EFL User Guide

$ man evidence

EVIDENCE(1)                                                        EVIDENCE(1)



NAME
        evidence - Evidence is a GTK2/evas2 file manager.

REQUIRES
        gtk2            (to run)
        gtk2-devel      (to build)

SYNOPSIS
         evidence [options] []

DESCRIPTION
         evidence sports a tree-view (like fm), a browser-view (a la NeXT),
         and, if compiled against a canvas, an icon-view and shelf. If evas
         rather than GNOME-canvas is used as a canvas, the icon-view can be
         themed in rather extreme ways (like efm and beyond).

         evidence gets its information about the file-system from a pluggable
         backend, making the use of abstraction layers like efsd or GNOME-vfs
         a simple matter of adding a suitable plug-in.  Furthermore, plugins
         for individual file-types are supported; sample plugins for ID3 (MP3
         labels containing year, artist, songname etc.) and Ogg/Vorbis-tags
         are provided, enriching "tooltips" and transforming the file-info
         dialog into a tag-editor for song-files.  Plugins for other data-types
         are straightforward to write.

         All backends, theme-engines and meta-data providers are pluggable
         and will only be loaded if and when they are used, keeping memory
         consumption low and avoiding "bloat."

         At startup, the file-manager’s window is divided in two sections,
         a view on a directory, and the shelf.

         Views

           Tree-view

             The usual tree-view.  Columns can be resized an re-ordered.
             Clicking on the tiny triangles folds/unfolds a single directory.

             Keyboard Controls

             * Control-F to search a file by name

             * Control-I (or right button) to show info on a file

             * Cursor-Keys
               Unshifted
               - Up/Down      previous/next row
               - Left/Right   previous/next column

               While Shift is depressed
               - Up/Down      add previous/next row to selection
               - Left/Right   fold/unfold level

               While Control is depressed
               - Up/Down      move focus without resetting selection
               - Space        add focussed row to selection

           Icon-view

             The normal mode of operation for most current file-browsers.
             Each file is represented by an icon or, in the case of an
             image file, by a "thumbnail" version of said image.  As
             thumb-nailing may take a moment for very large directories,
             the mode is more suited for viewing directories and working
             in them than for navigation.
             A middle-click will bring up a path-menu.
             A right-click (or Control-I) will bring up the info-dialog.
             Typing a letter will focus on the first while whose name
             begins with that letter.

           Browser-view

             The browser-view consists of a number of columns -- one for
             each directory in the path -- that list the file-names of
             those directories.  If in /home/azundris, three columns would
             be shown, listing the items in "/", in "home" and in "azundris",
             respectively.  On top of each column, an icon representing
             the respective directory is displayed.  These icons can be
             hidden if desired.  Clicking on a directory will select it
             to be displayed (or "opened"), hiding the previously shown
             subsequent directories of the one the newly-selected folder
             is located in.  The contents of the newly-chosen folder will
             be displayed instead.  This is more intuitive than it sounds,
             and according to NeXT-afficionados, it’s also something you
             might really fall in love with.

             As in default operations mode a single click suffices to open
             a directory, it is necessary to depress the Control-key to
             make or extend a selection or to Drag & Drop a directory.

             A right-click will bring up the info-dialog.

             Control-F will open dialog to search for a file in the current
             column.  It might be necessary to select a column using the
             tab-key first.

           Keyboard controls in all views

             Control-D ("duplicate") will open a new window showing the same
             directory as the current window.

             Control-Q ("quit") will terminate evidence.

             Control-W will cycle to the next evidence-window.

             Control-U will close the current window.

             Control-S will re-sort the current window’s contents.  This
             is for power-users: evidence will sort the icon-view once it
             has all information (not only an item’s name, but also whether
             it is a folder etc.) it needs to do so.  If you scroll the icon-
             view while these data are still being loaded (icons are turning
             from question marks into other icons or into thumbnails), evidence
             assumes that you have started working in the icon-view and will
             try not to interfere (it will not move the entirety of the icons
             around by sorted them).

             Control-I will get information (in the guise of a "tooltip") for
             the highlighted file; ^M will open a context-menu for it; ^P will
             go directly to the properties-dialog ("file-info"), ^R will rename.

             Alt-T, Alt-B, Alt-I and Alt-A select tree-view, browser-view,
             icon-view and credits, respectively.  The tabs of the "notebook"
             need not be visible for this to work.

           File-operations in views

             An item -- file, application or directory -- can be passed to
             another application by "dragging" it there.  To drag a file,
             move the pointer over it and press the first mouse-button.
             This will select the file. If the mouse is now moved while
             keeping the button depressed, the item will follow the
             movement of the mouse-pointer:  you are dragging it.

             To "drop" the item on a target, simply release the mouse-button.
             Normally, the shape of the mouse-pointer will change while it
             is passing over a target that accepts drops; this makes it easy
             to find out whether an application accepts files and other items
             this way.

             What will happen as a result of this "drag and drop" operation
             (DND) depends on the target -- dragging an item onto

             * on the shelf -- the bottom area of the window -- will place a
               reference to that file on the shelf.  You can now access the
               file even if you select another directory to be displayed in
               the view.  The file

             * another application will normally cause that application to
               try and open the item (normally some sort of data file);

             * an application item in evidence will start that program and
               ask it to open the item as data to work on.  The application
               may be located in the view or on the shelf.  What the
               application will do with the data will depend on both the
               application and the type of data you drag onto it; dragging
               an MP3 or OGG file on a music player would likely get the
               song(?) played, trying to drop it on a text editor instead
               will likely not produce satisfactory results;

             * a directory folder in evidence will  copy the item into that
               directory; the target folder may be located in the view or
               on the shelf; alternatively, you may move the file into the
               target folder (by depressing Shift while dropping, watch the
               mouse-pointer change), or place a link to the file there (by
               depressing both Shift and Control);

             * a directory folder in the browser-view’s icon-path will move
               the item into that directory; alternatively, you may move the
               file into the target folder, or place a link to the file there.

           Mouse-operation in all views

             Left mouse-button

               Left-clicking on an icon or a list-entry selects that entry.

               Left-clicking on an icon or a list-entry and then moving around
               while keeping the button pressed activates "Drag & Drop" -- see
               previous entry, "File-operations in views."

               Left-clicking between icons opens a "rubberband" selector in
               iconview.

             Midde mouse-button

               Middle-clicking on an icon or a list-entry shows information on
               that entry (a "tooltip"-bubble).

               Middle-clicking on something other than an icon or a list-entry
               will open a pop-menu showing the "path-history" -- one item for
               each directory in the path to the current one.  Selecting an
               entry will "jump" to that folder and display it.  To close the
               menu without jumping elsewhere, simply click outside the menu.

             Right mouse-button

               Right-clicking on an icon or a list-entry shows a pop-up menu
               with (hopefully) sensible things to do with that kind of file.
               This menu can be edited (PREFIX/share/evidence/evidence.menu)
               or overridden (~/.evidence/evidence.menu).

               Right-clicking on something other than an icon or a list-entry
               will open a menu with general evidence-related options
               (including the option to switch to another view, which is
               helpful if one turns off the "tabs").

               Since almost all space is occupied by list-items in tree-view,
               the evidence-related menu can also always be brought up by
               holding the Control-key while right-clicking, no matter
               whether or not an icon or list-item is under the mouse-arrow.


ADVANCED USES
         Shelf

           The shelf is the area at the bottom of the window.  Files can
           be dragged onto the shelf from the view above.  Once on the shelf,
           the the file can be subjected to the same operations as files in
           one of the above views, so the shelf can be used as launchpad
           and as temporary storage.

           To use the shelf as a launchpad, simply place something you
           often use on the shelf by dragging it there, then activate it
           with a double-click when desired.  The action then taken depends
           on the nature of the item:

           * a directory folder will be displayed in the above view

           * an application will be started

           * a file will be passed to a suitable application if such an
             application is known; otherwise, the user is offered to select
             an application from a list

           The shelf can be resized to whatever the user deems appropriate,
           up to hiding it completely to use all of the window’s estate for
           one of the above file-views.

         Primary Selection

           When you select text (in a terminal, chat program, browser, ...)
           with the left mouse-button and it is highlighted, this is known
           as the "primary selection" in X speak.  This text then can be
           "pasted" into many applications using the middle mouse-button.

           The primary selection may be pasted into evidence’s "typebuffer"
           (a "micro-shell" described in the next section).

           Also, whenever you (de-) select files in evidence, the list of
           selected files will be set as the primary selection.  Hence,
           you may select files in evidence and then "paste" the list of
           those files into a terminal/shell of your choice.

         Typebuffer

           The typebuffer is like a "micro-shell."  The type-buffer can be
           opened using ^O, ^L, Alt-O, Alt-L, <, / or the Escape key, in
           other words, with anything that remotely makes sense.  Once the
           typebuffer is active, you may enter

           * an URL that will be dealt with according to the entry in
             "evidence.handlers" which normally resides in
             /usr/local/share/evidence/;

           * a directory the contents of which should be displayed;

           * a command to be executed.  Its textual output, if any, will go
             to the shell that called evidence.

           * a property ("config variable") to be modified.  This will change
             evidence’s behaviour at run-time.  There are several of built-in
             properties; the user may also set all properties settable in
             themes.

               ’iconfont eraser
               Display icon-labels using the "eraser" TrueType font
               (which must reside in one of the well-known font-directories)

               ’openfolderanimation none
               No animation when opening folders

             The ’ is mandatory -- it tells the typebuffer that it should
             modify a property.  If you miss the ’, the typebuffer will
             mistake your property for a program to run and the property’s
             value as a parameter for that program.

           The following special keys are available while entering something
           into the typebuffer:

           * Backspace deletes the rightmost character in the buffer;

           * Escape aborts entry; the line will be discarded;

           * Return ends entry; the line will be processed.

           * Control-X: cut the typebuffer (move it to the clipboard)

           * Control-C: copy the typebuffer to the clipboard

           * Control-V: paste clipboard’s contents into typebuffer

           * Control-B: paste primary selection into typebuffer (same as
                        middle-click)

           While the typebuffer is active, its contents will be visible in
           the title-bar of evidence’s window.


OPTIONS
       evidence accepts at least the following options:

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       --efm  Look like the efm/essence design studies. This is a shortcut for
              "evidence --no-shelf --no-notebook --no-border -T essence".

       -M, --desktop
              Start with window covering the entire screen and scrollbars dis‐
              abled.  This will effectively make evidence draw the desktop.

       -T mytheme, --theme=mytheme
              Use  theme  "mytheme".   Note  that for themes to work, evidence
              needs to be build against evas, the enlightened canvas.

       -P myicons, --iconset=myicons
              Override icon-set given in theme with "myicons".

       -s, --without-shelf
              Do not create a "shelf" area (temporary work  area  beneath  the
              actual view).

       -S, --with-shelf
              Do create a "shelf" area (temporary work area beneath the actual
              view).

       -W, --with-tooltips
              When mouse rests on a file-icon, open info box  without  waiting
              for a click of the middle mouse-button.

       -Z, --select
              Preselect  a given file.  "evidence --select /foo/fonts --select
              /foo/src" will open a view on directory foo and  preselects  the
              items  fonts  and  src.   This option may be used several times.
              Unless virtual folders are supported, all items must  reside  in
              the same directory.  Example of use:  sagasu (http://www3.sympa‐
              tico.ca/sarrazip/dev/sagasu.html).  Set editor command  to  evi‐
              dence --select "%f"


NOTES
       HOME representation

           If a file "photo" is located in the user’s ~/.gnome2 or ~/.gnome,
           this image will be used to represent the user’s (home-) directory.

       File-access backends

           evidence can be compiled to access the file-system "directly"
           (using the standard glibc functions present on every system),
           via Gnome-VFS, via efsd (the enlightened file system daemon), ...

           If the UNIX-fs backend is used, the appropriate icon to use for a
           file is determined using "mime.types" which assigns a MIME-type to
           a file extension (what comes after the dot in the name) and
           "mime.icons" which assigns an icon to a MIME-type.  These files live
           in PREFIX/share/evidence (/usr/local/share/evidence by default).

           The "direct"/POSIX backend contains code written for efsd by cK.

       Meta-data providers

           The image provider can save to all formats known by imlib2.  This
           specifically means that you can *not* save GIF-pictures at this
           time, as Imlib2 has no support for that yet.  : (

           The MP3 provider will read an ID3v2 tag, an ID3v1 tag, or provide
           an empty basic label, in order of preference.  It will save both
           ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags, with identical data (to the extent that
           those are supported by ID3v1).  Genres can be selected in a
           pop-up menu, or entered as text ("Blues") or index ("(0)").
           Text-entry is somewhat lenient -- "Acid Jazz" will be recognized
           if given as "acIDJAzZ").  If a genre "foo" is not recognized,
           it will be saved as "Other: foo" ("(12) foo" internally).
           By the same token, you can enter random qualifiers to a genre
           after a colon:  "Blues: 12-bar" (aka "(0): 12-bar").  Only the
           first part (the actual genre, "Blues") will be visible in ID3v1
           tags; ID3v2 will show both.


CUSTOMIZATION
       All  files  in  "$PREFIX/share/evidence" can be overridden with equiva‐
       lents in "$HOME/.evidence".  Aside from icons, in particular  the  fol‐
       lowing may be overridden:

         mime.types           assign MIME-types to file-extensions
         mime.icons           assign icons to MIME-types
         evidence.menu        entries in right-click menu for each MIME-type
         evidence.providers   meta-data providers (ID3-tags, ogg-infos, etc.)
         evidence.handlers    protocol-handlers for typebuffer (http, ftp, ...)

         Themes go in $PREFIX/share/evidence/themes (by default, this means
         /usr/local/share/evidence/themes).  A theme can be selected by
         supplying its directory to the -T switch.  If no -T option is
         given on the command line, evidence will look for a symlink
         "default" in the themes folder that references the theme you want.

         evidence can be tuned at source-level by editing the userconfig.h file.


TUNING
         Icon-view

         When opening folders is very slow, this may actually be
         a problem with the animation being slow.  Disable the
         animation by setting the openfolderanimation property
         to none ("’openfolderanimation none" in the typebuffer,
         the theme, or the evidence.theme in ~/.evidence).

         Likewise, "’openappanimation none" inhibits the
         animation that normally denotes the start of a
         program.

         Tree-view / Browser-view

         Let’s face it, working with a (GTK2) tree-view with many entries
         is not pretty. It’s 3rd party code, so there isn’t a lot I can do.
         Except for recreate the tree- and browser-views with EWL, which I
         intend to do.

         General

         The backend and store should be self-tuning; when a
         folder takes too long to process, evidence will create
         a persistant cache of that folder so it will be loaded
         faster the next time around. ("too long" is defined in
         userconfig.h::CACHE_SLOWER_THAN as 3s.)


SCREENSHOT
       http://evidence.sourceforge.net/screenshots/

AUTHOR
       Azundris .

Usage: evidence [option(s)] [directory]

Supported Options:

-e, --efm               Look like efm
-h, --help              Print this help text
-V, --version           Prints version information and exits
-D, --debug=dl          Set verbosity to level [dl] (-1..4)
-v, --verbose           Increase verbosity
-q, --quiet             Decrease verbosity
-g, --geometry 1x2+3+4  make window 1 wide and 2 high, place at 3,4
-M, --desktop           Start with a fullscreen "desktop" (maximized)
-T, --theme=theme       uses that theme
-P, --icon-set=is       Select icon-set (name or path)
-i, --icons             Start in icon-view
-t, --tree              Start in tree-view
-b, --browser           Start in browser
-a, --about             Start with credits
-n, --without-notebook  Do not show a "notebook" ("tabs")
-s, --without-shelf     Do not create a "shelf" area (-S)
-f, --without-border    Do not "decorate" window (-F)
-w, --without-tooltips  when mouse rests on a file-icon, don't open info box --
                        wait for a click of the middle mouse-button
-E                      set evas rendering engine (software_x11, gl_x11, ...)
-x                      Don't create thumbnails for icon-view
-y                      Don't create thumbnails for shelf
-Z, --select            open a view on the directory that contains this
                        item.  select the item.  may be given multiple
                        times if all items reside in the same directory.
-d, --dir=dir           Start in directory [dir] (efm compatibility)