Is 'Make Link' a 'FAIL' awaiting a bug-fix?

[mc4man]

I don't see issue with the filesize of the link, (size= link target) or link backup, (size of target before edit), and obviously the link backup is no longer a link, just a file

The actual filesize of a link is the number of characters in path, 1 byte per char. (break the link to see

The whole deal with 'custom launchers' was something nautilus decided to drop, ie. > open with > use a custom command is gone also

A basic shortcut template could be something like this, then all backups are the actual edited filename itself

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Link to 44
Type=Link
URL=file:///home/doug/Desktop/44
Icon=(null)

blue is editable to what/where ect., icon is optionable

[Ace.....]

The whole deal with 'custom launchers' was something nautilus decided to drop, ie. > open with > use a custom command is gone also

A basic shortcut template could be something like this, then all backups are the actual edited filename itself

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Link to 44
Type=Link
URL=file:///home/doug/Desktop/44
Icon=(null)

blue is editable to what/where ect., icon is optionable

I wonder why these features were dropped?

For the Desktop Entry shortcut template.
I have to say....... this works perfectly.

The original file (that has been linked to) can be modified, and its bakup file is its name~
eg·
brainstorm 881 bytes
brainstorm~ 865 bytes

This satisfies 'intuitive working', and basic 'safe working practice' ie. you have a bakup and you can find it.

The link itself

I created it by copying your text into gedit, and editing the blue elements as instructed.
the test was a text file (it works for jpgs, so I guess it is fine for all)

Name=Link to brainstorm
URL=file:///home/mark/Documents/brainstorm

I saved this as 'test.Desktop', in Desktop directory.
It appears on the desktop as "Link to brainstorm" and is clickable.

Interesting features of the link
Filename display:
Nautilus displays the file as per Name= ____ Link to brainstorm
Krusader displays the file by its filename ___test.Desktop

Editable:
It is editable, using gedit via Krusader, or via gedit menu open.
It cannot be edited via Nautilus (or I don't know how).

After editing:
Nautilus displays the bakup file by its bakup filename:__test.Desktop~
Krusader displays the bakup file by its bakup filename: _test.Desktop~

File size reporting:
Both Krusader AND Nautilus report the correct filesize.

Conclusion
This really is the version of Make Link that I personally would have liked to see.
Any edited file is backed up using conventional naming methodology.
File sizes are correctly reported in the packaged file manager.

The only minor variant is filename display in nautilus, but if you choose the same 'Name=' as its actual filename, then there can be no confusion whatsoever.

The Question:
Is a little add-on difficult to make, so that you browse to the file, or Rclick when you have found it, then enter its name.

If it is not overly complex, perhaps it is this methodology that should be proposed to the idea sandbox?

[Ace.....]

The sandpit mod cheesehead suggests that 'the orphaning of the linked file bakup' is a bug.
IE. Rather than adding another version of a link creator........ the issue of the orphaned bakup file should be addressed.

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/30242/ (comments at bottom)

He may be right.
As Lewis said, once you get your head around the concept, the reporting of symlink size is understandable.

He also suggests that I report a separate bug...... stating 'Make Link is behaving in an unexpected manner'.
However that seems merely to create a parallel bug investigation about the same problem.

I have posted mc4man's link code, and in the meantime I will log the orphaned bakup file as a bug.

Here is the bug link:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=686465

[Ace.....]

My goodness..... that was quick.
The bug has been fixed.

Total time: around 1 week, from identification to a fix.
Pretty impressive community this is.

However, I actually don't understand what the fix is.
Could somebody enlighten me

Bug 686465 - Make Link orphans the backup file of the linked file

I think it makes sense to follow symlinks by default when opening one, before launching the application. I now pushed a fix to git that does so, closing as fixed.

[LewisTM]

Wow!
The fact that the bug was fixed for Nautilus 3.4.x and is tagged as major means that we might actually see it percolate to future Ubuntu maintenance updates.

I don't know what the fix means either. Since it's a Nautilus fix, it won't affect how text editors behave. Maybe it reads the link and passes the target filename as the argument for opening a file? That would make it behave very much like a launcher. Some may like it, some may not. We shall see.

[Ace.....]

Wow!
The fact that the bug was fixed for Nautilus 3.4.x and is tagged as major means that we might actually see it percolate to future Ubuntu maintenance updates.

It certainly looks that way.

I note that this was fixed within 24 hrs of my posting it!

Cosimo Cecchi [nautilus developer] 2012-10-19 22:38:21 UTC I think it makes sense to follow symlinks by default when opening one, before launching the application. I now pushed a fix to git that does so, closing as fixed.

I figured that 'git' must be an acronym, and discovered:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29
Extract:

Git (/ɡɪt/) is a distributed revision control and source code management (SCM) system with an emphasis on speed.[3] Git was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development; it has since been adopted by many other projects. Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or a central server.

Linus Torvalds has quipped about the name "git", which is English slang for a stupid or unpleasant person. Torvalds said: "I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First 'Linux', now 'git'."[4][5] The man page describes git as "the stupid content tracker".[6]