Add preference to resolve all symlinks in the path

Submitted by lar..@..llo.at

Assigned to Xfce Bug Triage

Link to original bug (#13246)

Description

When you open a directory symlink using Thunar the path in the location input isn't resolved to the actual path and you can't go up to the actual parent directory. Please add a preference to always resolve all symlinks in the path.

added 5. Settings 5. Symlinks labels

mentioned in issue #33 (closed)

mentioned in issue #639 (closed)

• Whenever a path is read within Thunar, feed its results through realpath: There is a C function (albeit not present on all systems, but perhaps the libraries used when compiling Thunar already have it: see here). If we are lucky, it is only one single place, otherwise it will be two or three places:

• The first one when the place where Thunar shall start is read from the command line,

• Possibly there is only one more when the path is read from a leaf when one clicks upon it. Probably the clicking event on any leaf, be it a file, a link file or a directory, is the only other instance after which feeding it through realpath would do the job!

Would that be outrageously difficult?

Suppose one of the main points to look at, are thunar_navigator_change_directory, or/and thunar_window_set_current_directory.

For the setting, best take a look at some other MR which added a new setting.

Would that be outrageously difficult?

Dont think so.

added 2. Feature label

In the parallel thread #639 (closed) Stefan Wagner argued against my proposal because he considers the function of the Ariadne thread important. In addition, the expectations of Windows users are irrelevant because there are no symlinks there anyway.

I argued against that because in Thunar there are already the tools with horizontal green arrows: back along the thread of the Ariadne or forward (along a route just followed backwards). This functionality remains untouched according to my proposal.

mentioned in merge request !227 (merged)

mentioned in issue #798 (closed)

Meanwhile, there is thunar_g_file_get_resolved_path to resolve symlinks in pathes, … though so far only used for a different use-case: #1030 (closed)

After I have just installed Xfce 4.18 because xfce4-display-settings Version 4.16.2 would not let me use the mirror mode for displays. Fortunately this issue is fixed and I also saw improvements in the integration of Catfish: shoe file in directory really opens the directory and shows the file highlighted in it. This is what I was eagerly looking for!

I tried if Thunar Version 4.18 now resolves symlinks in paths. It does not - or is there an option to always feed found paths through realpath? What does thunar_g_file_get_resolved_path mean: is ist an environment variable which I might set in order to always enable this feature? Or is it a variable or macro in the source code?

If such an option does not exist, I would highly recommend to add such an option.

The desire to get realpath results rather than Ariadne ribbon ones (like presently, if one got to a deeply nested directory by clicking on trampolin links e.g. from the desktop to an often used directory) is already many years old.

I once tried to download all sources of Thunar to add an invocation of realpath to any path after it has been retrieved (e.g. after a click to copy the path to a file or directory to the clipboard), but I did not find the right place in those many files and I was unable to put the project into the eclipse IDE.

Is there any document for a willful beginner

1. about the overall architecture of Thunar,
2. how to work with the sources of Thunar, especially which IDE to use best and how to import the Thunar project into it.

What does thunar_g_file_get_resolved_path mean: is ist an environment variable which I might set in order to always enable this feature? Or is it a variable or macro in the source code?

Am method in thunar, meanwhile was renamed to thunar_g_file_resolve_symlink

If such an option does not exist, I would highly recommend to add such an option.

A merge request would be welcome!

Is there any document for a willful beginner

1. about the overall architecture of Thunar,

There is https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/software_architecture for the view hierarchies, besides that there is no such overview.

2. how to work with the sources of Thunar, especially which IDE to use best and how to import the Thunar project into it.

There is this WIki entry on how to build thunar. You can pick whatever IDE you prefer, or just use no IDE at all and edit files with some text editor. Personally, I would not go for eclipse, since IMO it is a pain to work with. Only positive thing is the git integration with egit. Currently using VSCodium myself.