The StartExplorer Preference Page

You can configure various preferences to trim StartExplorer to your liking. The preference section can be reached via Window - Preferences - StartExplorer. StartExplorer has three different preference pages:

• General Options: This is the root node of the preference pages for StartExplorer. It can be used to configure some, well, general options.
• Desktop Environment: Use this page to configure operating system/desktop environment specific settings.
• Custom Commands: Use this to configure your custom commands. It is described in detail in the help section for custom commands.

General Options

With the option "Select File In File Manager" you can configure the behaviour for the actions "Show in file manager" and "Start file manager in this path". If this option is checked and you select a file (not a directory), the corresponding file will be selected in the file manager instance that is to be opened. If the option is not checked, then just the content of the directory where the file resides is shown, without anything being selected. Note that this works only on file managers which support such behaviour via command line options. Currently, this feature is supported for Windows Explorer and Finder on Mac OS.

Besides that, you can configure the separator for the "Copy resource path to clipboard" command. When this command is executed while multiple resources are selected, the paths of all selected resources are copied to the clipboard, separated by the separator configured here. The default separator is the unix line break. You can choose from unix line break, windows line break, mac line break and tab or you can enter any string you want.

Desktop Environment

Usually, StartExplorer auto-detects your operating system and your desktop environment. If that does not work for some reason, you can use this page to manually select it. You can also use this page to configure StartExplorer if your system is not supported out of the box.

StartExplorer can be operated in three modes:

• Auto Detect Desktop Environment
• Select Desktop Environment Manually
• Custom Desktop Environment

Each mode can be activated by selecting the radio button next to it. Configuration options related to that mode will only be enabled if the corresponding mode is selected.

Auto Detect Desktop Environment

This is the default, zero-configuration mode. It tries to detect your operating system (and, if you are on Linux, also the desktop environment you are running) by itself. This usually works well on the supported operating systems/desktop environments.

Finding the currently running desktop environment on a Linux system can be tricky if multiple desktop environments are running parallel (connected to different X Servers running in parallel). If you do nasty things like that, you are on your own and might need to select the correct desktop environment manually, see below.

Select Desktop Environment Manually

If, for some reason the auto detection mechanism does not work reliable for you although your system is supported, you can select the right setting manually from the list of supported setups. You should not select "Unkown" or "Linux/Unknown" here.

You should also use this option if you are on Windows and want to use one of "Windows/PowerShell" or "Windows/Cygwin". These modes are never selected by auto detection. Both modes just replace the shell used in the "Start Shell Here" actions with powershell.exe or bash.exe respectively. Of course PowerShell/Cygwin has to be installed for this to work (as of Windows 7, PowerShell is always installed by default). For Cygwin support, you also need Cygwin's bin directory on your system path.

Custom Desktop Environment

If your system is not (yet) supported, you can still use StartExplorer. With the right configuration, it is fully working on every platform. This might, for example, be the case if you run a Linux/Unix/BDS variant but the Desktop Environment you use is not supported by StartExplorer. Use this section to configure the command line calls that should be issued to perform the StartExplorer actions.

Before describing the meaning of each input field in detail, here are some general remarks. Each text field should be filled with a command that will be issued on the command line, when the corresponding action is executed. Example: If you right click a folder and select "StartExplorer - Show in file manager", the command you entered in the text field "Start File Manager" will be executed. It should be something that the command line interpreter (cmd.exe, bash, ...) of your system understands. You can use variables in the commands. The variables are the same that can be used with custom commands and they are documented there. The text fields also offer content assist for the variables. If you press CTRL + Space or if you type '$' (and wait a second) the available variables will be listed, together with a short explanation.

Each command also sports a corresponding "Working Directory" drop down box. The command you enter in the text field will be executed in the working directory you select here.

• None: No particular working directory is passed to the command. In this case, the command inherits the working directory from the Eclipse process. You will want to use this option if you used some variable like ${resource_path} in the command text field.
• Resource: The resource itself is used as the working directory. Note that for the commands "Show in file manager" and "Start shell here" this will also do the right thing if a file was selected, that is, use the parent folder of this file. If you use this option for "Show in file manager"/"Start shell here" you should probably not use a variable like ${resource_path} in the command text field.
• Parent: The resource's parent folder used as the working directory. This is useful for the command "Open files with default application" where you want to pass the file's complete path to the application by using ${resource_path} in the command text field but still want to set the working directory to the file's parent folder.

Now to the gory details of each command:

• Start File Manager: The command to issue to start a file manager and show the content of a folder.
• File Manager Supports Single File Selection: Tick this checkbox if your file manager supports the behaviour described for the option "Select File In File Manager" in General Options. Note that this checkbox here and the option under General Options need to be checked for this to work.
• Select File in File Manager: Only relevant if the checkbox directly above is activated. This is the command that is issued when a file is to be selected in the file manager (in contrast to just opening a directory in the file manager).
• File Manager Working Directory: The working directory to use for the Start File Manager command.
• Start Shell: The command to issue to start a shell in a given directory.
• Shell Working Directory: The working directory to use for the Start Shell command.
• Start Default Application: The command to issue to start the default application for a file.
• Application Directory: The working directory to use for the Start Default Application command.
• Custom Commands Working Directory: The working directory to use for the custom commands. You will probably leave this on None.

Now, if you invested some time to create all the correct commands for your system you could as well drop me a line and tell me. Then, in the next version of StartExplorer your system will also be supported out of the box :-)