Small change to back ground copying?

louwin · Post by *louwin » 2012-04-20, 10:05 UTC

I have been doing a lot of copying lately.

I have set the config file to do all copying in the background

Copying a 5Gb directory displays (in the SMALL panel)

Current file being copied > Current file being copied

flashes the file size and the green 100% bar.

There is no indication of how the total copy is going

Worth a small change to the display?

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2012-04-20, 16:37 UTC

The background transfer doesn't currently support a second progress bar because there are many problems which prevent it, sorry.

Flint · Post by *Flint » 2012-04-20, 17:25 UTC

ghisler(Author)
I may be wrong, but IMHO louwin is talking about single background operation dialog, not about Background Transfer Manager.

bobcputnam · Post by *bobcputnam » 2012-04-20, 22:48 UTC

Teracopy shows both the individual file and total file progress. You can make a button to integrate Teracopy (copy and move) into TC buttons for background operation.

http://codesector.com/teracopy

louwin · Post by *louwin » 2012-04-20, 23:40 UTC

I'm too much of a newbie to understand the difference.

I click on a folder in the left panel and press F5.

The process shows a small resizeable panel/dialog(?) that shows each file being copied, then the file size concerned then does the next file.

Since the files are small ones the green guage just shows 100%.

If you look away and then come back to the display all you see is flashing file names and sizes and the green 100%.

There is NO indication of much much longer the folder copy will be

I've copied folders that tooks seconds and some that have taken hours but there is no progress bar for the WHOLE copy operation

I would be nice to look at the screen and see - the current file is done and the copy process is 25% done and will take another 17 minutes. I realise the timing is approximate

bobcputnam · Post by *bobcputnam » 2012-04-21, 00:04 UTC

Teracopy also shows "time to finish" after about 5 seconds. (And Teracopy is almost always faster than TC or Explorer.)

For Teracopy's button Copy parameters:

copy *"%L" "%T"

For the button Move parameters:

move *"%L" "%T"

louwin · Post by *louwin » 2012-04-21, 05:27 UTC

I have got used to F5 and F6 but maybe I should give it a try

Thanks

louwin · Post by *louwin » 2012-04-21, 05:31 UTC

This might be pushing it a bit and I haven't seen a question like this but is there anyway to replace the programming of F5 and F6 to use Teracopy?

Flint · Post by *Flint » 2012-04-21, 06:53 UTC

louwin wrote:I click on a folder in the left panel and press F5.

The process shows a small resizeable panel/dialog(?) that shows each file being copied, then the file size concerned then does the next file.

It would help if you gave a screenshot. In TC there are 3 different types of progress dialogs, and it's not so clear which one you are talking about. If you mean the foreground dialog (the one which "blocks" TC until copying is complete), then it should contain the overall progress bar — that is, there are two bars: one for the current file, second for the total progress. If you don't see the second bar, turn on the option Configuration -> Operation -> Calculate space occupied by subdirectories -> when copying/deleting.

If you are talking about one of the background window — those not blocking the main TC window, so that you can continue to work with TC while copying is going, then TC does not support showing the total progress in them. The Background Transfer Manager (the one that opens when after F5 you press F2) can contain multiple file operation tasks, including FTP, HTTP operations, so it is theoretically impossible to calculate the total size beforehand, especially taking into account that tasks can be added and deleted. That's what Christian replied you a little above in this thread. But there is also another background operation dialog — the one you get if you press F5, Enter, and then in the foreground dialog that appears you click the button named "Background". A small background dialog appears in this case which theoretically might have contained a total progress bar, but does not, and for now there is no way to make TC show it.

louwin · Post by *louwin » 2012-04-21, 08:56 UTC

Okay

I'm talking of (effectively) the F5 F2 process. Because I have set "all copying in background" I don't actually press F2 but I get your meaning.

I do realise that this CAN contain MANY copy tasks and I'm probably expecting too much but, in the situation of a local copy of ONE directory from the LHS panel to the RHS panel, a total progress bar WOULD be nice.

The whole purpose of copying in the background is to be able to queue other copying processes and I realise this will complicate matters but it shouldn't be beyond Christian's skills to maintain a second progress bar for the current Directory

In other words TC will know it is copying a directory and should be able to approximate/project it's completion. In other other words - when copying a directory have a progress bar for current file AND a second progress bar for current (highest level) directory

I also realise you can have directories in directories in directories and so on....

In fact, to shoot myself in the foot, The case in point is copying files in directories in directories in a directory

Specifically I am talking of copying a library. The library has Authors and each author has books and each book has a cover, the ebook itself and a metadata file.

I can see I have turned you off

Yes, it will be difficult but not impossible. After all, we are talking about computers that can carry out several million instructions per second

If there aren't any further files or directories then the second progress bar will also be the TOTAL process progress bar. If there are further directories/files to be copied then it can be clearly labelled "Current File and Current Directory" progress bars.

Ideally, in the perfect world, there should be 3 progress bars, current file, current directory and total copy process. But even I can see that the third bar could be impossible to compute.... Based on current timings it could be guessed at though.

The whole progress bar concept is a guess anyway all that remains is how good a gestimate it is

I copy single folders often enough to appreciate a projected/estimated completion %age/time to copy the directory.

It is a very nice to have but not a must have

Or you can just put this in the "too hard" basket

Flint · Post by *Flint » 2012-04-21, 10:10 UTC

louwin
I see.
Well, suppose your idea is implemented. Now imagine how the result looks to users: there are several directories listed in the Background Transfer Manager (BTM) window, TC is copying the first one. When finished, it should start copying the second directory. But to show the total progress for it, the total size must be calculated first. TC stops copying and starts counting, — maybe for long time if the directory is large. So, the total time of the operation will increase significantly. But many users use BTM just to "launch and forget", so additional delay would only annoy them.

Therefore, even though I would not be opposed to seeing the total progress, the cost of implementing it seems too high to me. Of course, if implemented optionally, I would not vote against this feature.

louwin · Post by *louwin » 2012-04-21, 10:33 UTC

No problem

I expected as much so I played around with Teracopy and found it to be VERY good. Thanks to bobcputnam for persisting with his suggestion.

I seems to copy FASTER too

And it has the second progress bar. It has a few counters I have yet to get to understand and it seems to always be on top. I don't know if it can multiprogram and queue so I will have to play around with it further.

It DOES however have the two progress bar functionality I was hoping for.

Well worth playing around with thanks again to bobcputnam.

Maybe I'll learn to use its' buttons for large directory copies. It handled my eBook library copy extremely well