U n i x T r e e . o r g      -     tips&tricks 

• Run UnixTree under the console (*not* in X !), don't hit any key and wait a few minutes, and see what's happening ... have fun !
   
   
• As expected, a "-help" (or "-h", or "--help", or "-?") command line switch lists available command line options, while an (unexpected.. ;-) "-helpall" (or "--helpall", or "-??") lists all the "advanced" command line options !
   
   
• The 'A'ttributes-'D'ate and the ALT-'T'ag-'D'ate (sub-)menus accept, in addition to the "standard" date entry syntax, as vaild entries also the following keywords:

  
  - "monday", "tuesday" ... etc., to "sunday"
  - "next" and "last" (as prefix to weekdays)
  - "yesterday", "today", and "tomorrow"

  Thus, a "last monday" string, for example, refers to the previous monday, etc.
  (while, obviously, tagging files with a date > "tomorrow" should be a no-op... :-).
   
  Also, all these names can be abbreviated to 3 characters:

  
  - "yes" is equivalent to "yesterday"
  - "las mon" is equivalent to "last monday"
  - etc...

  
   
• According to the man-page, custom key definitions can be defined in *.trm files (preferably in $XTHOME/user.trm) with an expression like this:
  "key-name = <encoded sequence>".
  The encoded sequence value is an expression looking like this: "\e[18~", for example.
  Now, here's an easy way to determine what's the respective "encoded sequence" expression for a particular key on your system:
  Run the utility program "dispkeys" supplied with any UnixTree archive package.
  If this little helper program is invoked without any arguments, it simply displays the key's name on pressing it, for example, hitting "F7" will display:

  
  key: F7

  If you run the program with the "-d" command line option, it will now display the key's "encoded sequence" instead, in our example for the F7 key an output like this:

  
  key: escape
  key: [
  key: 1
  key: 8
  key: ~

  So now you know that a definition line for the "F7" key in a *.trm file will read as follows:

  
  F7 = "\e[18~"

  Basically, "dispkeys" normally interprets key strokes, while the "-d" option just dumps out raw characters.
  Note that a "CTRL-D" always ends the program.
   
   
• Emulating the XTree 'B'ranch command:
   
  There are very few functions of the original XTree missing in UnixTree, probably the most missed one is the 'B'ranch command to view all the files under the current directory branch.
   
  But there is a way to emulate the branch view; it requires some more keystrokes, but works perfectly.
   
  The trick is to use the ALT-(New)-'N'ode command. When you are at your desired directory, hit ALT-'N'(ode) (or F4 and then N) and then again 'N'(ew node). UnixTree then prompts: "Enter node to log:" and there is a hidden hotkey, that is F2, once hitting it, it points to the current directory. Just confirm then with the enter-key twice. Now here you have been logging to a new "node", which solely consits of the directory you were pointing to before. Now just log the whole diretory by hitting "*" (asterisk) and then invoke the 'S'howall command - and voila: Now you have all the files under the specified directory/branch!
   
   

The UnixTree "Applications Menu" (accessed by key F9) is a flexible way to provide custom function extensions. It enable you to combine the power of your Unix shell with the user interface of UnixTree and its ability to work on a single file as well as on a selection of "tagged" files. You can even assign an entry to specific users, groups, login-tty, terminals, and time schedules!

In fact, the Application Menu in combination with 'O'pen file command turns UnixTree into a fully qualified desktop shell utility, being able to handle any kinds of files and applications!

To configure your very own Applications Menu, it's best to copy the sample "xt.mmu" file to your user's home UnixTree directory ($XTHOME, by default this is "~/.xt") and then edit it to your needs.

To prompt you to adapt and extend the examples for your personal deployment, the table below now lists a number of ideas of useful functions; the first row gives the respective literal xt.mnu entry line (with a rather self-explanatory menu title to describe the funtion), and the second row just adds, some comments and hints.

Note that there are available theses three variables:
$F - the current file
$T - all the tagges files currently shown
$D - the current directory

• EDITOR:Edit all tagged files:*:*:*:*:*:vi $D/$T
   
  Under X11 you can also use, for example, gvim (or any other editor, OK...), this is extremly helpful when you selected tagged files across several nodes; but don't forget to go to the "TAG-'S'howall tagged files" mode first in the latter case!
   
   
• DEVICES:Unmount/Eject CDROM:*:*:*:*:*:umount /cdrom && eject
   
  Seems obvious, eh? Uses eject
   
   
• IMAGES:gqview on current directory:*:*:*:*:*:gqview $D &
   
  GQview is one of the most suitable image viewers for this purpose, IMHO
   
   
• DIRECTORY:New xterm on curr dir:*:*:*:*:*:xterm &
   
  Note this one works without argument!
   
   
• FILES:Untargz & delete archive:*:*:*:*:*:dialog --yesno "Attention\: This command will delete the archive file after unpacking it ! Do you really want to continue ?" 7 42 && tar -xvzf $F && rm $F
   
  Requires dialog; don't know how to live without this function any more...
   
   
• FILES:Decrypt and view:*:*:*:*:*:xterm -e 'gpg --decrypt $F | xless' &
   
  Since it is a very good idea to protect sensible data files on your disk with an encryption tool suchs as gpg
   
   
• DOCS:Merge tagged ps files to 1 pdf:*:*:*:*:*:gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pswrite -sOutputFile=- $D/$T -c quit | ps2pdf - $D/mergedfile.pdf
   
  There are so much postscript files around, and this line makes them much more convenient to handle and saves a lot of disk space, by the way
   
   
• DOCS:Merge tagged pnm files to 1 pdf:*:*:*:*:*:ls $T | xargs -n1 -i pnmtops {} | ps2pdf - scanfile.pdf
   
  If the command can only take one argument at a time, use xargs, here to merge a number of (scanner generated) pnm files into a single pdf one
   
   
• VIEW:AntiWord/gv:*:*:*:*:*:antiword -p a4 $F | gv - &
   
  It is reported, that there are people around, who send you such files generated by some scary proprietary word processor program... - and now this is a nice way to conveniently view these files with help of antiword and gv
   
   
• VIEW:Exif tags:*:*:*:*:*:exiftags -iv $F | xless -geometry 50x50 &
   
  A nice little function to view your digital camera image properties with exiftags
   
   
• VIEWHTML:Firefox:*:*:*:*:*:firefox file\://localhost$D/$F &
   
  Again, very much obvious, I think
   
   
• UNIXTREE:Edit appmenu file:*:*:*:*:*:vi ~/.xt/xt.mnu
   
  And of course you can use the Application Menu also to edit the Application Menu (file)!
   
   
• More to come...

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