README

Here are some detailed IMPORTANT notes and FAQs for users and packagers.

Please read this carefully before you make package for PCManFM.
** Suggestions to the packagers:

1. Add these two commands in your post-inst scripts, or some things won't work:
  update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
  update-desktop-database

2. Never turn on --enable-inotify configure option. It's currently broken.

3. Use gamin instead of fam, whenever possible.

4. Use hal >= 0.5, or volume management won't work properly.
  If there is no hal on your system, turn this off with --disable-hal option.

5. Check /usr/share/pcmanfm/mount.rules to see if any modification
  is required on your distro.

** Detailed explanation for every issues related to PCManFM:

Mime Type Handling:

1. Running update-mime-database /usr/share/mime as root after installation
  is needed because PCManFM adds some new mime-type definitions
  to the system to speed up the recognition of some well-known Windows files.
  (This also improve other programs using the same shared mime database)
  So, regenerating the the cache of the database is required since it's changed.

  * To packagers: Don't forget to do this in your post-inst scripts.

2. Default application is specified in ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
  If default application is not found in this file, system-wide settings will
  be used. The system-wised settings are in /usr/share/applications/defaults
  and /usr/local/share/applications.

  NOTE: There is currently no standard for this. To maximize compatibility, and
  decrease the users' problems, we use the same mechanism with Gnome and XFCE.
  Our own mechanism, which I think is better, is dropped in PCManFM 0.3.5 and later.

  * Besides, running update-desktop-database as root is required after
  installation since all applications for all mime-types are cached on
  the system according to the freedesktop.org specs to improve performance.
  Without this cache, PCManFM won't work properly.

  * To packagers: Don't forget to do this in your post-inst scripts.


Volume Management (Mounting devices):

  Mounting and unmounting the disks are supported through HAL.
  If you compile PCManFM with --disable-hal, volume management won't be available.
  Besides, please use the latest version of HAL available on your systems because
  incompatibilities exist among different versions of HAL. The older versions
  lack something important, and their configuration are different, too.
  Generally HAL >= 0.5 might be OK. Our development environment uses version 0.5.9.

  If a device is defined in /etc/fstab, PCManFM will call mount/umount directly.
  Otherwise, HAL will be called to mount the devices. This is usually the case of
  removable devices such as usb disks or SD cards which are not described in fstab.
  Default options to mount various file systems on these devices can be changed
  via editing /usr/share/pcmanfm/mount.rules. The file format is easy to understand.
  Newer versions of HAL force applications to handle these options themselves.
  (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/hal.html)

  * To packagers: If these default options shipped with PCManFM are not suitable for
    your distro, please patch them before packaging, or things won't work on your distro.
    For example, Debian doesn't support 'usefree' option for vfat while Ubuntu uses this.
    Don't forget to adjust these options, if things don't work on your distro.


Switch To Root Problems:

  In "Tool" menu of PCManFM there is an option for you to switch to super user.
  By default PCManFM calls 'gksudo', and if it doesn't exists, it calls 'gksu'.
  If both of them don't exist, PCManFM will call 'kdesu'.
  In some distros, 'gksudo' is disabled by default. Instead, you can assign your
  preferable program during configuration, and the option is
  "--with-preferable-sudo=PROG"

  * To packagers: For the sake of consistency, you might use proper argument passed
  to option "--with-preferable-sudo" before packaging,


File Alteration Monitor (fam or gamin?):

  File alteration monitor is an important part of file managers.
  Without this, file managers won't reflect changes of files done by other
  applications or under consoles.
  Historically FAM is used for this, but it has some performance and security
  problems.  So it's gradually replaced by gamin in modern distros.
  FAM and gamin are compatible in most of the cases.

  * To packagers: Using gamin with PCManFM is more recommended.

Inotify support:

  * To packagers: Please leave this configure option off as its default and
    don't try to turn it on.  It's currently broken.

  We use gamin instead of using inotify directly since inotify can only monitor
  part of the file systems, and requires much additional complicated processing by
  applications themselves.  So, let gamin do these dirty works for us.


Warnings while running PCManFM as root?

  Running applications as root is really dangerous and discouraged on UNIX-like
  systems.  To protect users from accidentally break the system, we show a warning
  bar on the window if they run PCManFM as root.  This cannot be turned off because
  we have the responsibility to let the user know they are at risk.

  However, under some circumstances, you'll need to run PCManFM as root all the time.
  This is a common case in live CDs.  So, if you are the author of a live CD, and you
  really need to turn this off, configure with the option "--disable-superuser-checks".


Icons of Files are missing?:

  You might get error message when you start PCManFM telling you that your
  icon theme is not properly set. Normally gtk+ gets icon theme settings via
  XSETTINGS daemons. Under Gnome and XFCE, they run their setting daemons
  so you have no problem. However, under other desktop environments, gtk+
  reads settings from "~/.gtkrc-2.0". The format of this file is poorly
  documented by gtk+ team.  The only available doc is here:
  http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk-tutorial/stable/x2138.html
  Few people know exactly how to edit this file.  Neither do I, but I know
  you can set icon theme by adding this:
  gtk-icon-theme-name="THE NAME OF THE FOLDER CONTAINING ICONS"
  This name can be found by looking in /usr/share/icons, /usr/local/share/icons,
  and ~/.local/share/icons.
  I know this is inconvinient, but that's not my fault, that's the design of gtk+.

  Also, don't use an icon theme designed for KDE, or you'll get no icons.
  The naming of icons are totally different in Gnome and KDE.
  Because there is, again, no standard for this. So we use gnome-compatible themes.
  Personally I recommend using this:
  http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/nuoveXT+2?content=56625

  If you want to change the ugly look of gtk+ programs, you can add this:
  gtk-theme-name="THE NAME OF THE GTK+ THEME YOU WANT TO USE"
  "ClearLooks" is a good gtk+ theme, if you have it installed.


Desktop Icon Support:

  PCManFM provides very basic support for desktop icons.
  Before version 0.3.6.2, using this is strongly discouraged since there are some
  performance problems in this part.  In 0.3.6.2 this is partially fixed.
  Since version 0.3.9, the desktop icon support is completely re-designed and
  re-written. The performance problem was solved, and the functionality is already
  acceptable. Drag and drop support for desktop icons is finally added in 0.4.3.
  So, upgrading to 0.4 series is strongly encoraged. Don't use the deprecated 0.2.x and
  0.3.x series unless you have really good reasons.

  If you only need to set the desktop wallpaper and don't need the icons,
  the small program 'hsetroot' is for you.

  The feature could be removed during build time via configuration option
  "--disable-desktop-integration".


Where is the "Trash Can"?

  Currently we haven't support this yet. Having a correctly working tash can is
  not as easy as you think. It's actually much more complicated than simply moving
  the files to ~/.Trash. To implement a standard-compliant, correct, and safe
  trash can is not an easy task. To see is to believe, read the spec yourself:
  This is the current proposed Freedesktop.org "Trash Spec"
  http://www.ramendik.ru/docs/trashspec.html
  If you think this is easy, please send me a patch and I'll get it applied happily.
  Why those Freedesktop.org guys always make things more and more complicated?