Thunar does not add ${USER} to sftp:// links when passing them to an application (needed for VLC, et al)

Submitted by Jamin Collins

Assigned to Xfce Bug Triage

Link to original bug (#15178)

Description

When attempting to open a remote (SFTP) media file associated with VLC, I'm prompted for a username/password. This happens even when Thunar itself can access the location using my gpg/ssh agent and key without prompting for a username/password. In looking into this, it seems this is due to the URL that is being passed from Thunar to VLC not having the ${USER} in it. I've verified this by browsing to a remote file in Thunar, selecting "copy", pasting the URL into a text editor to examine it, no ${USER} present, manually inserting one, then pasting the new URL into VLC. Once the ${USER} is present, VLC can open the content without prompting for a username/password.

References: https://superuser.com/questions/1327944/stream-video-on-vlc-player-over-sftp-with-ssh-key-authorization https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=144701