The Virtual Filesystem Explorer (VFSE) is a graphical application used to locate and examine the contents of filesystems, starkits/starpacks, and .zip files. Once files and directories have been added to the virtual directory tree via "mounting", their contents can be viewed in the VFSE.
The VFSE is particularly useful for viewing the contents of files that are not visible in Windows Explorer, such as starkits and starpacks. Mounted files can be copied or moved to a new location, where you can open them with a text editor or another application.
Note: Because the files mounted in the VFSE are virtual, the file structures created via mounting can only be viewed in the VFSE, and are not actually added to a corresponding local or network drive. Mounted files remain visible for the duration of a VFSE session. That is, if you close the VFSE and re-open it, any previously mounted files will no longer be mounted. If you want to preserve mounted files and directories, you must copy or move them to a real location. You can also unmount directories within a given session of the VFSE.
By default, the VFSE displays a list of available drives in the Folders pane. Click the plus sign next to a drive to display the hierarchical structure of directories and files contained within. Click a folder in the Folders pane to view its contents in the display pane on the right.
To run the VFSE on Windows systems, enter
tclvfse.exe
at the command prompt, or select
Start|Programs|ActiveTcl 8.5|ActiveTcl Virtual Filesystem
Explorer.
To run the VFSE on Unix systems, enter tclvfse
at
the shell prompt.
Note: To change the font size displayed in the
Virtual Filesystem Explorer, press Ctrl-plus
to
increase the font size or Ctrl-minus
to decrease the
displayed font size. If using Windows with a mouse wheel, you can
alternatively press the Ctrl
key and then rotate the
mouse wheel to increase or decrease the font size displayed in the
Virtual Filesystem Explorer.
Before you can view the contents of starkits, starpacks, and .zip files using the VFSE, the files must be mounted. There are two ways to mount a file or directory with the VFSE. You can either mount the file at a selected position in the directory tree, or you can append it as a separate root directory at the bottom of the directory tree.
To mount a starkit, starpack or .zip file in a selected position:
To mount a starkit, starpack or .zip file as a root directory:
To mount a file from the command line, enter:
tclvfse.exe <file location>
The VFSE will launch with a "disk" icon in the Folders pane that displays the path for the mounted file.
To mount all filesystems:
This is only necessary if you have mounted a file from the command line, and then decide you would like to mount all of the available drives and directories. To do so, select Tools|Mount Volumes.
To unmount a directory:
Use the commands on the View menu and the VFSE toolbar to manage and view mounted files. Choose from the following View menu options:
Click the File Properties button (rightmost on the toolbar) or select File|Properties to view information about the selected file or directory, including how the selected item is defined by both Tcl and your operating system.
Click the close ("X") button in the top right corner of the Folders pane to hide the Folders pane. Click the Folders button on the toolbar to display the Folders pane.
An advantage of mounting files is the ability to copy or move mounted files to a real location on a local or network drive, where they can be opened and viewed with another application.
To copy a mounted file:
To move a mounted file:
The explorer can be invoked from the command line with the path to a mountable archive. The explorer will mount the archive during startup and show its contents immediately, instead of displaying the regular filesystem.
After the path argument, one of the following commands can be specified to invoke other operations on the archive:
tclvfse ARCHIVE put PATH
PATH-IN-ARCHIVE
Copies a file from the native filesystem into the archive. This can be used to replace an existing file. Metakit archives only (starkits, starpacks, etc.); cannot be used on zip files.
tclvfse ARCHIVE get PATH-IN-ARCHIVE
PATH
Copies the file in the archive to the native filesystem. Metakit archives only; cannot be used on zip files.
tclvfse ARCHIVE ls
Lists the contents of the archive. Useful for determining
internal archive paths before using the put
,
get
or rm
commands.
tclvfse ARCHIVE open
Opens the archive for display. Equivalent to specifying no command after ARCHIVE.
tclvfse ARCHIVE rm
PATH-IN-ARCHIVE
Deletes the specified file from the archive. Metakit archives only; cannot be used on zip files.
tclvfse ARCHIVE vacuum
Removes all wasted space from the archive. Metakit archives only; cannot be used on zip files.
The rm
and put
methods modify the
metakit database and can cause the creation of unused free space.
The vacuum
method can be used to force the removal of
this unused space, shrinking the database to the minimum required
to hold its data.