I would like to transfer (move) files from multiple disks on one computer to multiple disks on a second computer (ComputerA--->ComputerB) using a single queue. Is this possible?
My experience seems to suggest that with drag and drop, the answer is "no". However, I keep seeing this COPY QUEUE thing but have no idea if this is the solution or even how to implement it.
As for motivation, I hope to start all the transfers and walk away, and not have to come back an hour later to start another transfer. I would not want to start multiple streams (multiple queues) simultaneously.
You can force a copy operation to be queued by creating a button or hotkey that uses a variation on the command: Copy QUEUE=MyQueue. This will force any copy operation to queue into a user-defined queue (MyQueue).
As far as I know, it's possible (via file types options) to change default behavior when files and folders are dragged&dropped.
You may also set DOpus to eg. copy files without using queue when dragged&dropped while holding Alt or drag them with right mouse button and after dropping - choose "copy with no queue" from context menu (there's no such option by default, I'm just pointing out that this is possible).
A named COPY queue sounds nice but what about a named MOVE queue? Can you imagine wanting to copy (and queue) 20 directories then go back and delete those 20 directories (as if you could remember them) so that in effect you had done a MOVE queue.
If I put the Copy QUEUE=MyQueue (or even a COPY QUEUE=MYQueue MOVE) in a button (and I did) - then how does this help? Do I have to use a hotkey to activate the command in the button (or press the button maybe) just before attempting a COPY? This doesn't make sense. Do I use the hotkey before releasing it in a drag & drop operation?
After reading, I don't see a universal queue for all move/copy operations originating on one machine. It's based more on target drive and current operations to that drive that are already in progress. So if I start a 200GB transfer to Drive E on remote host B and then queue another 200 GB transfer to Drive F on the same remote host, then there is not single queue, but two queues - to simultaneous transfers going on. Would this be a correcting understanding of how this all works.
As you apparently have seen from your next questions comments, in Opus - MOVE is an argument to the Copy command (as opposed to some separate Move command)... So, there are only "copy" queues which both copy and move operations share. There is the default (or 'auto') queue, and user defined (explicitly 'named') queues.
[ul][li]The default (or 'auto') queue gets used by Opus on normal copy/move operations - without needing any modifications to the command being run on your toolbar buttons, drop actions, hotkeys, or drop menu actions (whatever method you're using to do the copy or move) as long as the Preferences / File Operations / Copy Options / Automatically manage file copy queues option is enabled. There are also source/destination criteria that come into play however, that determine if Opus will or will not automatically queue an operation... details on those criteria are here.[/li]
[li]The user defined (explicitly 'named') queue(s) let you provide a name for a queue to use in a custom command of your own making - like has been suggested here. People might use this for instance when they know they're copying to/from different combinations of logical drives on the same 'physical' drive(s) which Opus can't reliably detect on it's own and might otherwise NOT queue automatically.[/li][/ul]
I think you have a slight misunderstanding of things that we've not taken into account in our suggestions. There are multiple ways of doing things in Opus - that are all individually customizable. Let's stay on Copy/Move... As you know, you can do drag and drop copy/move. You can also use buttons on the default Operations toolbar to do copy/move, and some of those toolbar buttons do indeed have hotkeys associated with them. There are also standalone hotkeys (not having to be associated with any toolbar buttons) you can configure via the Settings / Customize Toolbars... / Keys page. There are also multiple different kinds of context menu actions you can use...
From your question here - I think you're imagining that one of the methods we've suggested might enable or toggle on some kind of global QUEUED copy "mode" or something that would then be used by whatever ~other method you might use to initiate a copy/move operation (like normal drag and drop). That's not the case... adding one of the suggested commands above to a toolbar button means clicking the button itself would perform the copy/move all on it's own instead of whatever normal method you currently use to initiate a copy/move operation. Without further changes to the command, that button you created would copy whatever is currently selected to either the 'destination' file display if you had a dual-display turned on... or whatever other lister window was open and left in the 'destination' state. If neither of those applied - you'd be prompted with a dialog to select a destination. What's been suggested to you so far has just been an example of the important part - how to use the Copy command options and arguments to do what we thought you want. But you can also modify existing methods (such as drag and drop) of copying and moving to do what you want like daroc mentioned - read on.
That's correct. There is no Preferences option to force queue ALL copy/move operations globally, galaxy wide, within the same local group or supercluster, and no - not even universally . The auto queuing performed by Opus and mentioned above uses some logic (again: described here) to automatically do what you've observed about multiple operations to or from the same drive. It does this in order to achieve some balance in load against the same physical drive as either the source or destination for multiple operations so as to avoid the kind of natural performance degradation when too many operations run against thje same drive at the same time.
But that's not necessary ALL the time right? If I've initiated your 200GB copy from someplace to a destination drive, that destination drive is going to be busy. If I then need to initiate another large copy operation to that same destination... a few things can happen that aren't necessarily desirable. For one, the total time for the operation to complete can be greater running in parallel than it would be if they ran in series. And for another, you may be unnecessarily fragmenting the data on the destination. I'm sure you can appreciate wanting to avoid that - as you're looking for a way to force queue operations . But if my two separate copy/move operations are to/from entirely unique drives (whether on or between the same or different computers) then you're very likely going to make the total time to complete LONGER by force queuing ALL operations. From your original request, I don't think anyone anticipated you wanting to universally queue all operations.
But you also said "originating on one machine", so maybe you don't actually want to universally queue ALL copy/move operations either. There's no way to tell if different logical paths on a remote host (may be easier on local - but certainly not for different mapped drives to remote computers, or different shares on the same remote computer when dealing with UNC paths) would benefit by queuing or not given the current logic. Opus uses logical drive paths (I suppose also UNC paths) in order to work out its auto queuing logic according to the rules linked above a few times. So Opus can't reliably figure out how to automatically queue an operation like you've presented where the targets are different drives on the same remote host. Drives E: and F: on a remote computer could indeed be logical drives on the same physical drive - and therefore benefit from queuing. But they could also just as easily be on different physical drives, and force queuing operations to them might just make all the operations take a longer total time to complete. So queuing in your scenario could either help OR hurt based on details about the destination that Opus has no access to. Maybe it'd lessen network utilization, and maybe doing so would be marginally beneficial. But the suggestion being made here was an alternate method (say a dedicated toolbar button instead of a normal drag and drop) to force any copy/move operation using the suggested command to be queued when you know thats in fact what you want to do... placing the control and decision making on whether to queue or not in your hands.
Hope some of this helps clarify... Like how daroc mentioned - if it's more useful to you than a separate toolbar button, you can also use the sort of command that has been suggested here to modify what happens when you do a normal drag and drop. This is a already a long post, so shout back if that is a more useful method by which to trigger forced queued operations and someone will provide the details. Opus lets you configure what to do when you drag and drop using several control keys like Alt, Ctrl, or Shift. The default config emulates what happens when you do the same thing in Explorer - but is open for customization in Opus.
It certainly does help. I've read it once and it seems to fit known (and guessed at) facts. But it will be useful to "study it" again as they say in old vernacular.
You are pointing out that the design decisions that govern file transfers (locally and remotely) to and from a target host argue against an automatic universal queue - that makes sense. However, as an operator at a single host window, a universal queue that would tirelessly carry out all transfers in a sequential fashion (especially in a simple hostA to hostB one-way scenario) would seems idyllic. I would like to push the chair away from the computer, come back in 8 hours, and have all transfers completed. If the files transfers are sequential, then there is no resource contention although as you say there could be longer transfer times.
I appreciate the explanation about the hotkeys and buttons. I had noticed the COPY .... TO ... options so that I could script repeating transfers, but that is different that what I wanted. I will try the hotkey approach to see if I can force all drag and drops to use a named Queue. That's doesn't sound too hard given you have pointed me in the right direction. I have to wait for another opportunity to test the idea given I only do the transfers once a week or so. Now if only I can remember to use that hotkey at the appropriate time.
Still not sure if I'm properly understanding what you want to do... if you do in fact always want ALL copy/move ops to be queued... then you can modify whatever method you're using to do copies and moves to name an explicit queue to always use (MyQueue is just an example).
If you want to control which operations get queued, but otherwise let Opus do it's own auto thing for other copies - the way to do that is a purpose built button, hotkey, drop menu action, hotkey assisted drop menu action, whatever.
We can guide you to exactly where to go depending on what you want to do. You said:
If you want to force ALL drag and drop copies to use a queue - you don't need to do anything specific with hotkeys. For instance, by going to Settings / File Types... you can see the following after double-clicking on 'All files and folders':
From there... to modify all regular drag and drop COPIES to use a queue, you could edit the command you see there for plain "Drag-and-drop" from copy movewhensame to copy movewhensame queue=myqueue. Similarly, you could then make the same kind of change to the "Drag-and-drop + Shift" command to force shift key drag and drop MOVES to also use the same queue.
If you don't want to force all drag and drop ops to use a queue - one of the things daroc mentioned is what I also do myself for ~alternate copy actions - which is to create drag and drop MENU actions. You get this when you drag the items from source to dest using the right mouse button instead of the left. When you release the right mouse button on the destination folder, you then get a popup drop menu with a list of configurable actions that you can customize. I myself have this for forced QUEUED operations... one for Copy with QUEUE, and another for Move with QUEUE.
What do you want to do?
Possibly better, i.e., using the Right Button Drag&Drop context menu
From previous posts, I had modified the shift all files and folder event but I like this idea of Right Button Drag and Drop method.
Settings | File Types |
Directory Opus File Types |
(None) All Files and Folders - Edit
File Type Tab
Drop Menu Tab
New
Move MyQueue here
COPY QUEUE=MyQueue MOVE here
New
Copy MyQueue here
COPY QUEUE=MyQueue here
Move new menu options to top
Frankly, I had not noticed the drag & drop tab nor appreciated what it is was used for.
For me, single queue actions in many situations are preferred because disk and network usage is lessened which means better overall response from a desktop system in contrast to a server that knows how to manage these kinds of resource contentions. It's always on the desktop side that you see multiple disk IOs impact overall system performance.
Wow, this right click drag&drop context menu thing is very cool.
I started a large move using the named Queue from disk D to disk E
and then made another large move using the same Queue from disk E to disk D.
Both moves are using the named Queue. The context menu is a small inconvenience for such a large return in staging sequential file transfer to and from local and remote disks.