3. Onscreen Fundamentals

3.1 Drag and Drop

3.2 Managing Installed Packages

When Kpackage is started normally (that is it has not been invoked via drag and drop and has not been given any parameters) it
enters `Management Mode'. This mode allows the following:

• Seeing which packages are installed.
• Seeing which files are included in an installed package, selecting a file from the list will open it using the file manager
• Verifying files in a package, files that exist are marked with a tick, files that don't with a cross.
• Uninstalling a package.

3.3 Installing a Package

• locate the package you wish to install in kfm, drag it onto a running copy of Kpackage
• click on a package file in kfm and start a new copy of Kpackage
• use on the open menu items in Kpackage

• See information about an uninstalled package.
• List the files that will be installed.
• Install the package.

3.4 Managing uninstalled packages

For RPM packages Kpackage can read a directory containing packages and add these to the package tree as either new or updated packages. It is possible to examine or install these packages from the package tree. The information about the packages is extracted from the standard format of the file names and so it is necessary to use the "Examine" button to see the full description, it is possible to set an option so that for local directories each package file is read, this is slower but gives a full description.

For Debian packages it is possible to handle package directories in the same way as with RPM packages but it is also possible to handle the Packages files that provide the directories for Debian distributions. The location of the the Debian distribution is specified along with the Packages files for the parts of the distribution that are of interest, those packages are then added to  the package tree and can be examined or installed. If "dselect" program is being used then the file /var/lib/dpkg/available can be used as a Packages file that describes the distribution that dselect uses.

For remote directories and package files (ie those fetched via FTP) Kpackage will do caching, the packages are cached in ~/.kpackage and the directories in ~/.kpackage/dir

NOTE: for the handling of remote (FTP) directories to work KFM must not have the "FTP Proxy" set. in the Browser Settings.

3.5 File menu

• Open
• Brings up file selector for local and ftp files
• Open URL
• Allows the entry of a URL for either local, ftp or http files
• Open Recent
• A list of  the most recently open package files
• Find Package
• Search the installed package list for a package who's name contains the entered string
• Find File
• Produces a list of packages that contain the entered file name, selecting a line will display the information on that package. It behaves slightly differently for RPM (where you have to enter the exact file name) and DEB (where you can enter a regular expression).
• Reload
• Reread the package data and rebuild the package tree
• Quit
• Quit

3.6 Options menu

• Options
• Package Display
• This determines which packages are displayed in the package tree, whether all packages, just the new ones, just the updated ones or just the installed ones.
• Directory Cache
• Whether to cache remote (FTPed)  directories and Package files.
• Package files
• Whether to cache remote package files that have been fetched
• misc
• Verity file list
• If set the list of files in the package is checked to see if they are actually installed
• Read information from all local package files
• If set all the files from a (local) package directory are read instead of just using the files names, this is slower but shows more information.
• Location of uninstalled packages: RPM
• This provides for specifying the location of package directories (either local or FTP), each line includes an entry where the URL or name of the directory can be typed in, a "..." button  that brings up a file selector and a "Use" radio button that determines whether the directory given in the line is to be used or not. The multiple panels are just for convenience.
• Location of uninstalled packages:  DEB
• The first two panels work the same way as for RPMs, the others allow the specification of a Debian distribution and the location of Packages files in that distribution.
• Hide Tool Bar
• Activate/Deactivate the tool bar
• Save Settings Now
• Save the current options setting immediately instead of when Kpackage exits.

3.7 Cache menu

• Clear Package Directory Cache
• Delete cached copies of remote package directories and Packages files
• Clear Package Cache
• Delete cached copies of remote package files that have been fetched

3.8 Toolbar

• Open
• Find Package
• Find File
• Reload
• Quit