[SOLVED] LM20 - prefer clean filenames without: "link to"

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

All the urls you save by pulling them from the browser into a folder get the name: link to etc.

It is of no use whatsoever to have these files named starting with "link to".
How to get automatically clean filenames with just the title of the saved webpage?

[Flemur]

All the urls you save by pulling them from the browser into a folder get the name: link to etc.

How are you doing that? (I've never done it and don't see a mechanism in FF, anyway).

Have you tried renaming the files?

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

On Linux Mint 19.2
just pull the 'lock' in FF adress menu into any folder.

2 Yes you can manually rename the +10s files. But why should this be done by hand, i think we are using a computer...

[AZgl1800]

I have never had what you describe happen.

this is what I see for this thread with a copy/paste from the URL line.
posting.php?mode=reply&f=47&t=311595

this what I get when I paste the above into Ted.
posting.php?mode=reply&f=47&t=311595

looks the same to me.

this is what I get when I bookmark this thread in FF, and then open Recently bookmarked items, and the copy the link.
posting.php?mode=reply&f=47&t=311595


they all look the same to me.

[smurphos]

On Linux Mint 19.2
just pull the 'lock' in FF adress menu into any folder.

2 Yes you can manually rename the +10s files. But why should this be done by hand, i think we are using a computer...

Hi,

I'm not aware of a way to change the default behaviour of dragging a url to to the Desktop or File Manager but assuming you are still using nemo / cinnamon you can add a custom right click context menu to manually make URL links named as you wish as a Nemo Action

E.g




Result


To add the Nemo Action copy and paste these four commands in full to a terminal window.

Make a scripts subdirectory in the nemo actions directory

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mkdir -p ~/.local/share/nemo/actions/scripts

Create the Nemo Action

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tee ~/.local/share/nemo/actions/add_URL_link_here.nemo_action <<'EOB'
[Nemo Action]
# An action to create a URL link in the current directory
Name=Add _URL Link
Comment=Create a URL in %P
Exec=<scripts/add_URL_link_here.sh %P>
Icon-Name=insert-link-symbolic
Selection=none
Extensions=none;
EOB

Create the associated script

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tee ~/.local/share/nemo/actions/scripts/add_URL_link_here.sh <<'EOB'
#!/bin/bash
#Set destination directory
DEST="$1"
if [ -z "$DEST" ]; then
  exit 1; 
fi
#Confirm name of link
NAME=$(zenity --entry --width=250 --title "URL Link name" --text="Confirm link name" --entry-text="URL Link to" )
if [ -z "$NAME" ]; then
  exit 1; 
fi
#Confirm URL of link
URL=$(zenity --entry --width=250 --title "URL" --text="Input URL" --entry-text="https://" )
if [ -z "$URL" ]; then
  exit 1; 
fi
#Double check not overwriting an existing file or directory
if [ -e "$DEST/$NAME".desktop ]; then
  notify-send --expire-time=200000 "Error creating URL link. $DEST/$NAME already exists. Try again."
  exit 1
fi
echo -e "[Desktop Entry]\nName=$NAME\nURL=$URL\nComment=\nTerminal=false\nIcon=text-html\nType=Link" > "$DEST/$NAME".desktop
chmod u+x "$DEST/$NAME".desktop
if [ $? = 1 ]; then
    notify-send --expire-time=200000 "Error creating link. Try again."
  exit 1
else
  notify-send --expire-time=200000 "Successfully created link $DEST/$NAME"
  exit 0
fi
EOB

Make the script executable

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chmod +x ~/.local/share/nemo/actions/scripts/add_URL_link_here.sh

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

Thanks for the help so far. But i am looking for a simple, haslefree way to drag url links into folders. No right and left clicking and renaming etc.
I don't like to mention but in Windows this is default and as simple as that.

But in Mint the filename is for example:
Link to Linux Mint Forums - Index page

Opening this file in text editor shows
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Link to Linux Mint Forums - Index page
Type=Link
URL=index.php
Icon=text-html

So how to make the filename by default not show the "Link to" text?

[smurphos]

So how to make the filename by default not show the "Link to" text?

So the behaviour you want to change is hardcoded in Nemo (Cinnamon) and Caja (Mate) so the only way to change it would be to download the sources, amend and recompile. I'm pretty sure I know what would need to be changed in Nemo, I haven't looked at Caja. Let me know if you want to go there and I will test and post instructions if I can work it out. Obviously need confirmation of which desktop environment you are using.

XFCE/Thunar the behaviour is different - when you drag the link to the desktop or the file manager it pops up a dialogue allowing you to specify the name of the link. tweak the URL, and if you want change the icon prior to creation. The default name does not have Link to, so you can pretty much drag drop and hit enter to confirm the defaults.

If you are not using XFCE, but are trying to make your links in a file manager window rather than on the desktop a workaround would be install Thunar in addition to your regular File Manager and then drag your links into a Thunar Window.

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

Very much appreciated!
this comes up: Nemo 4.2.3 lets you organize files and folders, both on your computer and online.

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

hi smurphos, is this the info you needed? Nemo 4.2.3

[smurphos]

hi smurphos, is this the info you needed? Nemo 4.2.3

Thanks,

I'll take a look over the weekend.

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

Marvellous!

[Flemur]

So how to make the filename by default not show the "Link to" text?

When I dragged the lock icon from firefox into pcmanfm, nothing happened (the drag window bounced back).

When I dragged it into thunar, it asked me for the file name, I enter "mint" and get a file named "mint.desktop" with this content:

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[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Link
Name=mint
Comment=
Icon=user-bookmarks
URL=https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=311595

Click to make it look better:

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

Yes you can manually rename the +10s files. But why should this be done by hand, i think we are using a computer...

@Flemur Like i said before: too much of a hassle

[smurphos]

Hi - so here are the steps to modify Nemo's source code to remove the Link to on drag and dropped links from the browser. The change only applies to Drag and Drop links, not links make via the context menu Make Link option.

For other readers note that some of the commands include a version string specific to the Nemo version - bear that in mind if using this as a guide to modify a different version of Nemo

Open Software Sources from the menu and check to include Source Code Repositories

Open a terminal window and;

1) Make a working directory and enter it

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mkdir -p $HOME/nemo-dnd-mod; cd $HOME/nemo-dnd-mod

2) Download the nemo source code

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apt source nemo

3) Enter the source code subdirectory

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cd nemo-4.2.3+tina

4) Install build dependencies

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apt build-dep nemo

5) Open the file we need to modify in a text editor

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xed $HOME/nemo-dnd-mod/nemo-4.2.3+tina/src/nemo-view-dnd.c

In the text editor search for the line below (it's line 125)

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	link_display_name = g_strdup_printf (_("Link to %s"), link_name);

and change it to

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	link_display_name = g_strdup_printf (_("%s"), link_name);

Save the file and close the text editor.

6) Back in the terminal window now we will rebuild nemo. This step will produce a lot of output and an warning at the end about failing to sign the package. You can safely ignore that.

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apt build

7) Then install the deb packages we've just made.

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cd ..; apt deb *.deb

Close the terminal, log off, log back on and test what you get Dragging and Dropping from the browser.

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

hi smurphos, thanks for the effort! Later this week, with some friends help we will install the commands.
Ill come back to you when done.

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

hi smurphos, we finally had time to install youre script. Must say it worked a treat! Delighted with the result!

We made a command to clean the existing 100s of links too:
Open terminal in the folder and
sed -i 's/Link to //' *.desktop

The app we needed to install is almost 300mb. (how) can we remove it?

[Flemur]

We made a command to clean the existing 100s of links too:
Open terminal in the folder and
sed -i 's/Link to //' *.desktop

When I suggested

Have you tried renaming the files?

did you actually think you had to do it one file at a time?

[smurphos]

The app we needed to install is almost 300mb. (how) can we remove it?

You can delete the working folder we made (that's about 140 MiB) after installation.

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rm -f $HOME/nemo-dnd-mod

If you are talking about removing the build dependencies installed via the apt build-dep nemo command then unless you took note of what was installed at the time, I think the safest way to identify what can be uninstalled again is via reference to your apt logs. Take a look at the log /var/log/apt/history.log and search for the string build-dep. Beware this log file is only ever for the current month. Older logs are in compressed files in /var/log/apt/

On my current install I'd first built nemo back in January but in one of the compressed logs I found this which lists all the packages the command installed. I'd need to manually copy paste the package names to an apt purge and would want to double check the output before confirming the command.

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Start-Date: 2020-01-07  06:45:02
Commandline: apt-get build-dep nemo
Requested-By: steve (1000)
Install: libgirepository1.0-dev:amd64 (1.56.1-1), docbook-to-man:amd64 (1:2.0.0-41, automatic), libnotify-dev:amd64 (0.7.7-3), highlight:amd64 (3.41-1, automatic), libxt-dev:amd64 (1:1.1.5-1), libffi-dev:amd64 (3.2.1-8, automatic), docbook-xsl:amd64 (1.79.1+dfsg-2, automatic), meson:amd64 (0.45.1-2ubuntu0.18.04.1), libxapp-dev:amd64 (1.6.8+tricia), highlight-common:amd64 (3.41-1, automatic), libosp5:amd64 (1.5.2-13ubuntu2, automatic), libgail-3-dev:amd64 (3.22.30-1ubuntu4), gobject-introspection:amd64 (1.56.1-1), libgtk-3-doc:amd64 (3.22.30-1ubuntu4), libexempi-dev:amd64 (2.4.5-2), opensp:amd64 (1.5.2-13ubuntu2, automatic), libxml2-dev:amd64 (2.9.4+dfsg1-6.1ubuntu1.2), libxklavier-dev:amd64 (5.4-3, automatic), python-pkg-resources:amd64 (39.0.1-2, automatic), libglib2.0-doc:amd64 (2.56.4-0ubuntu0.18.04.4), dh-python:amd64 (3.20180325ubuntu2), libgnomekbd-dev:amd64 (3.26.0-3ubuntu0.18.04.1, automatic), gtk-doc-tools:amd64 (1.27-3), ninja-build:amd64 (1.8.2-1, automatic), python-funcsigs:amd64 (1.0.2-4, automatic), libxkbfile-dev:amd64 (1:1.0.9-2, automatic), libexif-dev:amd64 (0.6.21-4), xsltproc:amd64 (1.1.29-5ubuntu0.2, automatic), intltool:amd64 (0.51.0-5ubuntu1), docbook:amd64 (4.5-6, automatic), python-mock:amd64 (2.0.0-3, automatic), python-pbr:amd64 (3.1.1-3ubuntu3, automatic), libcinnamon-desktop-dev:amd64 (4.4.1+tricia)
End-Date: 2020-01-07  06:45:14

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

You can delete the working folder we made (that's about 140 MiB) after installation.

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rm -f $HOME/nemo-dnd-mod

I assume that will make any new pulled .url get the 'link to' prefix again?

I was pretty much surprised to see the number 260mb passing when installing the build dependencies. Just to get rid of 6 characters. Didn't expect so much power had to be used for such a small correction.
Uninstalling the huge list is pretty much impossible.

Well in the end i didn't want the name change to get me some more diskspace.

[Pepper-Mint-Patty]

When I suggested

Have you tried renaming the files?

did you actually think you had to do it one file at a time?

Well it is a bit too late for that question now.