RISC OS Directory Structure

I’ve been wondering for a while about this. Having $.Utilities and $.Apps.Utilities, is there certain items which should be in one over the other? Is there any guidance?

Cheers.

$.Apps.Utilities is not a standard thing. Only if you tell Boot to look there will it be seen. Things in Apps are applications you are likely to start from the iconbar ‘Apps’ directory. Things in Utilites are things that you want to start when you double click on a file they understand.

Yes, if you open the configuration and click on “Boot” there is the option “add to apps” where you can add your own applications to apps – probably you could remove the Utilities folder from there.

Thanks for the replies. I will have a go at tidying things things up. I have lots of stuff in subfolders of Apps. I put many of them there and !Packman added many too. That should keep me busy.:)

Cheers.

I have lots of stuff in subfolders of Apps.

The thing about sub-folders in Apps is they don’t show up in Resources:Apps – the iconbar icon link.

Here I’m talking of the main Apps folder on your HD which is scanned by the resources filer at Boot time.

Some people think this is a disadvantage.

I use this as a positive by putting things I want to keep just-in-case in folders when replaced by a new version of something in the main folder.

Thus they remain hidden from Resources: but available in Filer.

Having $.Utilities and $.Apps.Utilities, is there certain items which should be in one over the other? Is there any guidance?

My view is, no, to both questions; unless there’s guidance in the RISC OS user guide.

RISC OS as part of its distribution puts Utilities at the following location $.Utilities.

As you have two Utilities folders, the second location ($.Apps.Utilities) was possibly created by a developer using !PackMan.

How you consolidate the two is really up to you, your knowledge of the utilities and any changes that you may have made to RISC OS, such as setting utilities to automatically run, as part of !Configure → Boot → … If !PackMan was involved, try and uninstall the utility and see if you change its location.

My $.Apps.Utilities contains just helper applications that act as homes for zip, unzip etc from their PackMan packages.

I use this as a positive by putting things I want to keep just-in-case in folders when replaced by a new version of something in the main folder.

I also do this – it saves having to remember what versions of each App I have downloaded and is a useful place for the ancillary things like manuals downloaded at the same time to reside as a backup.

That’s given me a bit to think about. I use RPCEmu, and have been used the same HOSTFS directory for five or six years now on various computers. (The most I ever needed to do was to recompile the binary) Maybe it’s time for a fresh start. Could be fun or at least something to do :) At least it’s simple to back up the entire FS in case something goes wrong :)

Cheers,
Becky.

I have lots of stuff in subfolders of Apps. I put many of them there and !Packman added many too.

It might not be obvious at a glance, but it’s possible to change the installation path that !Packman will use when installing a new package. Personally, I don’t like all the subfolders in $.Apps.

I also use sub folders in Apps to fudge some dependency into !Store but have forgotten why…