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The Command Bar

The Command section of the Fileman window contains two distinct parts: The file commands (1), and the status/data entry strips (2,3), which are used in conjunction with all Fileman commands.

1. Commands

• Edit: Same command as clicking on the filename in column 3 of Section 2. Use the edit command only on text files (.txt).
  
  
• Download: Click the checkbox in column 1 of Section 2 before issuing the Download command. Use this command to view non-text files.
  
  
• Copy: Make a copy of a file or directory.
  
  
• Delete: Delete (FOREVER! - no recovery available) a file or directory.
  
  
• Move: "Move" differs from "Copy" in that it leaves nothing behind. The Copy command leaves the original in place and creates a second, identical file. Use the Move command to rename a file or directory or to move a file from its current location to a different subdirectory.
  
  
• Chmod: Allows you to change permissions of checked files. See the Permissions Tutorial for further information regarding permissions.
  
  
• Tail: View the last 25 lines of a text file.
  
  
• Perl: This will syntax check the Perl code in a checked file. For more information, please see the Gossamer Threads forum.
  
  
• Diff: This will show you the differences between two files.
  
  
• Tar: Allows you to archive the selected files/directories to a file on the server. This basically puts all the files you've selected into one file without doing any extraction. This process is generally referred to as creating a "Tar-Ball". This command is most frequently used to create backups of folders and your website in general. To do this, create a .tar file and then download it to your computer's hard drive either by accessing it directly through a URL or by using the Download command.
  

2. Status Line

   The status line is used with a variety of commands from all three sections of the FileMan window. Prompts for commands appear in the status line as well as a report of the conclusion of the command.
   In short, the status line shows information regarding a command in progress. It prompts you through a command and then reports back the result of that command. For example, when you select the Move command (to rename a file or change its location) the status line prompts you with:
   Please enter where you would like to move the files
   After entering the new fileman in the Data Entry Strip and clicking on the adjacent Move button, the status line confirms the success of the command with:
   1 selected file(s) have been moved

3. Data Entry Strip

   The Data Entry Strip is used by many commands, to collect file and path names, select options, browse the local hard drive for files to upload and searching files for specified strings of text.