
                    LDirX plugin 0.20 beta for FAR Manager



  This software is a plugin for FAR Manager.  Converting  the  output  of  the
LDIRDOS/LDIRNT commands of LTOOLS, it allows you to  see  the  contents  of  a
Linux partition in FAR Manager, as if it were an archive file.

  CREDITS: LTOOLS 1.x versions have been written by  Jason  Hunter  and  David
Lutz; later versions by Werner Zimmermann. LTOOLS is distributed under the GNU
Public License, at http://www.fht-esslingen.de/~zimmerma/software/ltools.htm.



  1. Usage

  First, extract LDIRDOS.EXE (for Windows 95/98/ME) or LDIRNT.EXE (for Windows
NT/2000/XP) from the LTOOLS package into a directory in the PATH. Then extract
LDIRX.EXE from this package there, as well. Go to the home  directory  of  FAR
Manager,  enter  the  Plugins\MultiArc\Formats  subdirectory  and  append  the
contents of LDIRX.INI in  this  package  to  Custom.ini.  The  plugin  is  now
installed.

  Create files whose names resemble the Linux partitions and their  extensions
are ".ldx". For example, if the  Linux  partition  is  on  the  third  primary
partition of your first hard disk, the file should be  called  "hda3.ldx";  if
it's on the second logical partition of the extended partition of your  second
hard disk, the file should be called "hdb6.ldx". Run LDIRDOS/LDIRNT  with  the
"-part" command line option for a list of all partitions on  all  hard  disks.
The contents of the files does not matter. You might want to create them  with
a length of zero bytes so that they don't waste any disk space.

  In FAR Manager, enter any file with the extension ".ldx" to see the contents
of the corresponding Linux partition. Now you can use any function that  reads
files in the "archive"; writing is not allowed.



  2. Important notes

  - Under Windows 95/98/ME, you may experience crashes or data corruption when
    accessing a Linux partition: reading its contents, loading files into  the
    viewer/editor, copying files from it. To circumvent it, you  may  have  to
    enter the "archive" again or view or copy some small files  (a  couple  of
    Megabytes is enough)  before  viewing/editing/copying  larger  files.  The
    reason for this problem is currently unknown and it does not  occur  under
    Windows NT/2000/XP.

  - When entering the "archive", the recursive directory list of the  complete
    Linux partition is collected. In the case of large partitions,  with  lots
    of files and directories, this may take quite a long  time:  for  a  Linux
    system partition, up to a minute or even more.

  - Copying full directory structures recursively  is  not  possible.  Neither
    do LDIRDOS/LDIRNT accept a directory name, nor  does  FAR  Manager  expand
    directory names to the names of all files in it and its subdirectories.



  3. Copyright and legal issues

  This software is freeware. You may use it as long as you wish  and  you  may
spread it as you like provided that it is in the original unmodified  archive.
Don't distribute single files only the whole package and don't ask  for  money
above the normal fee of the distribution media itself. This software  may  not
be included in any compilation, sold on disk or  CD/DVD-ROM  or  bundled  with
software or hardware without prior permission from the author.

  The source of this software is public domain and provided here "as is"  -  I
don't feel like commenting it more but if you have problems then feel free  to
ask me. If you derive your own software from the source or put a part  of  the
source into your own software, please, give me a credit and send a copy to me.

  The author accepts no liability for any damage or data loss caused  by  this
software.



  4. The author

  If you're interested in some similarly useful utilities then contact  me  at
the E-mail address sta@c64.org or visit my homepage at http://sta.c64.org.

  Joe Forster/STA
  10th October, 2004
