How to Make Nautilus Even More Useful in Linux

by Karley Harris
22 minutes read

How to Make Nautilus Even More Useful in Linux

A photograph of a person typing on a laptop computer in a table.

Nautilus is a sexy and smooth document supervisor for the GNOME desktop computer feel. It works by issuing an obtainable viewer interface that is both simplified to application and uncomfortably extensible. Below we will distinctly mirror you how to degree up your document supervisor via some of the ideal tweaks and extensions for Nautilus in Linux.

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  • Make it feasible for Perfunctory Trail Addresses
  • Invent a Blank Text Documents Generator
  • Readjust the Navigating Sidebar
  • Make it feasible for Irreparable Deletion for Records
  • Make it feasible for Solve Documents Deletion
  • Make it feasible for Administrator Ascertaining
  • Prowl Records in Your Filesystem
  • Modify and Revolutionize Pics
  • Amenable A Habit Terminal Window
  • Make it feasible for Trail Reproducing in Nautilus
  • Invent Habit Context Nutrition corporate Commands
  • Sprinted Habit Scripts for Nautilus

Suggestion: if you are not comfy via Nautilus, there are numerous other holistic document bosses that you can install on your Linux distro.

Make it feasible for Perfunctory Trail Addresses

One changeableness of Nautilus contrasted to other document bosses for Linux is that it doesn’t mirror the complete trail of the existing directory by default. While you can position this by opening a incurable on that folder and dashing pwd, performing that is clunky and clunky.

To address this, press Ctrl + L to replace the complete trail of the presently boisterous folder. You can press the super same keybind over again to recovery to the initial trail panache.

A screenshot of a Nautilus via a message document trail.

You can also earn the traditional trail irreparable by dashing the operating with via command in a incurable:

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences always-use-location-entry true

To use your brand-newfangled stances, reset your existing Nautilus session:

nautilus -q

Invent a Blank Text Documents Generator

An additional changeableness Nautilus has is that its context menu doesn’t have an substitute to inflict arbitrary records. This can be perturbing if you want to inflict an vacant document and you don’t want to amenable a brand-newfangled incurable session.

To mend this, read to your residence directory in Nautilus.

Amenable the “Themes” folder, after that appropriate-click the mouse and discern “Amenable in Terminal.”

A screenshot emphasizing the Amenable in Terminal prompt inside the Themes folder.

Invent a brand-newfangled document in the decors folder by dashing the operating with via command:

touch ./New.txt

Inspect whether your brand-newfangled context substitute is massaging entirely by appropriate-clicking on the Nautilus residence window.

A screenshot emphasizing the brand-newfangled substitute under the Nautilus context menu.

Designate “Customary Document”, after that click your brand-newfangled blank message document substitute.

A screenshot emphasizing the brand-newfangled message document motif in Nautilus.

Readjust the Navigating Sidebar

The navigating sidebar is an mythical portion of the modern-day Nautilus viewer interface in Linux. While it’s a moderate way of posturing the invaluable folders on your computer, rising and fall the default top attributes can be confusing to a beginner viewer.

To recovery the sidebar top attributes, attend your residence directory in Nautilus.

Press Ctrl + H to disclose the latent records in the directory, after that twin-click the “.config” folder.

A screenshot emphasizing the latent records in the residence directory.

Amenable the “viewer-dirs.dirs” document via your favorite message editor.

A screenshot emphasizing the viewer-dirs document inside the .config directory.

Readjust the directory trail of the XDG variable that you want to recovery. In my rind, I want to kit my Video clips folder to “$HOME/Downloads/Media.”

A screenshot emphasizing an modified viewer-dirs document.

Preserve the “viewer-dirs.dirs” document, after that run nautilus -q on a incurable to reload your brand-newfangled stances.

FYI: position out more around what Bash variables are in Linux.

Make it feasible for Irreparable Deletion for Records

By default, Nautilus will distinctly habitually hold your newly deleted records in its Farces Can folder. This is habitually precious whenever you’ve mistakenly deleted a document and you want to repossess it. Singularly, there are layers where you can want to separate a document without sending it to the Farces Can.

To permit irreparable deletion, amenable Nautilus after that click the document supervisor’s stances menu.

A screenshot emphasizing the menu switch for Nautilus.

Click “Likings” on the dropdown menu list, after that scroll down on the Likings residence window and discern the “Separate For life” toggle switch.

A screenshot emphasizing the Separate For life toggle in Nautilus.

Attest that your stances are massaging entirely by pressuring Right Click on any kind of document and revisiting for the “Separate For life” substitute.

Make it feasible for Solve Documents Deletion

Nautilus-untarnished is a light-weight extension that adds a “solve separate” substitute to the document context menu in Nautilus. Unlike a invariant separate, it makes certain that any kind of document you get rid of will distinctly be irretrievable also from data recovery routines.

A screenshot emphasizing the Wipe choices in the Nautilus context menu.

Less competent from that, this extension also comes via an substitute to untarnished your drive’s cost-free disk gap. This is precious if you want a drive that is flawlessly spick-and-span of any kind of recurring data.

To install this extension, run the operating with via command in your incurable:

sudo apt install nautilus-wipe

Bunches your brand-newfangled extension on the existing session by reloading your Nautilus process:

nautilus -q

Wondrous to becomed aware: position out how to secure your breakable records via Interment place in Linux.

Make it feasible for Administrator Ascertaining

One of the biggest downsides of Nautilus is that it doesn’t come via a concocted-in way to amenable records and run routines as origin. This can be poor specifically if you’ve already opened the Linux gizmo document on the Nautilus GUI merely to position out that it requires origin access.

Nautilus-admin is a moderate extension that adds an “Administrator Ascertaining” substitute on the document supervisor’s context menu. Identical to the “Amenable as Administrator” substitute in Home windows, this provides you a prompt where you can access a folder as the origin viewer.

A screenshot emphasizing the Amenable as Administrator substitute in the Nautilus context menu.

To application this for your Nautilus instance, run the operating with via:

sudo apt install nautilus-admin

Prowl Records in Your Filesystem

Commonly, lurking records in Linux requires you to append a dot (.) at the prelude of a document’s tag. The nautilus-belie extension carries this attribute unprejudiced to your document supervisor, by issuing a context menu substitute for lurking records.

A screenshot emphasizing the Prowl Documents substitute in the Nautilus context menu.

This extension also works for multiple records and entirety magazines. As such nautilus-belie is a useful tool for users that want to belie a large quantity of records in their filesystem but don’t want to rename them one by one.

Through that claimed, you can install this extension by dashing the operating with via:

sudo apt install nautilus-hide

Modify and Revolutionize Pics

Nautilus-image-converter is a nifty miniscule tool that provides a way to sustain inalienable image editing and streamlining unprejudiced from your document supervisor. It works by amassing serviceability of the Imagemagick CLI energy as the keystone for its image modification attributes.

An additional terrific attribute of this extension is that it can take care of multiple image edits at once. For instance, you can discern an entirety directory of images and resize them at selectively 50% stove.

A screenshot emphasizing the image editing and streamlining choices for Nautilus.

You can install this energy by dashing the operating with via command:

sudo apt install nautilus-image-converter

Amenable A Habit Terminal Window

By default, Nautilus permits you to amenable a Linux incurable at the existing folder gap using its context menu. Singularly, it merely executes it for the Gnome Terminal emulator.

The nautilus-amenable-any kind of-incurable energy transactions with this by extending the default “Amenable in Terminal” substitute to basically any kind of emulator person.

To acquire this, amenable a brand-newfangled incurable and run the operating with via command:

sudo apt install python3-nautilus python3-full gettext

Download the latest flee document from the programmer’s Github page.

A screenshot emphasizing the latest download document for nautilus-amenable-any kind of-incurable extension.

Amenable a brand-newfangled incurable residence window on your Downloads folder, after that extract the ingredients of the extension’s zip document:

unzip ./nautilus-open-any-terminal-0.5.0.zip

Go inside the extension’s folder, after that run the installer script:

sh ./tools/update-extension-user.sh install glib-compile-schemas ~/.local/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

Sprinted the operating with via list commands to kit a brand-newfangled behavior incurable capsule. In my rind, I will distinctly recovery the terminal merit to “urxvt” provided that it’s the incurable that I application.

gsettings set com.github.stunkymonkey.nautilus-open-any-terminal terminal urxvt

Reload your Nautilus instance to use your brand-newfangled stances.

A screenshot emphasizing the brand-newfangled incurable substitute in Nautilus.

Make it feasible for Trail Reproducing in Nautilus

For the most portion, picking and duplicating a document in most document bosses will distinctly basically result in duplicating that accurate document. Singularly, there are instances where you want to photocopy some metadata for that document.

In Nautilus, it is legitimate to sustain this by shedding nautilus-photocopy-trail. This is a miniscule extension that adds 3 brand-newfangled forms of photocopy solution: “Trail, URI, and Name” on the document supervisor’s context menu. It’s also configurable and comes via pivot-board shortcuts to automate activities.

To install this, run the operating with via command to attain the dependencies for the energy:

sudo apt install python3-nautilus python3-gi git make

Bring the Git repository from the programmer’s Github page:

git clone https://github.com/chr314/nautilus-copy-path.git cd ./nautilus-copy-path

Peruse to the extension’s directory, after that run the operating with via command:

make install

Inspect whether your brand-newfangled extension is massaging by opening a context menu on a document.

A screenshot emphasizing the numerous photocopy choices for Nautilus.

Invent Habit Context Nutrition corporate Commands

Orders For Nautilus is a formidable extension that permits you to inflict behavior menus, submenus, and commands for Nautilus in Linux. You can also inflict behavior activities counting on the type and digit of the presently picked records.

Further, Orders for Nautilus also comes via a GUI tool which lugs out it madly simplified to configure and acquire initiated via.

A screenshot emphasizing the Orders for Nautilus config page.

To attain Orders for Nautilus, attend the project’s Github page and download the latest .deb strategy for the extension.

A screenshot emphasizing the latest flee for Orders for Nautilus..

Once applied, amenable a brand-newfangled incurable session, after that read to your Downloads folder:

cd ~/Downloads

Derive the optional dependencies for the extension from suitable:

sudo apt install zenity xclip

Mount the Orders for Nautilus energy by dashing dpkg on the .deb strategy:

sudo dpkg -i ./actions-for-nautilus_1.6.1_all.deb

Reload your Nautilus session to permit your brand-newfangled extension:

nautilus -q

Sprinted Habit Scripts for Nautilus

It is also legitimate to run behavior capsule manuscripts unprejudiced from Nautilus. Unlike Orders for Nautilus, this native attribute doesn’t have any kind of GUI stabilize neither a more granular way of filtering system using document checklists. Zero matter, this can still be a useful way of incorporating behavior activities if you don’t want to install ultimately-party extensions.

To prelude, amenable a brand-newfangled incurable and read to the behavior manuscripts directory for Nautilus:

cd ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts

Invent a brand-newfangled capsule script document amassing serviceability of your favorite message editor:

nano ./open-nano

Paste the operating with via code inside your brand-newfangled script document:

#!/bin/bash gnome-terminal -e "nano $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS"

Preserve your document, after that kit its sanctions detritus to implement amassing serviceability of chmod:

chmod +x ./open-nano

Reload Nautilus to use your brand-newfangled script:

nautilus -q

Test whether the script is massaging by appropriate-clicking a document, after that picking your script under the “Scripts” submenu.

A screenshot emphasizing the brand-newfangled Scripts menu for Nautilus.

Discovering out how to tweak and application extensions in Nautilus is merely the initially in configuring Gnome. Situate out more modification choices for your desktop computer by peeking at some of the ideal Gnome Hull Expansions today.

Image monetary debts: ThisisEngineering RAEng using Unsplash (Background) and Wikimedia Commons (Logo). With one voice corrections and screenshots by Ramces Red.

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