"no to all" on copy, and skip file on error

[ian]

I've been using FC for a few weeks now - I'm a long time user of the nortons NT tools one (which keeps having problems on 4gb boundaries) and looking around FC look like one of the best replacements.

However, there are two things it needs to have added to be really usable to someone who does a lot with files.

1) There needs to be a 'no to all' button when moving/copying files ie if you copy one lot of files to another, when the first file comes up that is already in the target directory, the dialog should also have an option saying 'no to all' ie from that point on the copy will not copy files that have the same name & size & date if they already exist in the target directory, but will copy the rest.

3) if while moving/copying files an error occurs (ie invalid filename, or some other major error) the program currently just stops. It needs to put up a box saying exactly what the problem is, with an option to cancel or continue..

Put those 2 things together - as they are now - and it can get in the middle of a 4 hour copy, die due to one file having a problem, and you can't just restart it as it will want to start from the start again!

Both should be easy things to add too... And I really really really don't want to have to start writing my own decent copy program ..

[Dreamer]

I support this request.

[ian]

Thanks. And I'm happy to give a hand if it is required (I'm ok at C++ )

- every time I have to get out of FC and go back to Nortons NT filemanager I'll post up the feature I had to do it for.. I hope that helps make FC the best one out there, as I'm a bit of a hard core user (I have 3TB of files on this machine alone.... I'll indicate priority too - and this one (above) is pretty high!

[ian]

..and I learn something every day ie I just ran into this (doing a search for something else) -

" Have you ever noticed that Windows XP gives you the 'yes to all' option in its file copy dialog box, useful if you would like to overwrite files in a directory with newer files of the same name from another location, for example, but fails to offer a 'no to all' option for doing the opposite. Kind of annoying if you think about it. What if you have a lengthy file copy operation partially finished, and wish to restart it? If you use the default options, you essentially have to recopy every file, since saying 'no' to each and every duplicate file will take just as long, and cause your mouse finger to fall off.
Fortunately, there is a way to tell your computer not to copy all duplicated files with a single command:
To do this, when the file copy dialog box appears asking you whether you wish to overwrite the first file, hold down SHIFT and click 'no.' This will automatically answer no for all following files. Note that it will ask you again for the first folder it encounters, so follow the procedure again to answer no automatically for all folders. This will dramatically speed up the file copying process. "

I figured it was the standard control remembering, and sure enough tried it on the dialog FC displayed (on my W2000) machine, and holding the shift key down did indeed make it a 'no to all'!

Still should be a bit more obvious, ie a real button, as this hack isn't widely known or obvious.... The easiest way to do this is your own dialog box anyway - they only take a few minutes to make..

So the request still stands

[Hannes Rannes]

Own file operations are planned for the future anyway, probably it will just be a question of time any more to be more flexible in this regard.

[ian]

Good idea, that's what I've been doing for years - with C++ you just make a file handling class and then you can always go and change the implementation and your program doesn't even know about it.. I've been doing that since watcom came out with their 32 bit dos extender years ago - I wrote a 32 bit copy command for dos that ran a lot faster than the in built one.. Under windows the first thing I did was write one that uses a lot more memory to buffer operations that are going to/from the same disk - speeds it up a lot as head contention drops.. (between disks you aren't going to get a speed increase over the in built one, as it pretty much runs at the disk speed anyway).

[Marek]

So long the FC own file operations are not implemented yet, one can try to use external programs.
It is possible in the curent beta version (I plan new release in 2-3 weeks).
To be able to use external programs you must define the following lines in the freecommander.ini
for KillCopy
FileMovePrg=C:\WINDOWS\system32\killcopy.exe |%ActivSelAsFile%|%InactivDir%|-mrg
FileCopyPrg=C:\WINDOWS\system32\killcopy.exe |%ActivSelAsFile%|%InactivDir%

or for TeraCopy
FileMovePrg=C:\Programme\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe Move %ActivSelAsFile% %InactivDir%
FileCopyPrg=C:\Programme\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe Copy %ActivSelAsFile% %InactivDir%


You can write of cource your own program for copy/move too :).

[ian]

Thanks, I'll do that as soon as it comes out - I tried to use FC to copy a lot of fies last night and gave up after about 30 minutes.. Given the inbuilt copy function just dies whenever it runs into a problem, you then have to FIND the file it died on, and start the copy again afterwards, etc etc.. So FC is only usable if copying very small amounts of data, which is a pretty damaging feature hole in a file commander!
It wouldn't be that hard to add your own internal copy routine, but speaking as a software guy I know that there a lot of not very hard things to do for my programs that never get done 'cause I just don't have time to do all of them!

However, I'd like to encourage you to do that (your own routine) for FC, as it is one of the absolute core functions...

[ian]

And I should add that I just tried killcopy and teracopy - both looked good on paper, but I had problems with both within the first 15 minutes of using them.. Too many features, not enough robustness and sensible design - ie teracopy expands the file list and puts it in a grid before copying. I don't know how long this takes for a big disk copy, I watched it till it got up to 400,000 files and then killed it, as not only would it probably have added files for another 20 minutes+, it also had it's screen on top and wouldn't let me move or minimize it! Crappy design!

Ian

[Fad]

I`ve been using FC for a few minutes now

and would agree 100% with these 2 features...will keep a check on the progress of this and any alternatives.

[ahadobas]

FileMovePrg=C:\WINDOWS\system32\killcopy.exe |%ActivSelAsFile%|%InactivDir%|-mrg
FileCopyPrg=C:\WINDOWS\system32\killcopy.exe |%ActivSelAsFile%|%InactivDir%

It works only when there is at least one selected file/dir.
But doesn't work to copy the actual item.
Any idea to copy actual directory which isn't selected?

[FCMCA]

And I should add that I just tried killcopy and teracopy - both looked good on paper, but I had problems with both within the first 15 minutes of using them.. Too many features, not enough robustness and sensible design - ie teracopy expands the file list and puts it in a grid before copying. I don't know how long this takes for a big disk copy, I watched it till it got up to 400,000 files and then killed it, as not only would it probably have added files for another 20 minutes+, it also had it's screen on top and wouldn't let me move or minimize it! Crappy design!

Ian

I guess you might try these ones as well:

http://www.copyhandler.com/ (CopyHandler);

http://www.ranvik.net/totalcopy/ (TotalCopy);

http://www.ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html (FastCopy - although the page is in Japanese, the file version available does come in English, the beta as well); and

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=171408 (SuperCopier - VERY fast, perhaps the fastest one of them all and cutest one. Besides, it integrates perfectly into any file manager, at least for me over here, on a Windows XP system - BUT CAUTION: one of my antivirus reports that one of the modules of this last one is a trojan. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this).

I hope you have a happy and sucessful try out.

Regards.

[enkryptor]

Any idea to copy actual directory which isn't selected?

I wonder too...

[Marek]

The problem is only in NC-Mode. I have changed the parameter %ActivSelAsFile%. Now, if no selected items - the current item (focused item) will be used.

[ahadobas]

The problem is only in NC-Mode. I have changed the parameter %ActivSelAsFile%. Now, if no selected items - the current item (focused item) will be used.

YES