aMule Forum

English => Multiplatform => Mac OSX => Topic started by: dontforgetmario on March 17, 2005, 01:22:50 PM

Title: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: dontforgetmario on March 17, 2005, 01:22:50 PM
Hi,

I don't really understand why the incoming directory begins with a dot:

/Users/mario/.aMule/Incoming

As files beginning with a dot are reserved only for system files, I'm not able to see the folder in the finder. Only by "searching" ".amule" I am able to get access to it, a bit of a bizarre situacion, since I'm not able to change the folder name in the settings of amule. When I change the folder name from ".amule" to "amule", and in the settings of aMule I change the path also to:

/Users/mario/aMule/Incoming

aMule still writes the incoming files to a new created ".amule", and by the way, when I change the folder name from ".amule" to "amule" I still don't see it in the finder and I dont have access to it....extrange.. ;(

Any idea?

Thanks
Mario
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 17, 2005, 04:56:01 PM
You can't change the folder name. The .aMule folder is for the config files, etc, and it's also the place aMule stpre the files by default. Just go to preferences, and change the Incoming folder, but never touch .aMule.
Title: RE: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: phoenix on March 17, 2005, 09:40:26 PM
Quote
Originally posted by dontforgetmario
Hi,

I don't really understand why the incoming directory begins with a dot:

/Users/mario/.aMule/Incoming

As files beginning with a dot are reserved only for system files
False. The dot in the begining just means that the directory or file is hidden, it won't show on a normal directory listing unless you ask. Otherwise it is a normal directory or file as any other.

Kry already answered the rest. The incomming dir can be anywhere you want, change it in preferences but dont touch the ~/.aMule directory and the files inside it, unless you are sure about what you are doing.

Cheers!
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: dontforgetmario on March 17, 2005, 10:03:06 PM
ok guys,

sorry maybe I'm a bit more stupip than I thought or I'm missing something here, but how am I suppose to find the "Incoming" folder, when the parent folder ".amule" is a hidden folder and I'm not suppose to change that?

My problem is not if the "Incoming" folder is called "Incoming" or anything else, my problem is that I'm not able to see the Incoming folder in the Finder y the parent folder is hidden, is not that a bit odd?.... ?(

This is what I see in the preferences:

Directories

Incoming Directory:

/Users/mario/.aMule/Incoming

do you follow me?
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: phoenix on March 17, 2005, 10:11:22 PM
Mario,

What is "the finder"? Something like a graphical file manager from your distro's gui, I suppose. Well, if I guessed correctly, there should be an option on this "finder" to enable finding hidden files.

Also, if there is no such an option, I repeat, go to preferences and change the Incomming directory location to say /home/mario/Incomming.

Cheers!
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 17, 2005, 11:48:39 PM
It's a Mac, phoenix.
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: dontforgetmario on March 18, 2005, 12:24:22 AM
Hi Phoenix,

If I understand correctly, it just happens that by default the "Incoming" folder is set to be in this ".aMule" preferencies folder, so If I change the settings to lets say "/home/mario/shared/Incoming" there is also a ".aMule" (hidden) folder and a "shared/Incoming" folder but this one not hidden?

That doesn't make any sense in a Mac to have by default such a setting, because a normal user used to just to the GUI as most Mac users won't find the Incoming folder and they won't know how to find it if they don't change the default directory default setting in advance. There isn't any extra setting in a mac to see hidden folders, that's only possible with special tools (as far as I know from the GUI) and second it doen't make any sense to show all hidden folders, just to see one hidden folder, the "Incoming" one. Why don't you change the default directory setting to "/User/aMule/Incoming" (no dot) and save Mac users this little mess?

the Finder is the Mac equivalent to "Windows Explorer" in XP or to "File Manager" or whatever it is called in Linux.

Thanks
Mario
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: ken on March 18, 2005, 02:04:56 AM
I have to say, I agree that ~/.aMule/Incoming is not a particularly user-friendly default location.  I guess I would prefer something like ~/Documents/aMule Downloads.

The main issue, I believe, is that aMule strives for file compatibility with eMule, to the extent that it is possible to have one directory that is alternately used by aMule and eMule.  This is most common on x86 machines that dual-boot between Linux and Windows, of course.

One thing that would make this much less of a problem is if aMule, like IIRC eMule, supported an Open Containing Folder command in the context menu of the Shared Files list.  I'll look into it.

While I'm wishing: for the best Mac user experience, ~/.aMule/amule.conf should be ~/Library/Preferences/org.amule.aMule.plist and be a proper XML property list, and the rest of ~/.aMule would be ~/Library/Application Support/aMule.  However, none of this is probably going to happen, especially in the near term.  The focus is on cross-platform consistency rather than best fit for any specific platform.

By the way, there are a couple of ways to access hidden files and directories in the Finder.  One is the Go -> Go to Folder menu command.  Here you can enter "~/.aMule" or "~/.aMule/Incoming" to open those folders.  Another is to use File -> Find and use the pop-up menus to select Visibility / Invisible (plus whatever other criteria you like).
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: phoenix on March 18, 2005, 03:37:49 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Kry
It's a Mac, phoenix.
Hum, bad phoenix, bad... :]

Quote
Originally posted by dontforgetmario
The Finder is the Mac equivalent to "Windows Explorer" in XP or to "File Manager" or whatever it is called in Linux.
Yes, there are many names. But no "File Manager". This was the name of Windows Explorer in the good old times...

Sorry, my mistake, I don't know mac, but ken's got my point about hidden files.

Cheers! :)
Title: blurb on hidden files, shell, default places
Post by: m2kio on March 18, 2005, 05:30:19 PM
hi,

files or folders "hidden" the [q&d|braindead] unix way, that is, starting with a dot, cannot be shown or opened easily in the finder (the "Finder" is the MacOS GUI). There is no such option.
You can trick it, if you type "open ~/.aMule"  (or similar) in the terminal (shell). Or create an alias for later more easy use. The terminal application is in "/Applications/Utilities/".

The system compliant place for application preferences  would be in "~/Library/Preferences/aMule".
The system compliant place for default data deposition  would be in "~/Documents/".

... m2kio !
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: ASTIOBOY on March 18, 2005, 08:17:49 PM
in the finder,
Go--> Go To Folder...

or Shift-Command (the Apple key)-G

then type:  ~/.aMule
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: lionel77 on March 26, 2005, 08:32:40 AM
Quote
Originally posted by ken
I have to say, I agree that ~/.aMule/Incoming is not a particularly user-friendly default location.  I guess I would prefer something like ~/Documents/aMule Downloads.
i think we should really consider changing the default locations for incoming and temp to be in ~/Documents/amule/ . for a lot of less experienced mac users that would make life much easier. plus, we would not have to answer "where are my downloads" questions five times a week. ;)
how difficult do you think would it be to change these locations?

i also agree, that changing the preferences, etc. locations to be more mac-like would be a good idea. but changing temp and incoming should be really imperative before 2.0 imho.
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 26, 2005, 03:08:13 PM
For preferences I don't agree or we'll have to have specific docs for mac, wiki for Mac, etc.


As for the default incoming, I can ifdef it for Mac...
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: dontforgetmario on March 26, 2005, 08:00:56 PM
Guys,

thanks for yours answers with the couple of tricks like:

the "Go to Folder -> ~/.aMule/Incoming" (I use this one, very handy now)

or the:

 "You can trick it, if you type "open ~/.aMule" (or similar) in the terminal (shell). Or create an alias for later more easy use. The terminal application is in "/Applications/Utilities/"


But the main thing is this:

This is a tipical Linux vs. Mac issue,
Linux x86 and Mac OS X users although they basically use the same OS (Unix) the kind of users are also basically different, most Linux users IMHO are "coders" and although there are many "Terminal Mac users" the vast mayority of Mac OS X users are GUI oriented. We design, cut video, make art, mix music, photography, web pages, use iLife, Dreamweaver....and so on.....we are used to make double click somewhere and things just work. Don't ask us to "compile" this or that, using this or those commands on the terminal, because we don't know or worst, we don't like that, if I want to do that, I'd use linux and same my money instead of using a Mac, but I concentrate in being productive, it's just as if I buy a car, I just want to get inside, start the engine, drive the car and enjoy the ride, I don't care much about how the car itself works. It is not better or worst than linux, it's just the way the Mac world is, a different philosophy, remember most OS X users come from OS 9, which is 100% GUI, where there is not even a terminal.

We are not asking for fancy lights flashing when a file is downloaded or anything difficult to code, we are just simply asking that the default "Incoming" folder is made visible in Finder and that, just simply take of a folder to be renamed from ".aMule" to "aMule", as simple as that (or something like that), nothing else!!, I personally don't care if that folder is in Documents, or User, or whatever folder your fancy better, but please make it visible :-)

If you don't change that, I can assure you that 95% of standard Mac users won't find the "Incoming" aMule folder. It took me sometime to find it and I consider myself an experienced Mac user (with little "Terminal" knowledge)....

Thanks
Mario
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: greaman on March 26, 2005, 09:43:46 PM
Quote
If you don't change that, I can assure you that 95% of standard Mac users won't find the "Incoming" aMule folder. It took me sometime to find it and I consider myself an experienced Mac user (with little "Terminal" knowledge)....

Well, as a Linux-user I still don't get your point... what's so damned hard about going into preferences after installing amule and changing Incoming to any visible folder you want?

That's what I do even under Linux... usually you make some changes in the preferences of amule after installing, so what's the problem with 3 or 4 clicks more?
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 26, 2005, 10:04:32 PM
Quote
Originally posted by dontforgetmario
We are not asking for fancy lights flashing when a file is downloaded or anything difficult to code, we are just simply asking that the default "Incoming" folder is made visible in Finder and that, just simply take of a folder to be renamed from ".aMule" to "aMule", as simple as that (or something like that), nothing else!!, I personally don't care if that folder is in Documents, or User, or whatever folder your fancy better, but please make it visible :-)

Just read my post. That's not going to happen. If users are so strange that they can't change the default incoming folder, I can change it specifically for Mac to "~/Documents/aMule Downloads" or something alike, but

I

AM

NOT

GOING

TO

RENAME

OR

MOVE

THE

.aMule

FOLDER


Preferences will be there, and temp files will be there if the user doesn't change it on preferences.
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: greaman on March 27, 2005, 07:22:22 AM
:baby:

as long as you don't speak macish they won't understand you kry... :))

I guess you have to explain that nobody needs terminal experience to change the preferences muahahahahaha
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 27, 2005, 09:37:53 AM
They use fancy MacOSX GUI, so why wouldn't they change preferences on aMule GUI :P
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Piero on March 29, 2005, 04:56:09 PM
The "easy" solution is to use an alias for the incoming directory, so .aMule is still invisible to the majority, but people can acess heir downloads simply  8)
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: HipHopPunkSuperStar on March 29, 2005, 07:42:37 PM
What about a simple ReadMe on how to change the prefs for the Incoming-Folder?


Ahh, no wait, we Mac Users don't read ReadMe files neither  :(

I think just moving the "Incoming" folder to some visible place by default would make life a lot easier for most of us Mac Folks, or you might wanna ad a first-start-up set-up script to the Mac Version that asks the user about their preferences for the Incoming-Folder (don't know how hard this is to code though...)...

Just my 2ยข   :]
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 29, 2005, 08:24:52 PM
Quote
I think just moving the "Incoming" folder to some visible place by default would make life a lot easier for most of us Mac Folks

Well, that's what I said isn't it?
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: Kry on March 30, 2005, 06:00:39 AM
New default Incoming for Mac is "~/Documents/aMule Downloads"

You have 1 week to complain.
Title: Re: why does the incoming directory name begin with a "." dot?
Post by: m2kio on April 01, 2005, 03:19:11 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Kry
New default Incoming for Mac is "~/Documents/aMule Downloads"

ok for me. good choice imho.
i first hessitated a little because of the space and/or whether aMule in the name is a good idea, but both are good. "aMule" makes people find it faster, and who ever is bothered by the space may rename it anyway. :D

... m2kio !