# The Krusader Handbook

Shie
Erlich
Author and initial Handbook author

    erlich@users.sourceforge.net

Rafi
Yanai
Author and initial Handbook author

    yanai@users.sourceforge.net

Dirk
Eschler
Webmaster and i18n coordinator

    deschler@users.sourceforge.net

Csaba
Karai
Developer

    ckarai@users.sourceforge.net

Heiner
Eichmann
Developer

    h.eichmann@gmx.de

Jonas
Bähr
Developer

    jonas.baehr@web.de

Frank
Schoolmeesters
Documentation Coordinator

    frank_schoolmeesters@yahoo.com

Richard
Holt
Documentation

    richard.holt@gmail.com

Terry "Fudoki"
Wilkinson
Documentation

    sekhmet_616@yahoo.com

Mark
Eatough
Handbook proofreader

    markeatough@yahoo.com

2000
2001
2002
2003
Rafi Yanai
Shie Erlich
2004
2005
Krusader Krew
&FDLNotice;
2005-03-17
1.60.0

&krusader; is an advanced twin-panel (commander-style) file-manager for KDE 3.x

KDE
krusader
commander
filemanager
twinpanel
linux
file
manager
dual pane
linux-commander
kde-commander

## Foreword

Welcome to &krusader;!

Our aim is to give you a facile, intuitive tool that easily handles the most important tasks you perform on your computer each and every day: manage and process your files the way you want, and look great doing it!

Whether you are a &Linux; expert or a novice, &krusader; makes routine file management tasks quick and accurate, allowing you to focus on the big picture, not command line syntax. This is especially helpful if you are new to xxNIX operating systems. To do just that, &krusader; wears a great looking &GUI;, supports drag n' drop and mimetypes (with or without magic!) - all you need to feel right at home using it, right from the start!

&krusader; is packed with cool features, is fast, and handles &archives_lnk; transparently. In addition, &krusader; streamlines many complex file management tasks, reducing fatigue, errors, and distraction. Basically, &krusader; provides all the helpful features you've come to expect from other quality file management tools like &mc; and &tcmd;. But why reinvent the wheel, you ask? &krusader; is designed to integrate seamlessly with the &kde; Desktop, the desktop of choice for many programmers, network engineers, and other power users of &Linux;. With &krusader; even novice users can quickly access the power, convenience, and feature rich capabilities of the &kde; Desktop. &krusader; is open-source, free, and is released under the &gpl_lnk;, although we (the developers) still retain the copyright for the project, its name, and manage the project's continuing evolution.

The &krusader; Project's mission is to create an "all-in-one" file manager, which will do all the ordinary things you'd expect from it, plus a lot more ... ;-) Since the principle behind &krusader; is based on the "old-school", dual-pane, managers (&mc;, &nc;, &etc;), it is a given that &krusader; handles all the standard Copy, Move, Delete, &etc; file operations, but that is just the foundation!

From the start, virtual filesystems became a main focus. Virtual filesystems (VFSs) are an abstracted layer over all kinds of archived information (ZIP files, &FTP; servers, TAR archives, NFS filesystems, SAMBA shares, ISO cd/dvd images, RPM catalogs, &etc;), which allows the user to access all the information in these divergent types of filesystems transparently - just like entering an ordinary sub-directory! Files can then be copied or moved from and to (except ISO,rpm,tar.gz) these data sources/containers with the click of a mouse. &krusader; currently supports VFSs for all popular [and some specialized] types of archives (Zip, Tar, GZip, BZip2, Ace, Rar, Arj, Lha), configuration packages (RPM), and traditional remote filesystem types (&FTP;, NFS, Samba, FISH, SFTP).

&krusader; also includes a built-in Mount-Manager &mountman_lnk;, which enables you to mount or unmount filesystems of all types with a single mouse click! Get usage and other property information easily, in a consistent and understandable format in seconds without moving your mouse! Ease and consistency are the goal.

A Bookmark-Manager for local files/remote &URL;s and an Advanced Search module are also included to speed the locating of needed files. &krusader; also allows you to configure your Toolbars to provide a wide variety of additional functionality including File Comparison (several user selectable methods available), Multiple File Rename, and standard Terminal windows can be spawned with a single mouse click! Need temporary Root access to your files? Simply "SU" within a Terminal window or click on &krusader;'s "Root Mode" to bring up a new &krusader; Manager as Root!

Advanced users benefit greatly from being able to carry out clerical tasks effortlessly, without distraction from the real task at hand; a big help during those late night edit/compile sessions. Convenient shortcut keys enable you to navigate directory trees with ease, create multiple tabbed directory views simultaneously, and access fully functional history lists - all with a single mouse click! Due to efficient programming and low system overhead, &krusader; is perhaps the most responsive all around system management tool you can use to access the full potential of your computer using &kde;, or with any other standards compliant X Windows window manager. Although designed specifically for, and tightly integrated with, &kde;; &krusader; works equally well with Gnome, Enlightenment, WindowMaker, IceWM, BlackBox, Wiamea, XFCE, etc. -- when the &kde;libraries are installed.

New extensibility is provided by the flexible &useractions_lnk;, a &krusader; innovation, that allows unlimited additional custom functionality to be added to suit the user's specific needs and wishes. We are planning to develop more modules in the near future, thereby enhancing &krusader; greatly. For information on what is proposed, approved, or remains to be completed look at the &todoforum_url;.

No other program we know of offers so many useful, easily accessible features in such an intuitive and simple format! Best of all, we listen, and implement good suggestions that are consonant with the &krusader; Project's goal: making &krusader; the very best File Manager available!

We hope you'll enjoy it -- we do!

## Help &krusader;

Here you get a chance to &contribute_url; to the &krusader; project. There are things that need to be done, but can't be done by us. If you feel you can help, don't hesitate to contact us. Thanks!

Translations

&krusader; is available in many languages, several translations need an update and new untranslated languages are always welcome, please read the &i18nhowto_url; .

Documentation

&krusader; is in need of documentation, all help is welcome.

Donations

Honestly, we didn't consider donations, until users asked us for a way to &donate_url; to the project. Developing &krusader; can be a full time job at times, and even though it is very time consuming, we all enjoy it, and want to see the project become even better. Donations for this project will be used for further development of &krusader;, be it by purchasing hardware, or promoting of the project.

UserActions

Krusader comes with a nice set of &useractions_lnk; , providing simple and advanced features of all sorts. If you have made a useful User action please post it in the &useractionsforum_url; we are collecting UserActions on our website, the "best ones" will be shipped with Krusader. Thanks!

Packagers

We are always in need of packagers for rpm's, deb's, etc. All help is welcome.

Maintainer for porting &krusader; to &MacOS; X

Krusader can be ported to &MacOS; X with &fink_prj_url; and &kde;libs (3.1.4), Jonas Bähr has proven this with &krusader;-1.40 on &MacOS; 10.3 "Panther". Unfortunately Jonas doesn't have the time to maintain this port and &krusader;-1.40 is the only successfull port to &MacOS; X. An attempt to port &krusader;-1.50 to &MacOS; X dit fail due some small porting problems and some lack of time. At this moment the &MacOS; X &krusader; port doesn't have the same power then in a native &kde; environement, once a native &kde;lib on &MacOS; without X will allow it to run &krusader; smoothly. Jonas will help with pleasure this maintainer, the `krusader-1.xx.info` files are available in cvs.

Porting &krusader; to &Windows;

&krusader; is written using &Qt;, but also using &kde;libs. As long as &kde;libs do not run on &Windows;, poting &krusader; is not an option. However, we do believe, that once &Qt;4-GPL is released, efforts will be made to port &kde;libs to &Windows;, and if that happens, we're in business and than we need a maintainer for porting &krusader; to &Windows;.

FAQ

If you have a question that is missing in the &faq_lnk;, we would like to hear it.

Others

Feedback, Bug reports, patches, &etc; are always welcome! An open source project's greatest strength is derived from getting user feedback.

## Note from the Editors

As you may notice this handbook is written by various authors. We have taken much care in ensuring technical and vocabulary consistency. The authors write in English even though it is not their native language; therefore, you may notice strange sentence constructions. Do not hesitate to let us know if something is not clear to you.

An open source projects greatest strength is derived from getting user feedback. That's why we would love to hear what you have to say. Documentation contributors are always welcome, since this is a time consuming task. If you have ideas on how to improve the content, if you would like to write about an undocumented &krusader; feature, or if you have comments or suggestions about the &krusader; Handbook. Please let us know. You can contact us even if you find typos!

The Handbook "revision" matches the &krusader; version number. &eg; "&krusader; Handbook revision 1.60.xx" describes "&krusader; 1.60"

Please read the &docchangelog_url; file online or in the &krusader; sources to find out the latest changes in the &krusader; Handbook.

For information about the &krusader; documentation project, please contact the &krusader; documentation coordinator, Frank Schoolmeesters frank_schoolmeesters@yahoo.com.

This handbook is available in several formats.

- via the Help menu when using &krusader;

- the &onlinehandbook_url;

- As documentation tarballs (HTML, TXT, RTF, PDF, XML-SOURCE), download them from the &sfmirrors_url;

The most recent version of this handbook is available when downloading and installing &krusader; from cvs.

&dev_cvs_note;

&introduction; &using-krusader; &commands; &krusader-tools; &konfigurator; &faq; &credits; &installation; &documentation.index;