The Release numbers are actually dates yy.mm.dd.hr
Each release has a full Change log... accessed by Help->History
As we make enhancements to the Windows version, I have noticed that both
Windows and, (I suppose most) Anti Virus systems are detecting fr as
a threat. Fr is not a threat, but like most useful tools, it has
capabilities the the AV systems see as threats.
This is info on installing filerunner.
FILERUNNER installation
=======================
There are sevaral ways to install "filerunner". The way you use will depend
on, first your system, and second, if you plan to make changes or modify
"filerunner". Below you will find sections on each system and, following that
a section on setting up to modify the code.
Installation on Linux systems using rpm or deb package files.
=============================================================
For these systems down load the *.rpm or the *.deb file.
Cd to the directory you downloaded the file to.
For systems using the rpm package managment system enter:
sudo dnf install *.rpm
(If you have more than one *.rpm in this directory, you may need a more
complete file name.)
For systems using the deb package manager enter:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
(If you have more than one *.deb in this directory, you may need a more
complete file name.)
If you get a message saying there are missing dependencies do this:
sudo apt-get install -f
Deb installs may require you to satisfy dependencies (see below for what these
are), while rpm installs will take care of this during the install.
Thats it. You are ready to start filerunner by entering:
fr
Or you should be able to find "fr" in your system menues.
Installation on Linux or Unix systems which don't use rpm or deb package files.
===============================================================================
Filerunner uses the tcl/tk scripting language. You must have tcl/tk on the
system (see "Required and optional packages" below). Also, it is recommended
that you read the section (Icons & desktop issues) below prior to running the
INSTALL program.
Once you have tcl and tk download the *.tar.gz file to a local directory
(i.e. one in your home tree).
Cd to that local directory and enter the command:
tar xfBpz *.tar.gz
(If you have more than one *.tar.gz in this directory, you may need a more
complete file name.)
This will create a new directory tree. Now (from there):
cd filerunner/Makefiles
To install filerunner in your HOME directory tree enter (the INSTALL program is
written in tcl/tk which is why you must have installed tcl/tk first):
./INSTALL
(This is a program in the package you just unarchived, NOT the system install)
To install filerunner in the system wide space (/usr/share/...) enter:
sudo ./INSTALL
Thats it. You are ready to start filerunner by entering:
fr
Or, you should be able to find "fr" in your system menues.
Installation Mac systems.
=========================
Filerunner will run on Mac systems.
First you must have tcl/tk on the system (see "Required and optional packages" below).
Download the current *.tar.gz file to a convenient place on your system, then:
Cd to that convenient place and enter the command:
tar xfBpz *.tar.gz
(If you have more than one *.tar.gz in this directory, you may need a more
complete file name.)
The exectuable file is .../filerunner/fr
If you then put the directory .../filerunner in your path you will be able to run
fr from a terminal or bash window, simply enter fr or fr &. Alternatively you can put
a soft link in a 'bin' directory that is in your path e.g. ~/bin, /usr/local/bin or
/usr/bin. (You may need root capabilities to do this on some of these.)
For a system wide or protected install, as root move the *.tar.gz file to
/opt/local/share, cd to that directory and enter tar xfBpz *.tar.gz. Then add a
soft link to /opt/local/bin that points to /opt/local/share/filerunner/fr.
You might also want to set up a soft link for the 'Terminal' program, something like:
link /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal /usr/bin/Terminal
Where ever you put this link, that directory should be in your 'PATH' environment
variable. Again, you may need root privileges to do this, depending on where you put
the link.
Installation on MS Windows systems using *.exe downloads.
=========================================================
Download either the *32.exe or the *64.exe file depending on if your
system is 32-bit or 64-bit.
Either put this file on your desktop or put a link to it on your desktop.
You may want to rename the file to "fr.exe".
Thats it. You are ready to start filerunner by clicking on the desktop icon.
Installation on MS Windows systems using *.msi download.
=========================================================
Installation on MS Windows systems using *.msi download.The *.msi file is a Micro Soft Install file. Filerunner uses the tcl/tk scripting
language. You must have tcl/tk on the system (see "Required and optional packages"
below). As of the release 17.01.**.** and beyond it is HIGHLY recommended that
you associate *.tcl files with the program wish. While filerunner will come up
and run if you associate *.tcl files with the program tclsh, it will fail to
properly build pipes which are required to complete commands in the command windows
(and else where). The result is that command output is sent to a new window which
often disappears before you can see it.
To install filerunner from the msi file, find it with the "File Explorer" program
and right click on the file. Select the install option.
The *.msi install option provides a desktop icon and a run menu entry.
Installation on MS Windows systems using in WSL.
==================================================
Where you put filerunner in a MSW system to run from a WSL system is rather
flexable. The least work would be to download the .tar.gz file to a convenient
place on the MSW side of the system, unpack (tar xfBpz *.tar.gz as above) and
run filerunner on both the MSW and WSL side of the system from that location.
Run on the MSW side by:
cmd ../filerunner/fr.tcl (This assumes you have set up the system to use 'wish'
to execute *.tcl scripts. The way to set this up is with the file explorer and
doing a right click on the .../filerunner/ft.tcl file and telling it to open
the file with 'wish.exe' (you do remember where you put it, right?)).
Once you have 'fr' running you might want to put the 'Desktop' in on pane and
../filerunner in the other, select 'fr.tcl' and then clicking the 'shortcut'
button. You can then select the new shortcut and change the icon to
.../filerunner/icons/filerunner.ico.
For the WSL side, you will need an X-server on the MSW side of the house. Once that
is up, open the WSL side, make sure the DISPLAY environment variable is set up
and then navigate to the MSW directory (likely /mnt/c/...filerunner) and type
./fr (you did remember to download tcl, tcllib, tk and tklib?).
Once fr is up you might navigate to .../filerunner/Makefiles and execute the
INSTALL file there. If you check the 'Don't move fileruner' button, it will
set up the icons and link to 'fr' while leaving the code in .../filerunner.
It is also possible to use the *.rpm or *.deb packages to install filerunner on
the WSL side, but this wastes disc space. Also, at this time, for reasons unkown,
the *.rpm WSL install does not properly install the 'doc' files.
Installation to "work" on filerunner (or use some of its code for your project(s).
==================================================================================
Usually but not required you may want to do the appropiate install from the
above list as well. You will need tcl/tk on your system (see "Required and
optional packages" below).
Download the *.tar.gz file and put it in a convenient place on your system.
Cd to that convenient place and enter the command:
tar xfBpz *.tar.gz
(If you have more than one *.tar.gz in this directory, you may need a more
complete file name. Also on Windows systems you may find the the tar program
does not handle the .gz. In this case first run the gzip to unzip the tar.)
You can run filerunner from here by entering:
./filerunner/fr
at a command prompt. If this is the only "fr" on your system you may want
to put a soft link to .../filerunner/fr in your PATH (I use ~/bin). This
filerunner will use the same configure file that the installed version uses
until its revision code changes. The official revision code is generated by
the .../filerunner/Makefiles/makerelease script.
Required and optional packages
==============================
Filerunner is written in the tcl/tk scripting language which must be installed on
your system. If you are using the *.rpm or *.deb install the installer should
insure that they are available. If you are useing the *.exe (MS Windows) install
the *.exe contains the required tcl/tk code. For other installs the following
packages are required:
tcl
tcllib
tk
tklib
you can check that tcl and tk are both available by entering:
wish
from a command (cmd) prompt. If you get a small window, you have the tcl and tk
packages.
To dismiss wish either enter:
exit
or click the "X" in the small window frame.
If you need Tcl or Tk and they are not provided by your systems distro this site will
help you obtain them:
https://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/
For MS Windows I recommend the Magicsplat or Active State install unless you are
already using cygwin. Neither of these allow fr to change its taskbar icon but the
Magicsplat icon is more pleasing (to me).
Other things you might want:
To use the Secure FTP feature you will need to have both Expect and sftp
on your system. Expect if not available from your distro, is available here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/expect/files/Expect/
At this time a Windows version of Expect is no longer available. Included
with fr is a pure Tcl Expect. This does all that needs to be done for
Windows, but will not due all that is needed on *nix systems (the ssh
packages differ on Windows and *nix systems).
sftp should be in one of the vendor packages for your system. On
Fedora it is in the openssh-clients rpm.
Icons & desktop issues:
=======================
There is an INSTALL file in <directory>/filerunner/Makefiles
(called INSTALL, imagine that!) that you can run to install filerunner
most anywhere on a unix/linux system. The INSTALL script behaves differently
depending on if the runner has root access or not.
Before you run INSTALL as root run 'INSTALL -help' to get a list
of options and how you may provide them (commandline or env).
The INSTALL file attempts to install the various bits and pieces of
filerunner to the proper directories, however, your distro may have
other conventions. You may introduce these conventions to INSTALL
when you run INSTALL or even after it is running (if Tk is installed
there is a gui interface to help here). (Tk is not required, but
is used if INSTALL is run in a user environment or the gui is
requested on the command line.)
A request: If your distro puts things in different directories could
you send me a note describing this to me (email address at end of
this document)?
A simple way to do this is to just send a copy of the
'uninstall' file that INSTALL puts in the CODE directory.
Why INSTALL?
============
INSTALL sets up filerunner icons and a desktop file. This allows
filerunner to be easily found in the system menus and allows you
to easily set it up as your default handler for inode events
(such as plugging in a memory stick or camera memory).
Note that the INSTALL file allows you to install just the icons
and desktop files, leaving the code in place. This is a useful
way to install if you are going to work on the code.
In addition INSTALL manages keeping filerunner appraised of the
location of its 'doc' files and of a system wide configure file.
System wide config file:
========================
The RPM, DEB and root INSTALL code sets up a system wide configure
file for filerunner. The default location of this file is:
/usr/share/config/filerunnerrc if a root (or RPM/DEB) install and
~/.local/share/config/filerunnerrc if a user install
This file is created if it does not exist, but is not touched if it
does, thus it survives updates.
Sources:
========
The fr-*.tar.gz file is the complete source including several tools
and scripts to build all the release files.
The RPM source file is just this file packaged as an RPM.
And, if you want to modify the code, a decent editor is helpful.
This file is also available as the 'Installation' file under the help menu.
(C) 2010-2022 Tom Turkey
(C) 1996-1999 Henrik Harmsen
FileRunner is a file manager for Unix and Windows systems. It is simple and efficient
and has a built-in FTP client.
FEATURES
========
* Simple and powerful interface.
* History and Hotlist (bookmarks).
* Recursive directory menu of entire file system tree (not supported in windows).
* Browse FTP and SFTP directories as easy as normal directories.
* FTP & SFTP capabilities:
- Copy: FTP files/directories upload/download (recursive).
- FTP/SFTP Delete (recursive), FTP/SFTP Makedir, FTP/SFTP Rename.
- FTP/SFTP chmod (if server supports it)
- Supports FTP through proxy.
- FTP resume download function.
- Rule based configuration of FTP/SFTP site logins (password/user/proxy).
- Asynchronous file transfer.
- Cached directory listings.
* Asynchronous file operations.
* Built-in command shell windows. Synchronized with file panels.
These have history, aliases and file name completion.
* Extendable by adding your own command buttons.
* Very configurable.
* User defined file pattern / actions. (*.jpg -> launch image viewer etc.)
* Distributed under the GNU General Public License.
REQUIREMENTS
============
* A standard Unix platform or Windows NT or later.
* Tcl/Tk 8.5.7 or later.
FileRunner does not require rebuilding the wish binary. It is pure Tcl/Tk and
uses some helper programs as available on the host. These functions are
configured by default and the user as needed.
Requirement to use the Secure Ftp (SFTP) option.
For non-windows platforms:
You must have the Expect tcl package and
sftp installed on your system. Expect is available here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/expect/files/Expect/
sftp should be in your standard distro. In Fedora 16 it is in the
openssh-clients rpm.
For windows platforms:
You should use the PSFTP program which is part of the PuTTY package.
Filerunner will automatically use this version of SFTP on MS windows.
PSFTP accepts the password on the command line, thus avoiding the
requirement for Expect (which seems to no longer be available for
MS windows.
Regardless of how you install filerunner (.exe, .msi or he tar.gz)
you will need an sftp server. We have only tested the PSFTP.EXE
program from the PUTTY package which you may download from here:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
You need to make sure your PATH enviornment variable contains
the path to SFTP.EXE.
COMPATIBLE PLATFORMS
====================
FileRunner has been verified to work on:
- Linux
- Windows XP or later
Past versions have worked on (but the current version is not tested on):
- SunOS 4.x
- Solaris 2.x
- Irix 5.x
- UnixWare 2.x
- HP-UX
- Dec Alpha OSF (Digital Unix)
- FreeBSD
- SCO OpenServer
- AIX
- NetBSD
WHERE TO GET FILERUNNER
=======================
Use this site:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/filerunner/files/
WHERE TO GET TCL/TK
===================
First try your distro then please see the web page at
http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/
or
http://www.activestate.com/activetcl
COMMON PROBLEMS
===============
See the FAQ-file in the installation. Please also see chapter 13 in
the online guide.
KNOWN BUGS
==========
Please see the file KnownBugs.txt.
E-MAIL LIST WITH ANNOUNCEMENTS
==============================
You can signup at at the filerunner sourceforge site to get on the
FileRunner announcement mailing list.
FILERUNNER IS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
==================================
FileRunner is Open Source software and is distributed under the GNU
General Public License. If you like it, send me a cool postcard so I
can fill the front of my fridge :-) See the end of the User's Guide
for my address.
FileRunner is Copyright (C) 1996-1999 Henrik Harmsen.
FileRunner is Copyright (C) 2010-2020 Tom Turkey.
Henrik Harmsen (the orgional author seems to have disappeared).
Email:
tom@GandK.site
For more contact info see online guide.
