Ability to create relative symlinks

Version information

Version: 4.18.11

Current behavior

Thunar currently only creates absolute symlinks (through Edit > Make Link or holding CTRL+SHIFT while drag and dropping).

Expected outcome

Thunar should support relative symlinks as well, both through menus and a drag and drop shortcut, by holding CTRL+SHIFT+ALT for example.

I don't want yet another menu item, just for the sake of giving that option.

I see the following possibilities:

1. Just always create relative symlinks
2. Open some dialog to give the user the choice (Could be part of the dialog suggested in #95)
3. Add some hidden setting, to select between absolute/relative

I would prefer (2), since doing (1) most likely would annoy some other people, and for some use-cases it might be better to have a static link. (Same problem for (3).

I don't have time to work on this, though a merge request would be welcome!

I made an image mock-up of option 2:

As I've mentioned below, the check/uncheck state of the checkbox should be retained for when you create your next symlink in the same way that something like Thunar retains the check/uncheck state of View > Show hidden files

added 2. Feature 5. Menus 5. Symlinks labels

Relative and absolute symlink are both equally useful/needed. For completeness Thunar needs to be able to manage both (and equally at that), which is another argument against options 1 and 3.

I understand the menus need to be concise. The second option with an additional dialog window seems like a clear winner. The usefulness of current Make Link function is actually debatable since it creates a symlink in the same folder. The dialog window for symlink creation could also include a path selector (where the link will be created), besides the checkmark for absolute/relative symlinks.

As someone that uses symlinks all the time and can never remember terminal commands, the lack of the ability to create relative symlinks via the GUI has resulted in me going through the unconventional process of creating symlinks on a Windows 7 VM (via Link Shell Extension), packing it into a .tar archive via 7-zip, then copying over and unpacking the .tar on the desired Linux system to result in a relative symlink.

Regardless, I'd think any such dialog window makes the most sense if it were basically identical to the current "create new folder/file" dialog window where you can similarly specify a different file name for the resulting symlink (with its default-listed file name of course being the same as the source file), but with an additional checkbox below the file name text box saying something like use relative path. From there, this checkbox would have its checked/unchecked state remembered e.g. if it defaults to unchecked and you check the box for the first symlink then, when you create a second symlink, the checkbox is already checked (same would go for if you then uncheck it—the next subsequently-created symlink would default to having the checkbox unchecked)

Some clearer proposals for the checkbox text are Relative path or Create relative symlink.

Spoiler alert: It was easier to create a more convincing mock-up image if the checkbox text began with the word "Use" because, in Thunar's preferences, there's a checkbox setting that begins with the word "Use" (Use current folder icon) which I took a screenshot of and put the rest of the text on top of in order to have the exact proper spacing.

EDIT: ...and I just realized that there's also a checkbox option in Thunar's preferences that begins with the word "Remember" (Remember view settings for each folder) which I could have also used since I didn't need the entire word to match, only the first letter or, better yet, the first two letters (Re in this case to match Relative)

I understand it's a mockup, a perfectly fine one. The use in Use current folder icon is somewhat sensible while it is completely redundant with relative symlinks.