Qubes-OS: a thunar script implementing custom actions for qvm-related things

[Franco Bersani]

Hi all,
I'm Franco Bersani, a Gnu/Linux sysadmin who lives in Italy.
I'm testing Qubes-os, and I'm appreciating the project a lot.
I'm a xfce/thunar user, so I've developed a (really simple, but
effective) bash script to implement also in Thunar the custom action
provided in Nautilus (Gnome Files) and in Dolphin.
The bash script provides these functions:
- Open in Disposable AppVM
- Move to other AppVM
- Open to other AppVM
- Open in other AppVM

Attached to this email you can find a zip file
(thunar-actions.zip) containing:
- qvm-thunar-actions.sh : the bash script, to be copied in ~/bin
directory
- uca_add.xml : custom actions to be copied
within .config/Thunar/uca.xml, between <actions> and </actions> tags.

I hope you'll appreciate my small contribute to your project, and I
hope you'll find it interesting enough to be added to ufficial
documentation or in a qubes-os future version.

Have a nice day.

--
Franco 'frakbe' Bersani

[Andrew David Wong]

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Thank you for your contribution, Franco!

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[Haw...@bitmessage.ch]

Very nice, thanks! I've been wishing for just this feature for some
time.

[Reg Tiangha]

On 2017-03-18 10:44 PM, Haw...@bitmessage.ch
wrote:

This is great! Is there an easy way to apply this mod to a TemplateVM?
It'd save me a lot of work doing it that way instead of modifying all of
my AppVMs (of which I have many). If not, that's cool too; this mod
makes it worth it.

[Franco Bersani]

Hi,
I didn't try, but I think it's possible; if you copy the bash script on
/usr/bin of your TemplateVM and then modify accordingly the
/etc/xdg/Thunar/uca.xml file, adding the custom actions (obviously, you
have to modify the path of the bash script), the matter should be done.

[Reg Tiangha]

Thanks. I just tried it and it works great. Thanks again!

[Haw...@bitmessage.ch]

On Sat, 18 Mar 2017 11:45:29 +0100
Franco Bersani <franco....@zoho.com> wrote:

Thanks Franco for starting the framework.

Copy and move had problems with cancel, and the status bar was not
implemented.

There are examples from how it's done in nautilus in python:
/usr/share/nautilus-python/extensions/

And, copy and move are already implemented in:
/usr/lib/qubes/

I attached an improved (and more simplified modular) version of:
/home/user/bin/qvm-thunar-actions.sh

Also, to add to the above instructions, you need to:
chmod +x qvm-thunar-actions.sh

Cheers

[Haw...@bitmessage.ch]

In light of dom0's default desktop choice, and of the more utilitarian
minimal nature of the xfce software choices in general compared to the
increasingly cloud-friendly gnome, I'm wondering whether there is any
reasoning behind this choice for the default vm for the distributed
Qubes? Further, would there be any non-trivial development cost to
switching?