Flat view - list of files in subfolders of any level (as in TC's Branch view)

[leopoldus]

Hi, is there any option to get the list of files in the current folder and all its subfolders (or may be in subfolders of the specific level, or in the currently selected subfolders etc).
AFAIK, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away it had been known as Ghisler's Total Commander the killer-feature under the name "Branch view - http://help.ghisler.ch/totalcmd/branch_view__with_subdirs_.htm". Since then it has been implemented in many other file managers too.  But I could not find anything like that in Multi Commander. Have I missed anything or this functionality is really not (yet) added?

Thanks in advance!

[Jungle]

watch the pic

[leopoldus]

watch the pic

Thank you, I knew, that something like this "Flat FileSystem view" should exist in MultiCommander too. I was trying to find it in the main menu, not in the right place on the top of a file panel.
Is there any way to call this drop-down list of panel view modes from the keyboard too, not only by hitting this button with mouse?

P.S.
It seems, that this feature is really very "experimental". For me it works only in some folders with fewer subfolders and files, while it makes Multi Commander to hang every time (I have tried many times) if folders with more than some dozens of subfolders and files
 This way it is not really usable of cotse, something like alpha version. Hope it will actually become to work one day in the future.

[Mathias (Author)]

No it is not that experimental,
There is no folder limit, Number of folders does not matter. But MC will 'hang' (no really, but look like it, since the main UI can not refresh until scan is done) until it have scanned the entire subfolder structure,
so if there are lots of files it can takes a while, specially if you have a very very slow drive. But there is no way around that.

I have no issues showing over a million files there.  However takes a while to scan, because it must scan the filesystem before it can show the content

[leopoldus]

No it is not that experimental

But you do state yourself, that it is experimental (please read the appropriate menu entry).

There is no folder limit, Number of folders does not matter.

I meant, that, say, in Total Commander it is possible to set subfolders level limit, that is show only the content of the subfolders up to the 2.nd level down. Sometimes it is very useful.

But MC will 'hang' (no really, but look like it, since the main UI can not refresh until scan is done) until it have scanned the entire subfolder structure,
so if there are lots of files it can takes a while, specially if you have a very very slow drive. But there is no way around that...
However takes a while to scan, because it must scan the filesystem before it can show the content

I am afraid, that it does hang. My computer (2,0 GHz) and HDD (7 200 rpm) are not as much slow, that the process or reading some average folder with several subfolders and some hundreds or thousands files should long a half of hour, am I right? To avoid misunderstanding I confirm again, that I have tried this feature for many very different folders on different drives and partitions, but the result was the same: for some folders (with fewer files count) it works, but for others it causes MC to hang.

I have no issues showing over a million files there.

Lucky you... I am not.

[Mathias (Author)]

No it is not that experimental

But you do state yourself, that it is experimental (please read the appropriate menu entry).

Yes, But the experimental part is not the scanning. It is what features is used on the flat view.

There is no folder limit, Number of folders does not matter.

I meant, that, say, in Total Commander it is possible to set subfolders level limit, that is show only the content of the subfolders up to the 2.nd level down. Sometimes it is very useful.

That is a feature that can be requested and maybe added some day.

But MC will 'hang' (no really, but look like it, since the main UI can not refresh until scan is done) until it have scanned the entire subfolder structure,
so if there are lots of files it can takes a while, specially if you have a very very slow drive. But there is no way around that...
However takes a while to scan, because it must scan the filesystem before it can show the content

I am afraid, that it does hang. My computer (2,0 GHz) and HDD (7 200 rpm) are not as much slow, that the process or reading some average folder with several subfolders and some hundreds or thousands files should long a half of hour, am I right? To avoid misunderstanding I confirm again, that I have tried this feature for many very different folders on different drives and partitions, but the result was the same: for some folders (with fewer files count) it works, but for others it causes MC to hang.

Sorry I don't think so. I don't think is is really hung, I think you see that MC become "not responding" but that is because the UI can't update.
But it will release it self when it is done. It is still working and scanning the drive. check with process monitor and you see it is working.

[leopoldus]

I meant, that, say, in Total Commander it is possible to limit subfolders scanning by level, say, a user can order to show only the content of the subfolders up to the 2.nd level down. Sometimes it is very useful.

That is a feature that can be requested and maybe added some day.

Well, please consider my remark to be a feature request 

I am afraid, that it does hang. My computer (2,0 GHz) and HDD (7 200 rpm) are not as much slow, that the process or reading some average folder with several subfolders and some hundreds or thousands files should long a half of hour, am I right?

Sorry I don't think so. I don't think is is really hung, I think you see that MC become "not responding" but that is because the UI can't update.
But it will release it self when it is done.

OK, could you please estimate how long it might continue at my system (see its parameters above) to scan and show a folder with, say, about 10 000 files divided to approx 200 subfolders of 4-5 levels? Will the answer "several hours" be possible? Well, what about a folder with only 2 subfolders and 14 (yes, fourteen only!!) files, can scanning last more than 10 minutes?

check with process monitor and you see it is working.

I have already checked it before with Process Explorer and stock Task Manager. The current status on MC process was always [Not responding].

[Mathias (Author)]

I am afraid, that it does hang. My computer (2,0 GHz) and HDD (7 200 rpm) are not as much slow, that the process or reading some average folder with several subfolders and some hundreds or thousands files should long a half of hour, am I right?

Sorry I don't think so. I don't think is is really hung, I think you see that MC become "not responding" but that is because the UI can't update.
But it will release it self when it is done.

OK, could you please estimate how long it might continue at my system (see its parameters above) to scan and show a folder with, say, about 10 000 files divided to approx 200 subfolders of 4-5 levels? Will the answer "several hours" be possible? Well, what about a folder with only 2 subfolders and 14 (yes, fourteen only!!) files, can scanning last more than 10 minutes?

check with process monitor and you see it is working.

I have already checked it before with Process Explorer and stock Task Manager. The current status on MC process was always [Not responding].

What I was trying to explain is that seeing "Not responsive" can be normal during flat scanning if the scanning takes long time like when there are lots and lots of files, when the scanning of the filesystem takes longer then the Windows UI Timeout. That is 20-30sec or something like that.
Seeing "Not Responsive" only means that the UI Thread of the Application is not responding and that is correct in this situation, because it is waiting for the scanning to complete. And it will "unfreeze" as soon as the task is completed.  Seeing "Not Responsive" is not always the same as the program have hung so lets kill it. The Program might still be working and in this case it normally is.

However if you only have 14 files and it "hangs" then something is really wrong with your system.
If it really hangs during scanning than something is blocking MC from proceeding like Disk Error, Security Software or a million other reason.
This has nothing to do with being "experimental" or not, It would hang anyway. 14 files is not exactly a special situations.
Flat view is ofcourse tested for normal operations, It is not like you create something and not test it at all.
All normal operations should work. It is the edge cases, The special strange situations and Special hardware that are not common that are not tested and can have issues.

So the real question is why 14 files make it hang on your system and not others. What is special/unique with your setup that makes this happen.