Show directories in External panelize

[GfEW]

Note: This is a side-tracked discussion from #2697 about a problem related to #4763.

Re: #2697 (comment)

@fidodido48

#4763 ?

[...] yeah - this bug is what im talking about. Altho i was only doing first 3 steps. So to clarify my point: If you try to use ls <pattern>* filter in external panelise it works fine for files only. All dirs are always hidden, no matter whether rule matches or not. Thats what i meant by saying i couldnt get it to work.

For reference, here are the steps How to reproduce from #4763 (comment):

1. In one of mc's panels, let's say the right one, navigate to any non-empty directory.
2. Press C-x ! to open the External panelize dialog, press Tab to switch to the Command entry line.
3. Type ls -1 . , then press Enter to get to the panelized view.
4. Press F9 r f (or choose Filter... from the Right menu) to open the Filter dialog.
5. Activate or deactivate any of the three checkbox options as desired, then type any string that according to those options, doesn't match all of the files listed in the panelized view, then press Enter to get to the (supposedly) filtered panelized view.

If the directory you choose at step 1 does contain subdirectories but you don't see them included in the list resulting from step 3, then you're encountering a different issue than #4763. The latter is about step 5, not step 3.

Without a filter being active (which doesn't currently work anyway, that's the point of #4763), external panelize should display all file types, i. e. plain files, directories, as well as symlinks, character devices, block devices, named pipes or sockets (to the extent supported by your operating and file systems).

Basic Test Cases

The following two tests could help to determine whether you're missing directories in Panelize due to a new, unknown issue:

Prerequisite:

• Navigate to a directory that contains both, plain files and a few small subdirectories.
• There, continue with either A or B:

A: Type \C-x ! to open the Panelize dialog, then Tab to get to the command input line, then

find . -not -type d

then Enter.
--> What do you see?

B: Proceed as in A, but use this Panelize command instead:

find . -type d`

then Enter.
--> What do you see?

[fidodido48]

Find works correctly in both test cases, showing only files for case A and only dirs for case B.

[GfEW]

Find works correctly in both test cases, showing only files for case A and only dirs for case B.

The problem you're experiencing e. g. with ls <pattern>* suggests that Panelize works correctly, but you're expecting it to show items (e. g. directories) that your chosen command does not deliver. If you're missing directories in a panelized view, please make sure the used command actually shows those directories when run outside of mc in a plain shell.

mc's Panelize only acts as a wrapper that lists in your preferred listing format the properties of those files (where file is a general term - can be plain file, directory or other type) that happen to have the paths/filenames provided by the used command.

Example

If you're in a directory that e. g. with find . looks like this:

.
./subdirectory one
./subdirectory two/file in sub one
./subdirectory two
./subdirectory two/file in sub two
file foo
file bar
file baz

then you could use an external panelize command as simple as

echo 'subdirectory one' 'subdirectory two/file in sub two' 'file baz'

to get this Panelize view:

│/subdirectory one                                 │   4096│May  5  2025│
│/subdirectory two/file in sub two                 │     12│May  5  2025│
│ file baz                                         │    123│Sep 15  2025│

in Full file list format (or whichever listing format you prefer, see menu Left|Right -> Listing format...).

On the contrary, if you're in a different directory where no such subdirectories and files exist, the Panelized view of that same echo ... command's output would be an empty list.

Of course, you'd hardly use echo there in practice, but it serves to show that Panelize is really just listing what it gets.

[fidodido48]

Yeah, you're right. Correct command for listing directory itself is 'ls -d pattern*', otherwise the contents are printed instead. I mistakenly thought it would work the same way as for the files, because i usually dont use panelize for filtering, but rather quickfilter that could do it magnitudes easier & faster.