Status Update for the File Manager


OK, it’s time to tell the world what we’re doing to the file manager Here is a status report for PCManFM.

  1. Several bugs are fixed, and others are not. I’m currently working on fixing them.
  2. Directory tree will be available from side pane again in next release. I have finished 50% of the feature and hope that I can make it in the following weeks
  3. Tabs now takes less space when showing filenames that are too long.
  4. The location bar is re-written. Now auto-completion for directory paths works more correctly.
  5. I have implemented a simple button-style path bar recently, but to add it to PCManFM, some changes to the UI are needed so this might not be available yet in the next release.
  6. Integration with lxshortcut is planned. So you can create new application shortcut on the desktop easier, but this is not yet implemented.
  7. Status messages are now more correct and human readable.
  8. Some code cleanup was done to make the source code more readable to future contributors.
  9. While fixing bugs of PCManFM, I found a severe bug in udisks regarding to CD-ROM polling. This bug leaves the filesystem on CD-ROM mounted even after the media has been removed via pressing physical eject button on the device. I made a patch for it, but upstream authors did not accept the patch. They came up with a new solution utilizing the latest in-kernel polling provided by Linux kernel and did some fixes themselves. So in the near future, this bug will be resolved anyways.

So these are basically what I’m doing on the file manager recently. Please help if you can. Thanks a lot.


7 responses to “Status Update for the File Manager”

  1. LXDE is more important than ever.
    More distributions and more people will use LXDE as the default desktop environment(you know, Gnome 3 is so …… and XFCE is so “not lightweight”).
    PCManFM 2.0.0 release will make LXDE the best for those , who just works.

  2. Agreed! LXDE really is the best desktop environment, lightweight or otherwise. Thanks and keep up the good work!

  3. -0.14 vaulter@vaulter-laptop:~$ LANG=en wget –spider http://caesar.acc.umu.se/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/usb-hdd/debian-live-600-amd64-lxde-desktop.img
    Spider mode enabled. Check if remote file exists.
    –2011-04-10 02:43:32– http://caesar.acc.umu.se/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/usb-hdd/debian-live-600-amd64-lxde-desktop.img
    Resolving caesar.acc.umu.se… 130.239.18.142, 2001:6b0:e:2018::142
    Connecting to caesar.acc.umu.se|130.239.18.142|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    Remote file does not exist — broken link!!!

    -0.13 vaulter@vaulter-laptop:~$ LANG=en wget –spider http://hammurabi.acc.umu.se/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-600-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
    Spider mode enabled. Check if remote file exists.
    –2011-04-10 02:44:19– http://hammurabi.acc.umu.se/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-600-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
    Resolving hammurabi.acc.umu.se… 130.239.18.165, 2001:6b0:e:2018::165
    Connecting to hammurabi.acc.umu.se|130.239.18.165|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    Remote file does not exist — broken link!!!

    REFERRER: http://lxde.org/download

  4. LXDE & PCmanFM
    Are awesome & The best thing is its becoming even better with addition of more features(want to see even more)
    but would also want the devs to keep the memory consumption low and if possible even lower tahn it is now.. because its what made LXDE & PCmanFM what they are today so stick to it & keep on Making it better
    Thank-you for all your Handwork

  5. What I’d like to see is the ability to choose which columns appear in the detail view. Or at least have the same columns as 0.5.2 had. I’m still using that old version, for this and some minor other reasons.

  6. Thanks so much for writing PCManFM; it’s seriously the best filemanager out there – finally something with a good UI and few dependencies!