CrunchBang Linux

faffmeister

Member

Registered: 2012-07-30

Posts: 32

[Solved]: Thunar: Archive option replaced by Extract for LO files only

This weekend I put #! Waldorf 20120927 on a 2008 vintage dual core Athlon desktop PC with 8G RAM and Nvidia graphics (7300 something or other).

Went through the cb-welcome script, quitting without installing ssh stuff.

Installed LibreOffice (LO) and Chrome from the menu.

Installed the LO pdf-import extension from Synaptic.

Installed PlayOnlinux and Wine  from Synaptic so I can run LTspiceIV.

Installed Openshot, Kicad and Unetbootin from Synaptic.

The problem is that although I can archive most file types (haven't tried all of them yet) using Compress from the right click option in Thunar, I cannot archive any LO files.

When I right click on any LO file types (.ods, .odt, .odg etc.), bizarrely, the 'Archive' option is not there in the list but 'Extract' and 'Extract to ...' are!

(It's 'Extract to ...' or something like that: I haven't got the machine in front of me).

If I copy an LO file into a dummy folder then the right click compress action work on the containing folder but of course that adds extra steps to compress and extract files I could do without.

So my question are:

i) has anyone else found this?

ii) does anyone know how to fix it?

iii) if not, can someone point me to the configuration files that control how file types are associated with Thunar right click actions?

I've had a hunt round the forums but haven't found any reference to this behaviour.

Some help on this would be very much appreciated.

BTW: I'm also posting an enquiry about another LO related problem which may or may not be related:

http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … m-network/

Last edited by faffmeister (2012-10-08 09:50:09)

corenominal

root

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 4,887

Website

Re: [Solved]: Thunar: Archive option replaced by Extract for LO files only

Interesting. I don't use these types of documents very often and I had not noticed this before. Anyhow, from Wikipedia:

OpenDocument files can also take the format of a ZIP compressed archive containing a number of files and directories; these can contain binary content and benefit from ZIP's lossless compression to reduce file size. OpenDocument benefits from separation of concerns by separating the content, styles, metadata, and application settings into four separate XML files.

So I am guessing this is the cause. As a workaround, I would suggest creating a custom Thunar action. Meanwhile, I will take a look at the archiver-plugin as I don't see any logical reason why both extract and compress options are not offered.

---

My website | Follow me on Twitter | CrunchBang on DistroWatch

faffmeister

Member

Registered: 2012-07-30

Posts: 32

Re: [Solved]: Thunar: Archive option replaced by Extract for LO files only

Many thanks,

That would be great..

I vaguely remembered after my post that OpenDocument files are some sort of compressed XML thing.

"I don't see any logical reason why both extract and compress options are not offered."

I have just realised today that something similar happens with LO files in Windows XPletive using 7zip.

The right click menu in 7z offers to extract  LO files (.odt, .ods, etc. formats) as well as to compress them.

So, just adding compress would be the 'right' thing to do rather than oppress the compression program for offering to do what it thinks is the obvious thing with a zipped archive ...

corenominal

root

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 4,887

Website

Re: [Solved]: Thunar: Archive option replaced by Extract for LO files only

I have now patched the 'thunar-archive-plugin' package and uploaded it to the repository. Please can you update your system and check that it works.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Note, you may, or may not need to kill any running instances of Thunar, before you can see the changes:

killall thunar

I am pretty sure the patch is working as expected, so I will go ahead and mark this as solved. Feel free to reopen if need be.

---

My website | Follow me on Twitter | CrunchBang on DistroWatch

faffmeister

Member

Registered: 2012-07-30

Posts: 32

Re: [Solved]: Thunar: Archive option replaced by Extract for LO files only

Yup,

That's fixed it.

Many more thanks!