Ubuntu – More bookmarks to Nautilus

bookmarksnautilus

Unfortunately the bookmark pane in Nautilus offers no sub-folders and on my system only about 40 bookmarks can be visible at the same time.

The bookmarks are stored in in a pre-set file ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks.
Presently I use different bookmark files for different projects something that really is a hassle.

Any tip on howto improve on this is appreciated.

Is there any possibility to use different bookmark files for different projects on Nautilus startup or may we expect sub-folders in the near future?

Best Answer

I found that Nautilus bookmarks are dynamically changing when the content of the file ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks is changed. So my suggestion is the following script, that could be bind to a custom keyboard shortcut. Here is ho it works:

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  • Create executable file, called nautilus-bookmarks-manager and located in the directory /usr/local/bin to be accessible as shell command (or use different name and location):

    sudo touch /usr/local/bin/nautilus-bookmarks-manager
    sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nautilus-bookmarks-manager
    sudo nano /usr/local/bin/nautilus-bookmarks-manager
    
  • Create Custom keyboard shortcut where the command should be:

    /usr/local/bin/nautilus-bookmarks-manager
    

The script content is:

#!/bin/bash

# Initial variables; the last underscore in $PROFILE_NAME_TEMPLATE is important
BOOKMARKS_DIR="$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0"
BOOKMARKS="$BOOKMARKS_DIR/bookmarks"
PROFILES_DIR="$BOOKMARKS_DIR/bookmarks_profiles"
PROFILE_NAME_TEMPLATE="$PROFILES_DIR/bookmarks_profile_"

# If the profiles directory doesn't exist create it,
# otherwise renumber the existing profiles in case some of them were deleted
[[ ! -d $PROFILES_DIR ]] && mkdir -p "$PROFILES_DIR" || rename 's/[0-9]*$/our $i; sprintf("%d", 1+$i++)/e' "$PROFILES_DIR/"*

# Get the list of the profiles as an array,
# the expression `[[ -z ${PROFILES[@]##*\*} ]]` means `if the directory is empty` or not empty when there is a `!`
PROFILES=("$BOOKMARKS_DIR/bookmarks_profiles/"*)

main() {
        # Compare the current profile to each existing profile in $PROFILES and find the $CURRENT_PROFILE if it exists
        for profile in "${PROFILES[@]}"; do cmp -s "$BOOKMARKS" "$profile" && CURRENT_PROFILE="$profile"; done

        # Get the number of the current profile
        CURRENT_PROFILE_NUMBER="${CURRENT_PROFILE##*_}"

        # If the $CURRENT_PROFILE doesn't exist in the list of profiles and the directory is epty: $NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER = 1
        # If it doesn't exist and the directory is not epty: $NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER = ( number of the profiles + 1 )
        # If this is the last profile from the list the next profile number is 1: $NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER = 1
        # In all other case increment the $CURRENT_PROFILE_NUMBER by 1
        if   [[ -z ${CURRENT_PROFILE+x} && -z ${PROFILES[@]##*\*} ]]; then
                NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER=1
        elif [[ -z ${CURRENT_PROFILE+x} && ! -z ${PROFILES[@]##*\*} ]]; then
                NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER=$(( ${#PROFILES[@]} + 1 ))
        elif [[ $CURRENT_PROFILE_NUMBER -eq ${PROFILES[-1]##*_} ]]; then
                NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER=1
        else
                NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER=$(( CURRENT_PROFILE_NUMBER + 1 ))
        fi

        # If the current profile doesn't exist in the list add it, else just switch to the next profile
        if   [[ -z ${CURRENT_PROFILE+x} ]]; then
                cp "${BOOKMARKS}" "${PROFILE_NAME_TEMPLATE}${NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER}"
                echo "Profile ${NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER} is CREATED"
        else
                cp "${PROFILE_NAME_TEMPLATE}${NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER}" "${BOOKMARKS}"
                echo "Profile ${NEW_PROFILE_NUMBER} is ACTIVATED"
        fi
}

killall notify-osd >/dev/null 2>&1  # Kill all notify-send messages
notify-send "$(main 2>&1)"          # Call the `main` function and output all messages through `notify-send`

The script will store each new profile in the directory ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks_profiles. If this directory doesn't exist it will be created. Otherwise the script will try to renimber the existing profiles in case you have removed some of them. This leads two cases:

  • When you want to delete certain profile, first you should activate some other profile;
  • When you want to move certain profile to the end of the list, activate it, then delete it and execute the script.

Next. The script will compare the file ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks with each file in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks_profiles. If coincidence is found the script will switch to the next profile. If there is not coincidence a new profile will be created.

A more advanced version of the script could use named (instead numbered) profiles and and some tool like zenity to get the names of the new profiles.

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