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/home/username. Because the `~/' in a file URL is converted to
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`/home/username' regardless of origin, these facilities also work when
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the anchor shown above is served from an http server as well. In
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either case the reference is to files on the local system and not
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files in the domain of the server.
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By default the file listing is in standard Unix mixed format, but you
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may use the Options menu to select WWW `directories first' format, or
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`files first' format if you prefer.
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Rick Mallett, Carleton University, Ottawa Canada. (rmallett@ccs.carleton.ca)
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