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xfce:thunar:faq [2022/12/11 11:02] – [How to hide fixed disks or user locations from the sidebar] alexxconsxfce:thunar:faq [2025/05/07 07:57] (current) – [How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows?] alexxcons
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 ~~NOTOC~~ ~~NOTOC~~
-{{ :xfce:xfce.thunar.png?no link|}}+{{ :xfce:thunar.png?nolink|}}
 ====== Thunar - Frequently Asked Questions ====== ====== Thunar - Frequently Asked Questions ======
  
 The intent of this section is to collect the quite numerous frequently asked questions that relate to working with Thunar. If you know of a question that is missing from this page, please [[https://bugzilla.xfce.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunar&component=Documentation&resolution=---|file a request]]. The intent of this section is to collect the quite numerous frequently asked questions that relate to working with Thunar. If you know of a question that is missing from this page, please [[https://bugzilla.xfce.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunar&component=Documentation&resolution=---|file a request]].
  
 +    * [[#Why does Thunar forget its settings when run as root?|Why does Thunar forget its settings when run as root?]]
     * [[#Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?|Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?]]     * [[#Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?|Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?]]
     * [[#Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?|Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?]]     * [[#Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?|Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?]]
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     * [[#How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?|How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?]]     * [[#How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?|How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?]]
     * [[#Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?|Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?]]     * [[#Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?|Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?]]
-    * [[#How to hide fixed disks or user locations from the sidebar|How to hide fixed disks or user locations from the sidebar]]+    * [[#How to disable recently used files?|How to disable recently used files?]] 
 +    * [[#How to use trash functionality on BTRFS volumes?|How to use trash functionality on BTRFS volumes?]] 
 +    * [[#How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows?|How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows?]]
  
 ---- ----
  
 +===== Why does Thunar forget its settings when run as root? =====
 +
 +Thunar relies on ''xfconf'' to load/store its settings, The communication to ''xfconf'' is done via DBUS. When run as root, per default, no dbus-session is running.
 +
 +You can start Thunar as root with dbus-session with the following command:
 +
 +''$ sudo dbus-run-session thunar''
 +
 +or
 +
 +''$ gksu dbus-run-session thunar''
 +
 +----
 ===== Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable? ===== ===== Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable? =====
 For security reasons, by default Thunar only executes files of type application/x-desktop, application/x-executable and application/x-shellscript. For desktop files the execution will only be possible if the desktop file is of type Application, the execute flag is set and the file is trusted. (desktop files inside ''XDG_DATA_DIR'' are executable by default). For security reasons, by default Thunar only executes files of type application/x-desktop, application/x-executable and application/x-shellscript. For desktop files the execution will only be possible if the desktop file is of type Application, the execute flag is set and the file is trusted. (desktop files inside ''XDG_DATA_DIR'' are executable by default).
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 ===== Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files? ===== ===== Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files? =====
-Thunar associates various settings with files/folders, which we call metadata. Since version 1.6 this data is stored using the ''gvfs-metadata'' daemon. The save location of the daemon data is in ''$XDG_DATA_HOME/gvfs-metadata/''. Unfortunately the content of these files is rater awful, so you can query the metadata of a location with the command ''gvfs-info -a metadata:: /some/location''. 
  
-[[|Back to Top]]+Thunar has its file and folder metadata storage implemented as a set of key/value pairs. Since 1.6, this data is stored using the ''gvfs-metadata'' daemon. The location of the metadata is kept in ''$XDG_DATA_HOME/gvfs-metadata'' (generally ''$HOME/.local/gvfs-metadata''. The format the data is stored in is binary; but, it can be queried and viewed  using the ''gio'' command. 
 + 
 +For example: 
 +The command ''gio info -a metadata:: /some/location'' will return an abbreviated list of key/value pairs including the file's URI, local path, and unix mount. 
 + 
 +For a more detailed list of file information, omit the ''-a metadata::'' flag. This will return details such as icon type, access permissions, time created, etc.  
 + 
 + 
 +See [[https://docs.gtk.org/gio/file-attributes.html|GIO File Attributes]] page for additional types of data stored.
 ---- ----
  
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 ===== How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts? ===== ===== How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts? =====
  
-Starting with thunar 4.18 you can make use of the [[xfce:thunar:4.16:preferences#shortcuts|shortcuts editor]] to assign keyboard shortcuts.+Starting with thunar 4.18 you can make use of the [[xfce:thunar:preferences#shortcuts|shortcuts editor]] to assign keyboard shortcuts.
  
 For Thunar 4.16 and before, please refer to the [[xfce:thunar:4.16:faq#how_do_i_assign_different_keyboard_shortcuts|previous Wiki pages]]. For Thunar 4.16 and before, please refer to the [[xfce:thunar:4.16:faq#how_do_i_assign_different_keyboard_shortcuts|previous Wiki pages]].
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-[[|Back To Top]] 
 ---- ----
  
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 If Thunar displays the fallback icon for all files and folders, as shown in the screenshot below, it is usually caused by one of the following problems: If Thunar displays the fallback icon for all files and folders, as shown in the screenshot below, it is usually caused by one of the following problems:
  
-{{ documentation:thunar-faq-broken-icons.png }}+<figure "Fallback Icon"> 
 +{{:xfce:thunar:thunar-fallback-icon.png|Fallback Icon}} 
 +</figure>
  
   - You don't have an [[http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fxsettings_2dspec|XSETTINGS]] manager running,    - You don't have an [[http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fxsettings_2dspec|XSETTINGS]] manager running, 
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 ---- ----
  
 +===== How to disable recently used files? =====
  
 +If you want to prevent the store of all files opened via thunar (or other gtk based applications), you can create <code>~/. config/gtk-3.0/setting.ini</code> and write the following inside:
 +
 +<code>
 +[Settings]
 +gtk-recent-files-enabled=0
 +</code>
 +----
 +
 +===== How to use trash functionality on BTRFS volumes? =====
 +
 +Some users may encounter issues with trash functionality on BTRFS volumes in Gtk based file managers like Thunar, even when the x-gvfs-trash option is specified in the /etc/fstab entry. This issue results in files being permanently deleted instead of being moved to Trash when deleted.
 +
 +**Workaround**: To enable Trash functionality on BTRFS volumes, add a specific subvolume mount option (subvol). This workaround was identified due to limitations in GVFS support for trashing on system-internal mounts, as detailed in the GLib bug report https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/1885.
 +----
 +
 +===== How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows? =====
 +
 +If, for example, you want to open a Thunar window on a specific screen or workspace, it might make sense to start separate Thunar processes and force a specific application-name for them. This will allow moving these instances, based on the chosen name. In order to use separate processes, the command ''dbus-launch'' has to be used to accomplish this:
 +
 +  * XOrg: '' $dbus-launch thunar --class My-Custom-Name''
 +  * Wayland: '' $dbus-launch thunar --name My-Custom-Name''
 +
 +Note that each Thunar instance will create an isolated D-Bus session environment. Additionally, several other Thunar internal mechanics will be multiplied, leading to a much bigger total memory footprint.
 +
 +----
  
 [[|Back To Top]] [[|Back To Top]]
 ---- ----
-[[:xfce:thunar:|Back to Thunar documentation page]]+[[:xfce:thunar:|Return to Thunar Main Documentation Page]]