Re: Update All and Update Startment

David Mihm (davemann@ionet.net)
Fri, 9 Apr 1999 21:00:18 -0500 (CDT) 

On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Greg Anderson wrote:

! David Mihm wrote:
! > 
! > On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Greg Anderson wrote:
! > 
! > ! After I make a change to my feel file that configures
! > ! the drop down menu button on my title bar.  What is
! > ! the sequence I need to do to process the changes and
! > ! to update my ~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/non-configurable/
! > ! files?
! > !
! > ! I have been reloading the feel file from the start menu,
! > ! but it does not always seem to save my changes after I
! > ! quit and restart AfterStep.  If I loose my changes and
! > ! reload my feel file from the start menu I get my changes
! > ! back.  Should "Update all" save my changes to the
! > ! non-configureable directory?  Maybe I've run into some
! > ! kind of bug or there is a certain sequence I need to do?
! > !
! > ! I can't find any documentation on "Update all" or "Update
! > ! startmenu"
! > 
! >         Yep, there was some shuffling around of those various "Updates"
! > when I was working on the man pages.  I'll try to clear things up.
! > The (start)menu contains various types of entries - Exec entries, which
! > are taken from the files under the start tree; and status changing
! > entries, such as
! > 'ChangeFeel "feel.DEFAULT" /usr/local/share/afterstep/feels/feel.DEFAULT'.
! > So the Exec entries are static and the startmenu must be "re-created" by
! > issuing 'Update startmenu' for the menu itself to notice any change to to
! > the file from which the Exec entry was created.  On the other hand, the
! > state change entries, such as the one above, point to the actual file to
! > be read be instance.  So this means that I can change to my hearts content
! > the /usr/local/share/afterstep/feels/feel.DEFAULT file (not reccomended)
! > and the menu will always reflect my most recent saved changes to this
! > file.   Same goes for look ad background images.
! >         When a look/feel/background entry is selected from the menu, this
! > file is then copied to the non-configurable/ directory.  And if for some
! > reason some app [like Gnome ;)] changes some aspect of your environment,
! > selecting 'Update all' will reread all these files in your
! > non-configurable/ directory.
! >         I hope this makes sense now, and if you'd like further
! > clarification, I'd be happy to make some more sense out of it, or urge
! > someone else to put it in different terms.  And as a side note, AfterStep
! > no longer updates the menu when you exit it, unless you explicitly define
! > that option to configure when you compile it.
! > 
! 
! Thank you for the reply,
! 
! Just so we're on the same page... I've copied everything from 
! /usr/local/share/afterstep/
! ~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep
! and do all my configuring in my home directory copy.
! 
! I think your saying that choosing "Update all" will reread all the files
! in the non-configurable directory.  Ok.  But what forces a write to that
! directory.

	When you select a look, feel, or background image and when you
select Update startmenu; the appropriate files are copied to your
non-configurable/ (n-c/) directory.

! I had a problem where the changes I made to my ~/G/L/A/feels/feels.DEFAULT
! file did not seem to be written to my non-configurable directory when I
! chose "Update all."  I finally deleted all my ~/non-configurable/*16* 
! files, selected the feel.DEFAULT from the menu, selected "Update all" quit 
! and restarted AS and finally my changes were saved to the non-configurable.

	Correct, the order of which the feel.DEFAULT would be copied to
the non-configurable/ dir would be edit->save->select from menu; at this
point it is copied to your n-c/

! Also, whenever I chose the "Update all" option, I would lose my look.  It 
! would return to the look.DEFAULT instead of the look.SEA I had selected 
! before running "Update all."  This was fixed by my reselecting look.SEA 
! and the SEA type menus would then return after a restart of AS.  Is this 
! normal?  Do I have to reselect my look file every time I run "Update all?"
! Do my feel and look files have to have the same .WHATEVER name for 
! "Update all" to reload the look file I have choose?

	This occurred in old versions when you would be on a desktop
other than desk 0 (the first one), I thought it was corrected in 1.6.10
however.  the name of the feels/looks is irrelevant, afterstep copies them
as #_(feel || look).#bpp to your n-c/ dir.  This might be attributed to
your method of changing looks.  Again you must select Desktop->Look (or
feel)-> look(or feel).name *first*.

	Typically, the only time you need to do an Update all, is if you
want to have afterstep reread the database, base.#bpp files; while it also
redoes the startmenu, it's quicker to do simply Update startmenu.

! Another question I have is in response to:
! > .....So this means that I can change to my hearts content
! > the /usr/local/share/afterstep/feels/feel.DEFAULT file (not reccomended)
! 
! Why "(not recommended)"?  Do you mean "don't mess with the copy in the 
! share directory?" Or, don't mess with any feel.DEFAULT file and make a new 
! feel.WHATEVER and change that to your hearts content?
! 
! I've made extensive changes in my ~/G/L/A copy of feel.DEFAULT.

	The later, having a "good" feel.DEFAULT back in the share tree is
a GoodThing(TM).

! Finally, is there anyway to tell which feel file is active?  Is there some
! config file in the /G/L/A tree that contains the last state? What feel
! file, what look file was last run in AS?  How does AS know which look file
! to use if there is no state config file?

	Usually, the feel/look files have a name at the top of them, so go
to your n0c/ dir and look at the 0_feel/look.#bpp to see which on yr
using.

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