HOW-TO: Enable and Disable the Recently Used Menu in Gnome

[audax321]

To disable the recent documents menu in Gnome:

- Open '/home/username/.recently-used' in gedit:

gedit /home/username/.recently-used

- Empty the contents of the file, save, and exit.

- Make the file read-only:

chmod 400 /home/username/.recently-used

To re-enable the recent documents menu in Gnome:

- Make the file readable and writeable by the owner:

chmod 600 /home/username/.recently-used

AN EASIER ALTERNATIVE TO THE ABOVE!!!
Use the script below by adding it to the nautilus script menu:

- Open a blank text document and copy/paste the following:

#!/bin/sh

# Enable/Disable Recent Documents Menu in Gnome

if [ ! -f "$HOME/.recently-used" ]; then
	echo "" > "$HOME/.recently-used"
	chmod 600 "$HOME/.recently-used"
fi

if [ -w "$HOME/.recently-used" ]; then
	echo "" > "$HOME/.recently-used"
	chmod 400 "$HOME/.recently-used"
	if [ "$?" = "0" ]; then
		zenity --title="Disabled" --info --text="The 'Recent Documents' menu item has been disabled."
	else
		zenity --title="Error" --error --text="There was an error disabling the 'Recent Documents' menu."
	fi
elif [ -f "$HOME/.recently-used" ]; then
	chmod 600 "$HOME/.recently-used"
	if [ "$?" = "0" ]; then
		zenity --title="Enabled" --info --text="The 'Recent Documents' menu item has been enabled."
	else
		zenity --title="Error" --error --text="There was an error enabling the 'Recent Documents' menu."
	fi
else
	zenity --title="Error" --error --text="It appears the file '$HOME/.recently-used' does not exist and could not be created."
fi

- Save the file and exit.

- Set the proper permissions:

chmod 755 /path/to/saved/file

- Copy the file to the nautilus script directory located at:

/home/username/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts