Nautilus scripts
As a regular Nautilus user, I found that several common tasks are simply impossible to do directly from stock Nautilus. These scripts enhance Nautilus, permitting you to do several useful things that would otherwise require a command line.
To install any of these scripts, drop then in the Nautilus scripts folder, which you can open by right-clicking on any file, pointing to Scripts, and clicking Open scripts folder.
Have any clever Nautilus scripts you want to share?
Just send them to me and I’ll post them right here. It goes without saying that I’ll probably enjoy them as well!
Edit in KWrite
I’m a fan of KWrite. I use it all the time. But sometimes Nautilus file associations don’t cut it. Imagine you want to edit a Web page with KWrite: changing the HTML file type to open with KWrite for a single edit would be overkill. Instead of having to associate each file with KWrite, this lets you right-click a file and select Edit in KWrite.
Take ownership
You’ve probably encountered one or two files that you could not rename or edit while in Nautilus, because they were owned by root or other user in your system. But you are the administrator of your own computer, and you need a quick way of getting things done. This is a short script that will let you quickly take ownership of selected files.
You will need to have sudo installed, and configure /etc/sudoers. Add the following line to /etc/sudoers:
peter ALL = NOPASSWD: /bin/chown
replacing peter with your user name.
Open in Konqueror
Have you ever tried to open a Konqueror Web archive within Nautilus? You probably noticed that Nautilus detects Konqueror Web archives as gzipped files, and will open them with File Roller or other archive applications. Now you can open anything that’s selected with Konqueror, directly. It’s also very useful if you do a lot of cross-desktop activities, because, to be perfectly honest, there are some things that Konqueror does better.
Open target folder
Seeing a symlink and wanting to view the target file’s containing folder? This is what you want. Right-click on a symlink, then choose Scripts…Open target folder, and folder where the symlink target is located will pop open right before your eyes.
Make writable recursively
Copying a folder from one of your CDs to your computer? Having trouble changing, renaming and deleting files in the copied folder afterwards? Just right-click on a file or folder, then choose Scripts…Make writable recursively, and the right permissions will be there.
Download Make writable recursively for all users Make writable recursively for owner
You will need to have sudo installed, and configure /etc/sudoers. Add the following line to /etc/sudoers:
peter ALL = NOPASSWD: /bin/chmod
replacing peter with your user name.
Remove execution permission recursively
Copying a folder from one of your CDs or a Windows partition to your computer? Having trouble with spurious execute bits? Just right-click on a file or folder, then choose Scripts…Remove execution permission recursively, and the right permissions will be there.
Download Remove execution permission recursively.
You will need to have sudo installed, and configure /etc/sudoers. Add the following line to /etc/sudoers:
peter ALL = NOPASSWD: /bin/chmod
replacing peter with your user name.
Getting help
Help for this software is available in several forms. Here are the rules:
- E-mails or posted comments with bug reports, patches, suggestions or contributions of any kind will be received by me in good faith, and I will, in time, incorporate all submitted improvements, in any form, to the software.
- This software is delivered to you without warranty of any kind, as recognized by the GNU General Public License.
- Special requests, such as customization, third-party licenses, development of large features, or requests which require software engineering to be applied, will be performed by me, for a fee. If you’re attracted to my engineering skills, wait until you see my rates. After all, living on a Third World country has its advantages. Let me know if you’re interested.