I use Drupal 4.6. (Please don't beg me to try out 4.7.x.z.beta.gamma.123 or anything.)

I've read many agonizing 'threads' at Drupal.org, where I should find actual documentation, but instead find people debating various kind-of-works-kind-of-broken things. I've read a few ramblings titled "filemanager+attach versus filestore2" and the like.

Unfortunately, the problem with "anybody can edit" manuals and documentation is that, well, "anybody can edit". (Public forums are not replacements for software manuals. That's a problem with the OS and CMS-craze, I think.)

Can someone who actually knows something point me in the right direction?

Goal:

* Insert an image and its <img src=...> tag while editing content.

Need:

* That I could choose to upload an image, sure. * But also that I could choose to locate an image already on the server.

[Why are files already on the server somehow off-limits to DB-driven CMS tools? I would think that a basic 'file browser' to point to a file, and insert a link -- img or a -- would be pretty common. pMachine has such, for example, which is quite sufficient.]

* That users (and authors/admins) can upload files to a script/app repository. (Ideally, namespace collisions would be able to be avoided, so that users might be able to upload new versions without replacing the old, and so that users uploading an AppleScript application wouldn't have to worry about a same-named uploaded FileMaker file.)

Hope:

That I could use the same tool to upload a file, a non-image, for subsequent download by others.

I've tried out "filemanager + attach" combo, but I never get any 'attach' form buttons, on either my local test server [MacOSX + Apache + PHP4] or my remote server [Linux + Apache + PHP4].

I don't mind to keep working on this combo, if I believe it will achieve the desired result.

I've tried out "filestore2 + fscache" but this is too much overhead for such a simple task. But, I like the file management idea, because I want people to be able to upload files attached to their posts.

I don't mind using this combo, but I'd like to find ways to keep the cache size down, and clean out old cache files regularly.

I've tried out img_assist, which I liked, but which causes permissions changes on some files, so that they are no longer owned by me, which then causes problems with automated backups and site maintenance.

This is great for image insertion, but I still thought it would provide a 'browser' like interface where I could reference an image I already uploaded last week. I never experienced this option.

In short, folks, could anyone shed some light on the dizzying array of combinations that are supposed to achieve these goals?

Thanks in advance,

-- Gary