File Manager

Purpose

File Manager is the desktop file browser for the signed-in user’s permitted filesystem. It also supplies the file and folder picker used by other mvmOS apps.

Capabilities

• Browse folders and inspect files, and return to the folders you came from with the Back button.
• Create, rename, move, copy, and delete files and folders.
• Upload large files in chunks.
• Search by filename and edit text files in the browser.
• Open each kind of file with the app you choose, and pick another app for a single file with Open with.
• Change Unix permissions and inspect real folder disk usage.
• Open a folder as root in its own administrator window, if your Linux user may use sudo.
• Choose files or folders for apps that open the mvmOS picker.

Opening files and default apps

Double-clicking a file in File Manager or on the desktop opens it with the default app for its type. Out of the box images open in the image viewer, video and audio in the media player, source code in the code editor, plain text in the text editor, .url shortcuts in the browser, and archives are extracted in place. Installed apps can register file types of their own, and the chosen default app opens files with those extensions.

Right-click a file and choose Open with to pick another app for that one file. The code editor and the text editor are always offered, whatever the file is. Tick Always use this app to make the choice the new default for every file with that extension. A file type that no app claims shows the same choice when you double-click it.

Settings has its own Default apps section. It first shows every app with the file types it opens, your own choices highlighted, and then the list of file types to change. File types that share the same app and the same choices share a row, and changing a row changes all of them. Type an extension in the search field, or click it under its app, to change just that one; an extension no app knows yet, such as pdf, can be given an app the same way. Restore defaults removes all your choices. If the app you chose is uninstalled, its file types go back to their default app.

When an action fails

If a paste, rename, move to Trash or delete does not go through, File Manager lists every item that failed together with the system's own reason, such as Permission denied, instead of silently leaving the files where they were. The same applies to deleting files from the desktop. For permission errors it also explains the usual cause: your Linux user needs write permission on the item and on the folder that contains it. Being in the owner's group is enough only when that group also has write permission, for example after chmod -R g+w on the folder; a folder with mode 755 lets the group read it but not delete from it.

When the reason is a permission error and your user may use sudo, the list also offers to try the failed items again as administrator. After you enter your own Linux password, only those items are repeated as root, and administrator access ends again right after. Root cannot use your Trash, so a move to Trash repeated this way deletes the items permanently, and the password dialog says so.

Administrator mode

A user who may use sudo can right-click a folder, or the empty space in a folder, and choose Open as root. After you enter your own Linux password, not the root password, a separate File Manager window opens with a root badge in its title bar. Everything in that window runs as root: browsing, copying, renaming, uploads, permission and owner changes, and files you open from it in the text editor, code editor or media viewer. Your other windows keep working as your own user.

Administrator access ends after 15 minutes without use, the same way sudo asks again after a while. The badge counts down the remaining time, and every action in the window, or in an editor opened from it, starts the count again. When the time runs out, the next action asks for the password again and then continues. Click the badge to leave administrator mode at any time. Deleting in an administrator window is always permanent, because root cannot put items into your Trash, so File Manager asks you to confirm it first. Your password is checked on the server for every administrator key, and a key only works with the session it was issued for.

Good practice

Deleting or changing permissions affects the real server filesystem. Keep backups of important content and apply restrictive permissions only when you understand the effect on the relevant app or service. Use administrator mode only for the change you need and leave it when you are done.