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Use Thunar as default Gnome file manager



Inserito da assente il 7 Luglio, 2006 - 20:12 |

thunar
Thunar is the new file manager of Xfce Desktop, it's very similar to the Gtk file selector and it's extremely fast and use less RAM than Nautilus.

I tried to replace "nautilus" with "thunar" in gconf-editor with no success so I investigated to find a smarter solution. The first idea I got was to replace /usr/bin/nautilus with thunar, but this lightweight fm doesn't draw the desktop so the option "--no-desktop" wasn't recornized.

So here what I did to use Thunar as much as possible(*)

Install Thunar as the default file manager 

sudo mv /usr/bin/nautilus /usr/bin/nautilus.real
sudo gedit /usr/bin/nautilus

and this is the new /usr/bin/nautilus

#!/usr/bin/ruby
if ARGV[0].nil? or ARGV[0][0..0]=='/'
 system("thunar #{ARGV[0]}")
elsif ARGV[1][0..6]=='file://'
 system("thunar #{ARGV[1]}")
else system("nautilus.real #{ARGV.join(" ")}")
end
#system("zenity --info --text=\"#{ARGV.join(" ")}\"") #DEBUG

In this way all common URLs are passed to Thunar, but special ones are forwarded to nautilus.real 

Notes 

  • If Nautilus draws the desktop, that icons will open with the REAL Nautilus (you can disable nautilus in the session)
  • Sorry for the ruby dependency but I'm not a bash hacker (You are free to post a bash version)

(*) Thunar doesn't support gnome-vfs filesystem, like smb:// webdav:// ssh:// computer:///, so you have to use nautilus in that circumstance..


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I'm trying to implement this

Inserito da anonimo (non verificato) il 30 Agosto, 2009 - 03:59

I'm trying to implement this script on a Fedora 11 machine. But I'm having a problem with the desktop not being drawn, any ideas? Thanks! It looks like a good idea.

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non funziona con il desktop

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 30 Agosto, 2006 - 00:01

dopo aver modificato il file /usr/bin/nautilus con quelli qui sopra il desktop di gnome apre sempre le cortelle con nautilus.
non c'è un modo per far in modo che le apra solo con thunar ?

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Precisazione su Thunar

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 30 Agosto, 2006 - 08:27

Thunar apre direttamente le cartelle se le clicchi dal gnome-panel. Thunar non disegna il desktop, ma lo fa solo nautilus, quindi se clicchi sulle cartelle del desktop sarà sempre nautilus ad aprirle :(

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Actually, a better way to do

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 16 Luglio, 2006 - 00:52

Actually, a better way to do it for Python or Ruby would be to use the exec functions. That way the interpreter (and its overhead) isn't hanging around in the background, and you see the program correctly in the program list instead of just the interpreter. Also, nautilus.real should be passed '--nodesktop' and there should be some bounds checking on argv.

======== 

Python version:

#!/usr/bin/python

import os, sys

## we need the explicit path to tell exec* in arg 0
## so that when thunar/nautilus takes control of
## the process, the right name is shown in the
## process list / pidof / &c, else 'pidof thunar'
## returns null

## set the path explicitly
thunar_bin = '/usr/bin/thunar'
## else uncomment below
#pipe       = os.popen('which thunar')
#thunar_bin = pipe.read().strip()
#pipe.close()

## set the path explicitly
nautil_bin = '/usr/bin/nautilus.real'
## else uncomment below
#pipe       = os.popen('which nautilus.real')
#nautil_bin = pipe.read().strip()
#pipe.close()

if (len(sys.argv) == 1):
    os.execl(thunar_bin, thunar_bin)
elif (not sys.argv[1] or sys.argv[1][0] == '/'):
    os.execl(thunar_bin, thunar_bin, sys.argv[1])
elif (len(sys.argv) > 2 and sys.argv[2][0:7] == 'file://'):
    os.execl(thunar_bin, thunar_bin, sys.argv[2])
else:
    os.execv(nautil_bin, [nautil_bin, '--no-desktop'] + sys.argv[1:])

========

Ruby version:

#!/usr/bin/ruby

## we need the explicit path to tell exec in arg 0
## so that when thunar/nautilus takes control of
## the process, the right name is shown in the
## process list / pidof / &c, else 'pidof thunar'
## returns null

## set the path explicitly
thunar_bin = '/usr/bin/thunar'
## else uncomment below
#thunar_bin = `which thunar`.chomp()

## set the path explicitly
nautil_bin = '/usr/bin/nautilus.real'
## else uncomment below
#nautil_bin = `which nautilus.real`.chomp()

if (ARGV.empty?)
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin])
elsif (ARGV[0].nil? or ARGV[0][0,1] == '/')
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin], ARGV[0])
elsif (ARGV.length > 1 and ARGV[1][0..6] == 'file://')
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin], ARGV[1])
else
    exec([nautil_bin, nautil_bin], *(['--no-desktop'] + ARGV))
end 

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Jordan Callicoat

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 16 Luglio, 2006 - 01:21

BTW, you also need to chmod the /usr/bin/nautilus script:

su chmod 0755 /usr/bin/nautilus 

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Thanks for the new versions

Inserito da assente il 17 Luglio, 2006 - 19:35

I already had noticed that the ruby process remained in background.

Thanks for the python and bash version 

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Here is what I ended up with

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 22 Luglio, 2006 - 07:56

Hi assente,

Here is what I ended up with after a few days of playing with it. Using Ruby of course, because Ruby is the best. ;)

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# nautilus - Replacement shell script to use Thunar
# in place of nautilus as much as possible - thanks assente

$KODE='U'

# searches for a binary in $PATH
def which(app)
    dirnames = ENV['PATH'].split(':')
    dirnames.each { |dirname|
        filename = File.join(dirname, app)
        if (File.executable?(filename) and
            File.file?(filename))
            return filename
        end
    }
    return nil
end

## we need the explicit path to tell exec in arg 0
## so that when thunar/nautilus takes control of
## the process, the right name is shown in the
## process list / pidof / &c, else 'pidof thunar'
## returns null

## set the path explicitly
thunar_bin = '/usr/bin/thunar'
## else uncomment below
#thunar_bin = File.which('thunar')

## set the path explicitly
nautil_bin = '/usr/bin/nautilus.real'
## else uncomment below
#nautil_bin = File.which('nautilus.real')

args = []

if (ARGV.empty?):
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin])
else
    ARGV.each { |arg|
        if (['--no-desktop', '--browser'].include?(arg))
            args.push(arg)
        end
    }
    args.each { |arg| ARGV.delete(arg) }
end

if (ARGV.empty?):
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin])
elsif (ARGV[0][0,1] == '/')
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin], ARGV[0])
elsif (ARGV.length > 1 and ARGV[1][0..6] == 'file://')
    exec([thunar_bin, thunar_bin], ARGV[1])
else
    unless (args.include?('--no-desktop'))
        args = ['--no-dekstop'] + args
    end
    exec([nautil_bin, nautil_bin], *(args + ARGV))
end

So far it has worked very well. Hope it helps.

Nota bene: Forgive my ignornce of your blog. I'm a stupid american, so I don't understand Italian too well! 

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nice script

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 23 Luglio, 2006 - 17:26

What don't you understand my englishizated-italian o my italianizeted-english?

It's a pleasure to see another gnome/ruby fan 

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No problem

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 25 Luglio, 2006 - 18:48

Thanks assente,

Your English is fine my friend. I was putting my name (Jordan Callicoat) as the reply header, doh; but I looked up "Soggetto" to see "Subject" (duh!). BTW, I don't think I've said thank you for the tip to use Thunar yet. So, thanks! I really like it. I never used thunar before, but your post got me curious, so I installed it. Now I like it more than Nautilus. And yes, always good to see another ruby/gnome fan! People underestimate Ruby compared with Python and other scripting languages. They don't understand how easy and fun it is to use ruby!

Il dio tu benedice 

Jordan 

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Jordan Callicoat

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 15 Luglio, 2006 - 23:36

Here are two other versions of the script in case somebody doesn't have ruby installed. 

======== 

Python version:

#!/usr/bin/python

import os, sys

if (not sys.argv[1] or sys.argv[1][0] == '/'):
    os.system('thunar %s' % sys.argv[1])
elif (sys.argv[2][0:7] == 'file://'):
    os.system('thunar %s' % sys.argv[2])
else:
    os.system('nautilus.real %s' % ' '.join(sys.argv[1:]))
#os.system('zenity --info --text="%s"' % ' '.join(sys.argv[1:])) #DEBUG

========

Shell script version:

#!/bin/bash

if [ -z "${1}" ] || [ "${1:0:1}" == "/" ]; then
    thunar "${1}"
elif [ "${2:0:7}" == "file://" ]; then
    thunar "${2}"
else
    nautilus.real "${@}"
fi
#zenity --info --text="${@}" #DEBUG

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Improvement

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 8 Novembre, 2006 - 09:27

The above (bash) script doesn't work when clicking on "home" under "places", it seems that when you do it only calls nautilus with just the --no-desktop argument and no file path. In the script this simply calls nautilus.real

Here's a modified version which fixes the problem and simply calls thunar instead of nautilus.real in the aforementioned situation:
[code]
#!/bin/bash

#zenity --info --text="${1}/${@}" #DEBUG
if [ -z "${1}" ] || [ "${1:0:1}" == "/" ]; then
thunar "${1}"
elif [ "${1}" == "--no-desktop" ]; then
thunar
elif [ "${2:0:7}" == "file://" ]; then
thunar "${2}"
else
nautilus.real "${@}"
fi
[/code]

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RE: Improvement

Inserito da scrivi il tuo nome il 28 Febbraio, 2007 - 20:10

I've worked out your code, changing some "if-else" statements. You can find my edited version here (see point #3):
http://www.lineheight.net/blog/aprire-percorsi-con-thunar-da-gnome

... Hoping that this can be useful for somebody. :)

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