HOWTO: Quickly Open a Terminal From Nautilus

[bobmitch]

This has probably been covered before, but I couldn`t see it anywhere...

Anyway, this is a quick method of dropping to a terminal from nautilus, which automatically changes directory to wherever you were browsing with nautilus. (For any local location - won`t work with ftp or other esoteric locations).

Big thanks to the guys in the Drag and Drop To Run As Root HOWTO thread (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=24008&highlight=open+root) for showing me how this could be achieved.

HOWTO: Quickly Open a Terminal From Nautilus


Open a Terminal
Type:
cd ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts
Type:
gedit Open\ Terminal\ Here
Paste the following code into the file:
#!/bin/sh
# From Chris Picton
# Replaces a Script by Martin Enlund
# Modified to work with spaces in path by Christophe Combelles

# This script either opens in the current directory,
# or in the selected directory

base="`echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI | cut -d'/' -f3- | sed 's/%20/ /g'`"
if [ -z "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" ]; then
dir="$base"
else
while [ ! -z "$1" -a ! -d "$base/$1" ]; do shift; done
dir="$base/$1"
fi

gnome-terminal --working-directory="$dir"
Save the gedit file, and quit.
Back in the terminal type:
chmod +x Open\ Terminal\ Here


et voila....

In any nautilus window, you can right click, and from the scripts sub-context-menu, click on Open Terminal Here to open a terminal at the currently viewed directory.

[EDIT] You can now highlight a folder and perform the operation to open a terminal at the location highlighted.

Hope somebody besides me finds this useful - the lack of this option has driven me batty since my foray into linux. :)

[jonny]

Works perfectly. You just got rid of the last advantage KDE has over Gnome.

[frühstück]

good idea

[luca_linux]

Works perfectly. You just got rid of the last advantage KDE has over Gnome.
Yeah, Gnome rulez!

[Spudgun]

Good stuff :grin:

[shakin]

Great how-to. I didn't realize how useful this was until I tried it and now I can't live without it!

Do you know if there is a manual to see what variables are available? For instance, there is $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI and $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS. Any more? I bet a lot of useful scripts can be made. In fact, I'm going to make a couple right now and do how tos if they work well.

[bobmitch]

Great how-to. I didn't realize how useful this was until I tried it and now I can't live without it!

Do you know if there is a manual to see what variables are available? For instance, there is $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI and $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS. Any more? I bet a lot of useful scripts can be made. In fact, I'm going to make a couple right now and do how tos if they work well.

The quick answer to your question is "Yes".

The long answer is taken from the "About Scripts" dialog:

When executed from a local folder, scripts will be passed the selected file names. When executed from a remote folder (e.g. a folder showing web or ftp content), scripts will be passed no parameters.

In all cases, the following environment variables will be set by Nautilus, which the scripts may use:

NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS: newline-delimited paths for selected files (only if local)

NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS: newline-delimited URIs for selected files

NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI: URI for current location

NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_WINDOW_GEOMETRY: position and size of current window

There's tons of useful things which can be done with this - the terminal launcher is the only one I could think of that was bothering me enough to make me implement something though. :D

I look forward to seeing anything you come up with. :)

[shakin]

Great how-to. I didn't realize how useful this was until I tried it and now I can't live without it!

Do you know if there is a manual to see what variables are available? For instance, there is $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI and $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS. Any more? I bet a lot of useful scripts can be made. In fact, I'm going to make a couple right now and do how tos if they work well.

To answer my own question, here are the available variables:


NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS:
newline-delimited paths for selected files (only if local)
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS:
newline-delimited URIs for selected files
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI:
current location
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_WINDOW_GEOMETRY
position and size of current window

You can also use the gdialog application if your script needs user input.

--

dupe post. I spent too long browsing other scripts :)

[bobmitch]

After some browsing, I came across a perl version (http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/nautilus-scripts/Execute/Open%20Terminal%20Here) of my script. Lol.

[Remix_88]

Take a look at G-Scripts :-)

http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/

[bobmitch]

Take a look at G-Scripts :-)

http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/


Just been there, found a better bash script to use and updated my howto. :D

Nothing like re-inventing the wheel, eh? :D

[XDevHald]

To make myself look like a n00b, I can't find my gnome2 folder, looked for 15 mins and still can't find it, I even have my Show Hidden Files selected.

[shakin]

Take a look at G-Scripts :-)

http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/

Yeah, when I found that I realized most of my ideas for scripts were already there. I'm still planning on making two file transfer scripts -- one for ftp and one for scp -- that ask for server and remote directory name using gdialog. Right now I'm having a bit of difficulty getting gdialog to do what I want.

[Nis]

To make myself look like a n00b, I can't find my gnome2 folder, looked for 15 mins and still can't find it, I even have my Show Hidden Files selected.
Should be in ~/.gnome2

If you want to quickly get to the nautilus-scripts directory click on your desktop, press 'Ctrl+L', and put '~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/' into the dialog.

[bobmitch]

Yeah, when I found that I realized most of my ideas for scripts were already there. I'm still planning on making two file transfer scripts -- one for ftp and one for scp -- that ask for server and remote directory name using gdialog. Right now I'm having a bit of difficulty getting gdialog to do what I want.

You might have more joy with zenity than gdialog?

[Nis]

You might have more joy with zenity than gdialog?
zenity rocks. Much easier than gdialog. You can now even do notification icons with zenity.

[minio]

There is an other way. You can install python-nautilus (not sure in which repository it is) and then copy open-terminal.py from /usr/share/doc/python-nautilus/examples/ to /usr/lib/nautilus/extensions-1.0/python/ . Restart nautilus and you will get Open terminal entry in right click menu.

[XDevHald]

VERY impressive! and thank you for the help there Nis, much appreciated :grin:

[Gandalf]

nice tick...... thanks

[thepoch]

After some browsing, I came across a perl version (http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/nautilus-scripts/Execute/Open%20Terminal%20Here) of my script. Lol.

Hehe, you found the one I modified. I would have written it as a bash script, but since I found that, I just fixed that (adding the 'opening on desktop' feature). I guess my 'fix' might no longer be needed in latter gnomes (never bothered hacking it again), but it still works for me since 2003.

:)

[Sionide]

Well done, very very useful... I've always thought about the need for this.

[bored2k]

Very useful. Thanks:D.

[Basotang]

Hi,

I just followed that:
There is an other way. You can install python-nautilus (not sure in which repository it is) and then copy open-terminal.py from /usr/share/doc/python-nautilus/examples/ to /usr/lib/nautilus/extensions-1.0/python/ . Restart nautilus and you will get Open terminal entry in right click menu.

I now have a Open Terminal entry in the right click menu but nothing happens. Any idea why?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Seb.

[Basotang]

Replying to my own message, login out and in again made the Open Terminal work.

Seb.

[Samhain13]

Hello. I have been lurking in these forums but have not posted much.
I guess now I can just say "Thanks" for this handy script, which I need.
Cheers! :)

[jpyanowski]

I want to add my thanks for this how-to. It makes using the terminal with nautilus so much easier. :)

[mcduck]

What's the difference between this solution and the entry you get if you install 'nautilus-open-terminal' from repositories?

That one adds 'Open Terminal' to desktop right-click menu and 'Open Terminal Here' to Nautilus right-click menu..

Just run this, log out & back (or 'killall nautilus')
sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

[Tuan Tran]

i must be retarded but where is the sub context menu :S tried right clicking everywhere lol...

[Tuan Tran]

sry about that. i clt+alt+ backspace and logged back in and it worked. lol thx guys ! this is really handy for installing things. (unzip by the manager. browse it. open in terminal. ./configure and so on....)