The Far File and Archive Manager

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How to install/uninstall plugins
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This document contains instructions for the following procedures:

1. Installing a plugin

2. Removing a plugin

3. Updating a plugin

INSTALLING A PLUGIN
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1. Read the plugin documentation (file_id.diz, readme.txt, whatsnew.txt
doc\*.*, etc.) to find the installation instructions, the minimum version
of Far required for correct plugin operation and so on.

Install the plugin as described there.

2. If there are no installation instructions in the documentation, or

if it was impossible to install the plugin according to the
instructions given in the documentation, install the plugin
the following way:

a) Create a subfolder with an arbitrary name in the Plugins subfolder

of the folder where Far is installed.

b) Copy the contents of the plugin distribution archive to that

folder (at the least *.dll, *.hlf, *.lng files should be copied)

c) Restart Far manager.

If successful, the plugin will add a menu item to the plugins menu or
will perform the necessary functions as described in its documentation.

d) Press F1 then Shift-F2, select from the list the help topic that
corresponds to the installed plugin and carefully read it contents.

e) Open the configuration menu of the installed plugin (F9,

Options->Plugins configuration), if it exists, and configure it.

3. Tip: so the hotkeys in the plugins menu (F11) will not change after
changes in the plugins set, set them by pressing F4 in that menu.

REMOVING A PLUGIN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Read the plugin documentation (help, readme.txt, doc\*.*, etc.) to find
the instructions for removing the plugin. Remove the plugin as described
there.

2. If there are no removal instructions in the documentation, or it was

impossible to remove the plugin according to the instructions given
in the documentation, remove the plugin in the following way:

a) If there are several running Far Manager instances, close all but one.
 b) Move (F6) the subfolder of the plugin from the plugins folder (by
default it is located at the Plugins subfolder at the folder where Far
Manager is installed) to some other folder on the same drive (for
example one level up to the folder where Far Manager is installed).

c) If the folder was successfully moved, restart Far and skip to

instruction `e' below.

d) If the plugin has locked its working folder, and moving it is not
possible

- quit Far Manager

- start a new Far Manager instance with the "/p" command line
argument (Far Manager will start with no plugins).

e) Delete the folder containing the plugin to be removed.

f) If after removing the plugin you notice strange behaviour from the
Far Manager (incorrect plugins list in F11 plugins menu, crashes,
etc.) clear plugins cache:
Far.exe /clearcache

UPDATING A PLUGIN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes there will be a need to install new versions of existing plugins.

The easiest way to do it is to remove the old version and then to install
the new one (see previous sections). However this procedure may not always
be satisfactory as it might lead to the lose of existing settings for that
plugin. For this reason, updating a plugin is better done this way:

1. Read the documentation of the new plugin version (file_id.diz,

readme.txt, whatsnew.txt, doc\*.*, etc.) for clarifications on how to
install the new version. Update the plugin in the way described there.

2. If the documentation contains no instructions on how to update the

plugin, or if it was impossible to update the plugin according to the
instructions given in the documentation, then update the plugin in the
following way:

a) Complete instructions `a' to `d' of the "Removing a plugin" section

above.

b) If the old folder does not contain additional configuration, data

or any other important files, you can safely delete it, but it is
better to save it for a while at some other location to ease an
installation roll-back of the old version if the new version will
be unsatisfactory for some reason.

c) Create a folder with the same name as the one of the old version in
the Plugins subfolder of the folder where Far is installed.

d) Copy the contents of the plugin distribution archive to that

folder (at the least *.dll, *.hlf, *.lng files should be copied)

e) If needed, copy there all additional configuration, data or any other

important files from the old version folder.
f) Complete instructions `c' to `e' of the "Installing a plugin" section
above.