dtfile_config(special file)

NAME
dtfile_config — CDE File Manager configuration file

SYNOPSIS

# Comment
aix:3     = native
hpux:0    = native
sunos:ufs = native
end
#
native: buttonLabel = Modify extended attributes ...
        warning     = Warning:xtended attributes may limit your access
        fsDialog    = /local/bin/modExtAttr
        dismiss     = yes

DESCRIPTION

The File Manager properties dialog can be used to change Unix file attributes. It can also be configured to allow editing of additional, filesystem-specific, attributes (such as Access Control Lists in AFS file systems). This ability is currently limited to IBM, Sun, and HP systems.

Whenever the properties dialog is invoked, File Manager identifies the type of filesystem using platform-dependent library functions. For AIX the st_vfstype field returned by stat is used, for HPUX the f_fsid[1] field returned by statfs is used, and for SUNOS the f_basetype field returned by statvfs is used. The contents of this field is combined with the name of the system to create an identifier for the filesystem (e.g. aix:3). File Manager reads a configuration file (see below for file format) looking for this compound identifier. If it is not found, no further action is taken. Any errors which occur while reading the configuration file are logged in $HOME/.dt/errorlog.

If found, the platform-dependent identifier is mapped to a platform-independent form (e.g. native). For each platform-independent identifier, the configuration file provides the name of a program which can be used to edit filesystem-specific properties. In addition, it give a label that is used on a button which is added to the properties dialog. When the button is pressed, File Manager forks a process to execute the program. While the filesystem-specific dialog appears to the user to be part of File Manager, it is implemented as a top-level shell and can be executed from the command line. File Manager provides only a single argument to the program: the complete path of the file. An option is also provided for the normal properties dialog to be Cancelled when the file-system specific dialog is invoked. Note that this will cause any changes made in the normal properties dialog to be lost.

The platform-dependent identifier can also be used to present a message in the properties dialog. This message can appear either on its own or in conjunction with a pushbutton and properties dialog program as described above.

  Location of configuration file

File Manager looks in three places for the configuration file, stopping the search once the file is found. The three locations, in search order, are $HOME/dtfile.config (user-specific configuraton), /etc/dt/config/dtfile.config (customized system configuration) and /usr/dt/config/$LANG/dtfile.config (factory defaults). If none of these is found, an error message indicating that /usr/dt/config/$LANG/dtfile.config cannot be found is placed in $HOME/.dt/errorlog. For debugging, File Manager will use a configuration file defined in the environment variable DTFSCONFIG before searching any of the other locations.

  Format of configuration file

The File Manager configuration file consists of two sections. The first section maps platform-specific information to a platform-independent identifier. There are two fields in the platform-specific portion separated by a colon. The first field identifies the platform: aix, hpux, sunos. The second field depends on platform; for aix it is an integer corresponding to the st_vfstype field returned by stat, for hpux it is an integer corresponding to the f_fsid[1] field returned by statfs, for sunos it is a string corresponding to the f_basetype field returned by statvfs. The platform-independent identifier is given following an equals sign. The keyword "end" delimits the list of mappings. For example, to define the "native" file systems on several platforms:

aix:3 = native
hpux:0 = native
sunos:ufs = native
end

The second section of the configuration file provides information needed by File Manager to execute the filesystem-specific dialog. It consists of a list of platform-independent identifiers followed by a colon and several fields. Each field consists of a name followed by an equals sign and a string. The five field names are: buttonLabel, which defines a label for a button in the permissions dialog; fsDialog, which defines the path to the program which displays the dialog for editing file-specific properties; warning, which is optional and defines a warning message to be displayed in permissions dialog; and dismiss, which is optional, and specifies if the normal properties dialog is to be cancelled when the file-system specific dialog is invoked. Dismiss can be set to either "yes" or "no" and defaults to "no". " can be included in the warning text to generate a new line. Continuing the native file system example used above, the following would enable a file-system specific dialog generated by the program /local/bin/modExtAttr:

native: buttonLabel = Modify extended attributes ...
        warning     = Warning:xtended attributes may limit your access
        fsDialog    = /local/bin/modExtAttr
        dismiss     = yes

SEE

The factory-default configuration file, /usr/dt/config/$LANG/dtfile.config, contains further examples. Included are some test examples that can be enabled by removing comment characters from the definition lines in the file. Also included are defaults for AFS file systems which cause a warning message to be added to the regular properties dialog, but no dialog is provided.