Good Housekeeping: Monitoring and Tidying Up File Systems

Summary

The scripts in this chapter run the gamut from totally interactive (undup) to fully automated (dfcmp). Somewhere in between, symfix, sym2file, and zrm can do their work unhindered, or can prompt the user for confirmation of each action. Though designed for use at the command line, lsr needs no interaction, and can be used in scripts.

This is typical of a file management system, of which these scripts would be only a small part. Some tasks can be automated, but you will always want to control some things yourself. In addition to these, and the file-aging scripts in Chapter 14, you will probably need a good file manager. Some people swear by Midnight Commander (mc), others by Konqueror. My favorite is gentoo, which was based on the Amiga file manager, Directory Opus. Many applications also have interactive file managers: lynx, emacs, pine, and others.

In addition, you will probably need to write some more scripts to deal with your own particular situation.