Filenames of desktop configuration files (.desktop) not accessible, lead to confusing behaviour

Submitted by Yar..@..les.de

Assigned to Jannis Pohlmann

Link to original bug (#10274)

Description

If Thunar recognizes a file as desktop configuration file, it shows it's "Name" (given by its content) instead of its real file name. This can lead to lots of confusion and unexpected behaviour.

This is best illustrated by an example. The commands

 $ mkdir ~/a ~/b
 $ echo -e '[Desktop Entry]\nName=bug' > ~/a/0.desktop
 $ touch ~/b/0.desktop
 $ chmod a+x ~/a/0.desktop

create a file ~/a/0.desktop with valid content and an empty file ~/b/0.desktop.

Thunar will show the files ~/a/bug and ~/b/0.desktop. The user cannot realize that "bug" is in reality "0.desktop" as even the properties dialog claims the filename is "bug". Renaming the "bug" file makes Thunar not change the filename, but the content of the file. If the user attempts to copy 0.desktop from ~/b to ~/a, Thunar claims 'The folder already contains a file "bug"'.

I tested this with Thunar 1.6.1-2.1.1 as it is delivered by openSUSE 12.3.

Showing the content of the "Name" entry is certainly helpful on the desktop, but Thunar should correctly display the filesystem, or at least provide an option to disable special treatment of .desktop files.

Version: 1.6.1