Some built in Wine support

[larry99]

Now and again there are requests for a native Linux version. I can see the reasons against it but for me Total Commander is the most important reason not to completely move to Linux.
I recently installed TC on Linux under Wine and it works quite well but needs lots of work with the details. I wonder if this could be improved by some sort of built-in support.

Perhaps it is possible for TC to detect if it runs under Wine and what the Windows and Linux part of the file system is. Then to launch a Linux program it would add the "start /unix" and paths the way they expect them.
I know it is possible to do all this with various wrapper scripts but perhaps things could be a bit easier? There are so many places to change: Menus, Button Bars, File Associations, shortcuts... It would be so nice if TC would "just know" how to deal with the entries depending on their Windows- or Linux-ness -- at least in typical cases.

Another thing are fonts. After the installation it looks just horrible probably because TC cannot find some expected fonts. There it would be helpful to either have other default fonts on Linux or at least recommend a font package at first start.

As it is it takes quite some time to get everything going under Wine. Perhaps TC can give a hand? If not built-in an addon package could be helpful with some generic and proven wrapper scripts, freeware fonts, perhaps a few icons for typical Linux applications and whatever else might be helpful.

[ghisler(Author)]

Perhaps it is possible for TC to detect if it runs under Wine

I'm already doing this.

Then to launch a Linux program it would add the "start /unix" and paths the way they expect them.

I actually tried adding this, but there is no function I could call to convert Windows path names to Linux names.

Another thing are fonts. After the installation it looks just horrible

The problem is that I don't know what fonts are available in which Wine version, and which I should use.

[larry99]

I actually tried adding this, but there is no function I could call to convert Windows path names to Linux names.

What is with "winepath -u"?
s. https://linux.die.net/man/1/winepath

The problem is that I don't know what fonts are available in which Wine version, and which I should use.

Couldn't you have just one decent looking (freeware-)font in the installer? If the user selects to install it, it would become the default font.
It doesn't have to be perfect, just something that is usable for a start.

[ghisler(Author)]

What is with "winepath -u"?

That would be an external program, not a function in e.g. kernel32.

[JOUBE]

I don't understand either of these issues:
- The font here is completely fine and not "horrible" at all; there is simply no need to change anything.
- Converting backslashes (\) to forward slashes (/) isn't necessary either, provided you use standard TC functions like file operations, search, the sync tool, etc. They all work flawlessly, just as usual. And what would be the benefit of launching Linux programs from within TC?
- Incidentally, `winepath -u` can be used perfectly in batch scripts before using `start /unix`.

So, neither point makes sense to me, nor are they necessary - and that applies to a wide variety of distributions.

Have you perhaps adjusted the drives using `winecfg` (for example) to make accessing the Unix file system easier?

[larry99]

That would be an external program, not a function in e.g. kernel32.

Perhaps a bit naive but I thought it could be either run in the background or since Wine is open source the used conversion algorithm could be ported to be included within TC as an internal function.

[larry99]

- The font here is completely fine and not "horrible" at all; there is simply no need to change anything.

On a fresh install of Linux Mint 22.3 it was almost unreadable. I do not doubt that it is fine for you but you can be assured if I write that it looks horrible then it does so in my setup, which is not exotic at all but of course might be different from yours.

- Converting backslashes (\) to forward slashes (/) isn't necessary either, provided you use standard TC functions like file operations, search, the sync tool, etc. They all work flawlessly, just as usual.

Of course it is necessary to pass paths from TC to Linux programs which do not understand Dos/Windows paths. This is exactly why "winepath -u" exists, because it is necessary to allow Windows and Linux applications to work together on the same files. And as soon as you do not just copy files around but e.g. launch programs with the current file as parameter you definitely need it. For me this is a very common use case.

And what would be the benefit of launching Linux programs from within TC?

Because this is the whole point in using TC on Linux. I work on a Linux system with Linux programs and want to use these. TC is the management center as a replacement of file manager and start menu. If I wanted to use Windows programs I would work on Windows and work on the Linux file with help of the sftp plugin or samba shares.

- Incidentally, `winepath -u` can be used perfectly in batch scripts before using `start /unix`.

This is exactly what I wrote in my first post: everything can be done by various wrapper scripts but it would be helpful if it was done natively from TC
I did a forum search for "winepath" before I wrote my suggestion and you can see solutions but they often look quite complicated and might easyly break on edge cases ("escape hell")

So, neither point makes sense to me, nor are they necessary - and that applies to a wide variety of distributions.

Then it would be wise to just ignore my post.

[larry99]

To illustrate my suggestion here a (at least for me) common scenario that would very much benefit from the suggested built-in support.
Well, it is common on Windows with stuff that works there, it would be great to be able to have a similar workflow on Linux.

Current dir is a workdir for a project with bash or perl scripts I am developing. ALT-F3 opens vim with the currently selected file. Make some changes, save the file, switch back to the TC window -> <ctrl-P><ctrl-ENTER> (script in command line) -> move to a data file -> <ctrl-P><ctrl-ENTER> (Data file with full path is on the command line -> <ENTER> should execute the command.

For this to work I have to manually add "start /unix" to execute the script and "winepath -u" to both the data file path and the script path. This is a lot of fiddling.

My idea is that as soon as TC detects it is running unter Wine it can do all the necessary command line manipulation internally.
I can see that the number of people benefitting from this is limited but for them it would be a real and substantial improvement.

[larry99]

What is with "winepath -u"?

That would be an external program, not a function in e.g. kernel32.

I am not a C programmer but for me the source code looks as if there is a kernel32 function for it in Wine:

Code: Select all

        wine_get_unix_file_name_ptr = (void*)
            GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandleA("KERNEL32"),
                           "wine_get_unix_file_name");

s. https://github.com/wine-mirror/wine/blob/master/programs/winepath/winepath.c

[JOUBE]

On a fresh install of Linux Mint 22.3 it was almost unreadable.

Mint is - in the end - a derivative of Debian: Please show a screenshot of that horrible version here.

Then it would be wise to just ignore my post.

Nope, because - as I said - there are no issues here. And that should also be made clear in a post within the thread.

For this to work I have to manually add "start /unix" to execute the script and "winepath -u" to both the data file path and the script path. This is a lot of fiddling.

Why not just create a batch file named "l.cmd" (l for Linux ) that handles everything, and - once you've assembled the full command in the TC command line - simply place it at the start of the line (using the <Home> key and typing "l ")? I don't actually need something like that myself, but it certainly seems like a simple solution.