&Pamela.Roberts;
2010-10-26
&kde; 4.5

# &konqueror; the File Manager

## Folders and Paths

In &UNIX; and &Linux; all folders are arranged in a simple hierarchy. Starting from a top level folder (also called the root directory), the structure descends and branches containing various files and subfolders. This means that you can get from any folder to any other by going up until you reach a common point then down through the appropriate subfolders until you reach your target.

The position of any file or folder in the structure (also called a directory tree) can be described by its path, which is a simple list of the folders you would have to descend through to get to the target folder or file. For example `/home/pam` is the subfolder `pam` of the subfolder `home` of the top level folder, and `/home/pam/words.txt` is the file `words.txt` in that subfolder. The leading / in these paths represents the top level folder.

Every folder accessible by your system — including those on other hard disk partitions, your floppy and &CD-ROM; — will appear in the tree descending from /, their exact paths will depend on how your system was set up (see also the section on Floppy and &CD-ROM; Drives).

Every user on a &UNIX; / &Linux; system has their own home folder to hold their personal files and settings; for example `/home/john` and `/home/mary`. The symbol ~ is often used to represent the user's home folder, so that `~/letter.txt` refers to the file `letter.txt` in my home folder.

Note that the term directory is often used instead of folder.

## View Modes

In File Manager mode, &konqueror; lists which files and subfolders are contained within a given folder and can provide you with some information about them. The path of the current folder is shown in the Location Toolbar. The way that &konqueror; displays the files and folders depends mainly on your choice of view mode which can be selected from the View View Mode sub menu. The view modes &konqueror; provides are outlined below.

In File Manager mode, &konqueror; uses an embedded a &dolphin; component.

- In the Icons view, which is the default, files will be represented by an icon that visualizes the file type, and a folder icon will be shown for subfolders.

- In the Details view, the folder contents are displayed as a detailed list which contains the name, size and last modification time of each item. Additional columns can be added by clicking a column header with the &RMB;.

  The details view offers the option Expandable Folders, which can be enabled in the File Management View Modes section of the settings. This option permits to view the current directory in a tree-like fashion: Each subfolder of the current folder can be expanded by clicking on the + button next to it.

- In the Columns view, multiple levels of the folder structure can be viewed at once. If a subfolder is clicked, a new pane showing the contents of that folder is opened at the right edge of the view.

### File Tip Info

Checking the Show tooltips box in the File Management General page of the &konqueror; Configuration dialog causes a small pop up information window to appear when the mouse pointer is hovered over a file or folder name or icon.

### File Previews

The Previews tab of the File Management General settings page lets you enable file previews for certain types of file.

Generally this means that the file's icon will be replaced by a small image showing the file contents.

Because &konqueror; has to read much more data than just the file name to generate a preview, file previews may not be appropriate when viewing files from a remote system. To disable previews for remote files where reading the extra data would take too long set a file size limit at the bottom of the Previews tab.

## Folder View Properties

The following settings control how the contents of a folder are displayed in the &konqueror; view, and are stored on a per-folder basis by default:

- The view mode (Icons, Details, Columns)

- The sorting of items, which is determined by the sort order (ascending, descending) and the attribute (such as name, size,...) that the items are sorted by

- Sorting of folders and files – are folders shown first or not?

- Previews – are they shown instead of icons (based on the settings made in Previews tab of &konqueror;'s File Management General settings) or not?

- Are items shown in groups in the Icons view?

- Are hidden files shown?

- What additional information (besides the name) is shown in the Icons or Details view?

The view properties can be configured in the View menu, some (such as the view mode) can also be changed using toolbar buttons.

### The View Properties Dialog

Screenshot of the View Properties dialog The View Properties dialog.

The View Properties Dialog.

The View Properties dialog can be used to quickly modify several view properties at once. This is done for the current folder, for the current folder including all subfolders, or even for all folders, depending on the choice made in the Apply View Properties To section.

If Use these view properties as default is enabled, the chosen view properties will also be used for all folders which do not have customized view properties yet.

## Navigation

To get to a file with &konqueror; you first need to navigate through the folder tree to find the folder containing that file.

To move between folders you can simply step up and down the tree:

- To descend into a subfolder left click on its name or icon -- or if you have already selected it (see below) -- then just press &Enter;.

- To go up the folder tree you can click on the Up button in the Toolbar, use&Alt;Up, or use the Menubar Go Up option.

To select a file or folder in the displayed folder without opening it in any way use the up and down arrow keys to move through the items. The selected item will be highlighted and some information about it will be displayed in the Status Bar.

Setting the View Mode to Details with the option Expandable Folders can help you locate folders in the tree below the current folder; in this mode each folder is shown with a small box at the left. If the box contains a + sign, left clicking on the box (not on the folder name or icon) will display a sub tree showing files and subfolders contained in that folder. The small box will then change to show a - sign. Left click on that to collapse the sub tree. Once you have found the folder you are looking for, left click on the folder name or icon to open it.

The Sidebar can also help you find your way around the file system.

You can go directly to any folder by typing its path into the Location Toolbar window or into the dialog box invoked by the Menubar File Open Location item or by &Alt; O. &konqueror;'s Text Completion feature may be useful when you do this. Don't forget that in &Linux; / &UNIX; file and folder names are case sensitive.

When you have moved to a new folder you can go back to your previous choice by using the Toolbar Back button, the Menubar Go Back item, or &Alt;Left. Once you have gone back you can go forward. Use the Toolbar Forward button, the Menubar Go Forward item or &Alt;Right.

Alternatively, you can also choose to enter the parent folder by clicking on the Toolbar Up, the Go Up item, or with &Alt;Up.

Click the checkmark at the right of the toolbar Up, Back or Forward buttons or selecting these items in the Go menu brings up a submenu of recently visited locations.

### Finding Files and Folders

If you don't know or can't remember where a file or folder is within your system, then use the Toolbar Find File button or the Menubar Tools Find File... option. This will embed the file finder application &kfind; into &konqueror;'s window. See the &kfind; Handbook for help in using &kfind;.

If the name of a file or folder begins with a period (dot), then it is a hidden file or folder, and will not normally be shown by &konqueror;. To see hidden files or folders use the Menubar View Show Hidden Files option.

Another reason &konqueror; may not show the file or folder you are looking for is that you may have the View Filter plugin set to display only certain types of file.

### Floppy and &CD-ROM; Drives

Any floppy disk, &CD; drive or other hard disk partition that you have on your system will usually appear in the `/` , `/media`, `/mnt` or `/auto` folder, having a path something like `/mnt/floppy` or `/cdrom`. The details will depend on how your system was set up.

&UNIX; / &Linux; requires that you `mount` a floppy disk or &CD-ROM; when you have inserted it into the drive, and `mount` other hard disk partitions when you want to access them. You also need to unmount a floppy disk or &CD-ROM; before removing it to register that it is no longer available.

How you do this will depend on how your system:

- You may have an Automount facility, in which case you don't have to bother about explicitly mounting and unmounting, although you may find that the &CD-ROM; occasionally starts up by itself for no apparent reason.

- You may have Floppy, &CD-ROM; and hard disk icons on your desktop, in which case &LMB; click on the icon to mount it. Doing this should also bring up a &konqueror; window showing the contents of the floppy, &CD-ROM; or partition. To unmount, right click on the icon and choose the Unmount item. Visit the section Create New... in this Handbook to see how to create such an icon.

- Or you can do it the traditional way by typing into a text console window:

  ``mount /mnt/floppy``

  to mount, for example, the floppy drive, and

  ``umount /mnt/floppy``

  to unmount it (`umount` not `unmount`).

  Rather than having to open a text console to type the `mount` or `umount` commands, you may prefer to use &konqueror;'s Tools Execute Shell Command (&Ctrl;E) feature.

## Deleting Files and Folders

&konqueror; gives you two ways to dispose of an unwanted file or folder:

- You can move it to the `Trash` folder, which is the safest method as you can get it back if you realize that you have made a mistake.

- You can just plain Delete it, which removes the entry from the folder and adds the disk area occupied by the file(s) to the system's list of free disk areas, in the same way as the `rm` command.

  If you want to use this feature check the option Show 'Delete' menu entries which bypass the trashcan on the File Management settings page.

The simplest way to remove a file or folder is to position the mouse pointer over its name or icon and press the &RMB;, which will bring up a menu containing the options Move to Trash and Delete.

Or, if you have selected the item, the Menubar Edit menu will give you the choice of Move to Trash and Delete options.

Del will move the selected item or items to Trash.

&Shift;Del will really, truly and irrevocably delete the selected item or items.

You won't be able to remove a file or folder if you don't have the necessary permissions.

## Moving and Copying

To copy a file or subfolder between folders you can:

- Position the mouse pointer over its name or icon and hold down the &RMB;, which will bring up a menu containing the Copy option. Choose that.

  Or if the item is selected you can use the Copy button on the Toolbar or the Menubar Edit Copy item, or the &Ctrl;C shortcut key combination. You can also select multiple files or folders to copy/move as well.

- Navigate to the folder you want to copy the item into then Paste the item into the new folder by using the Toolbar Paste button or the Menubar Edit Paste option or the &Ctrl;V shortcut, or by moving the mouse pointer to a clear area of the window and holding the &RMB; down to bring up a menu containing the Paste option.

Moving a file or subfolder between folders can be done in the same way as copying, except that you choose the Cut option or &Ctrl;X instead of Copy. The item that you have Cut will be removed from the original folder when you do the Paste into the new folder.

You can also copy or move selected item(s) to another folder by selecting Copy To or Move To from the context menu you get when you right click on an file or folder name in the File Manager window.

To enable this feature select Show 'Copy To' and 'Move To' commands on the Context Menu tab of the File Management General section of the settings.

You may not be able to copy or move a file or folder if you don't have the necessary permissions.

### Using Drag 'n Drop

&konqueror; also supports Drag and Drop copying and moving of files and folders.

You can do this by having two instances of &konqueror;, one showing the folder you want to copy from, the other showing the target folder. Position the mouse pointer over the item you wish to copy or move, then, holding the &LMB; pressed, drag it to a clear space in the target folder. Release the button and you will be presented with a menu choice of Copy Here, Move Here or Link Here. Take care to drop the item into an empty area of the target folder view - dropping it on top of a subfolder will copy or move the item into that folder.

You can also set up &konqueror; to show more than one folder within its window and drag & drop between them.

Split Views for Drag & Drop

This screenshot illustrates the use of the Menubar Window Split View Left/Right option, also available with the shortcut &Ctrl;&Shift;L, to split the main &konqueror; window into two views, each showing the contents of a different folder.

To be able to show different folders in each view they should not be linked; the little boxes at the bottom right of each view should be empty.

The active view, that is the one whose path is shown in the Location Toolbar and which responds to navigation and Menubar commands, is shown by the little green light in the bottom left corner. To make a view active, left click on an empty area of the view or on its Status Bar.

To remove an active view from &konqueror;'s window use the &Ctrl;&Shift;R shortcut, or the Menubar Window Close Active View option, or &RMB; click on the Status Bar and choose the Close View option from the resulting menu.

If you use &konqueror; tabs, you can drag and drop between tabs by dragging the file to the tab label, without letting go yet. The destination tab will pop to the front, allowing you to continue dragging and then drop the file.

### Duplicate File or Folder Names

If you try to paste a file or folder into a folder that already contains an item with the same name, &konqueror; will pop up a dialog box warning you that the item already exists. You can then choose to:

- Cancel the paste operation by pressing the Cancel button.

- Give the item that is being copied a different name. You can do this by typing a new name into the text entry box or get &konqueror; to Suggest New Name. When you have done this press the Continue button.

- If you have copied multiple items, Skip the current item.

The Apply to All button can be used if you have copied multiple items.

## Selecting Items in the View

There are several ways to select items in the view. Once a group of items is selected, all actions, such as Cut, Copy, Move to Trash, and drag and drop operations, affect all selected items.

### Selecting Items Using the Mouse

- You can press the &LMB; somewhere in the view and draw a rectangle around a group of items before releasing the button. This will select all items in the rectangle and clear the previous selection. If the &Shift; key is pressed during the selection process, the previous selection is kept.

- If the &Ctrl; key is pressed while an item is clicked with the &LMB;, the selection state of this item is toggled. If the &Ctrl; key is pressed while a rectangle is drawn around a group of items as described above, the selection state of all items in the rectangle will be toggled.

- If the &Shift; key is pressed while an item is clicked with the &LMB;, all items between the previous current item and the clicked item will be selected.

- If Show selection marker is enabled in the Behavior tab of the File Management General section of the settings, a small + or - button appears in the top left corner of the item which is currently hovered with the mouse. Clicking this sign selects or deselects the item, respectively.

### Selecting Items Using the Keyboard

- If an arrow key, Page Up, Page Down, Home, or End is pressed, the new current item is selected, and the previous selection is cleared.

- If the &Ctrl; key is held while one of the above keys is pressed, the selection remains unchanged.

- If the &Shift; key is held while one of the above keys is pressed, all items between the previous current item and the new current item will be selected.

- If &Ctrl;Space is pressed, the selection state of the current item is toggled.

- &Ctrl;A selects all items in the view.

- &Ctrl;&Shift;A toggles the selection state of all items in the view.

### Selecting Items Using the Menu

You sometimes want to delete, copy or move a number of files that are similar in some way. For example you may wish to move all of the .png graphics files from one folder to another. &konqueror; makes this easy by letting you select multiple files based on similarities in their file names.

Use the Menubar Edit Selection Select Matching Items... option or the shortcut &Ctrl;S. This brings up a little dialog box in which you enter a filename containing the wildcard characters *, which matches any number of characters, and ? which matches a single character. Press OK and &konqueror; will highlight all files with matching names. For example;

- ``flag*.png`` will select all filenames starting with the letters flag and ending with `.png`.

- ``memo?.txt`` will select `memo1.txt` and `memo9.txt` but not `memo99.txt`.

When you have selected a range of files, you can narrow down the selection by using the Menubar Edit Selection Unselect Matching Items... option to specify which of the selected files should be removed from the selection.

Use the Menubar Edit Selection Unselect All option or just &LMB; click on a clear area of the view to cancel the selection.

You can even invert the selection: that is, deselect all selected files and select those that were previously unselected. Use the Menubar Edit Selection Invert Selection option or &Ctrl;&Shift;A to do this.

## Create New

When &konqueror; is in File Manager mode, picking Create New from the Edit menu or from the context menu you get by &RMB; clicking on a free area in a folder view gives you a submenu letting you create any of the following in the current folder:

Folder...

  An easy way of creating a new (sub)folder.

Text File...

  Use this to create an ordinary, empty, text file. A dialog box will be opened for you to enter the name of your new file.

HTML File...

  Creates a skeleton HTML source file. When you type the new file's name into the dialog box it is probably best to give it a `.html` extension to avoid confusion.

Illustration Document...

  Creates a new OpenDocument Drawing.

Presentation Document...

  Creates a skeleton OpenDocument Presentation document.

Spread Sheet Document...

  Use this to create a new OpenDocument Spread Sheet file.

Text Document...

  Creates a skeleton OpenDocument Text file.

Link to Location (URL)...

  This lets you create an icon to open &konqueror; at a particular folder or web page. As with Link To Application... you can make the application icon appear on your desktop by creating the link in your `~/Desktop` folder or going to the Create New... sub menu by right clicking on a free area of the desktop.

Basic link to file or directory...

  Create a symbolic link for local files or folder.

Link to Application...

  This option is most useful if you want to create an icon that will open a particular application. It opens a dialog box with several tabbed pages. The first, General, is where you choose an icon and the text that will appear with it. The second page, Permissions, lets you select who can use or modify the icon. In the Application page you must enter the Command that will run the application, for example, `kwrite` to start up the &kwrite; text editor. `kwrite /home/pam/todo.txt` would open the file `/home/pam/todo.txt` in &kwrite;. Advanced options such as the file types which the application can open are also available from this page.

  To make the application icon appear on your desktop, create the link in your `~/Desktop` folder (this may be called something slightly different depending on how &kde; was installed on your system) or get to the Create New... sub menu by right clicking on a free area of the desktop instead of within &konqueror;'s window.

  If you have a lot of specialized application links and don't want to clutter up the desktop, then why not create them in your Applications folder. You can get there in &konqueror; by choosing Go Applications. Then create a single icon on your desktop to open your Applications folder, which is usually in `~/.kde/share/applnk`.

  To put an application link icon into the panel, first create it in the Applications folder then drag the icon onto a clear area of the panel.

Device

  Use the options in this submenu to create an icon that will mount a device and open an instance of &konqueror; showing it's contents. To unmount the device when you have finished with it right click on the icon and select Unmount. However, in most cases you will want to create the icon on your desktop.

## Changing Names and Permissions

The two easiest ways to change the name of a file or folder is to either right click on it and select Rename, or select the file or folder and then press the F2 button.

To change the name or permissions of a file or folder right click on its name or icon and select the Properties item, or if you have selected the file or folder, then you can use the Menubar Edit Properties (&Alt;Return) option.

This will bring up the Properties dialog box with several tabbed pages:

- General, which gives you some information about the item and lets you change its name and, for a folder, the associated icon.

- Permissions, which shows you the item's ownership and access permissions and lets you change the permissions.

### Copy and Rename

If you want to make a copy of an existing file with a different name -- perhaps as a backup -- in the same folder as the original file, do a normal Copy then when you Paste it a dialog box will pop up complaining that the file already exists. Just type the new name into the dialog's text box and press the Continue button (or if you are feeling lazy pressing the Suggest New Name button will generate a new name for you).

## Configuring File Associations

&kde; provides many applications which can open many different types of file. Most of the time, the defaults will work with no problems, but &konqueror; provides a powerful system to allow you to change the applications used to open each file type. For more details, choose the Settings Configure Konqueror... menu item, select File Associations in the configuration dialog, and click on Help.

## At the Command Line

Although &konqueror; is a very powerful and flexible GUI file manager, there are occasions when the experienced &Linux; / &UNIX; user wants to get down to the basics and work at the text command line level.

You can, of course, open an instance of &konsole;, perhaps with &konqueror;'s Menubar Tools Open Terminal option or with &Ctrl;F4.

If you only want to launch a program or view a &URL;, the Tools Execute Shell Command... (&Ctrl;E) option may be easier.

Tools Execute Shell Command... (&Ctrl; E) opens a small command line dialog window where you can enter a shell command such as `ps -ax | grep kdeinit` . Note that it does not support full featured terminal control characters, so applications such as `top` and `less` will not work properly, but it is available immediately without the delay involved in starting &konsole;.

For more complex operations, &konqueror; has another nice feature: the Menubar Settings Show Terminal Emulator option, which opens up a terminal window as a new view within &konqueror;. As long as the link icon is visible at the bottom right corner of each view, the terminal will follow any folder changes you make in the normal file manager view.

Including the terminal emulator