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I read there seems to be a bug that stops text file previews from showing (if I understand correctly) in Ubuntu 16.04. It worked fine in 14.04 but now it just looks like an empty file. I have set Edit> Preferences> Preview to Local Files Only <3Mb and there is no "Show text" button as previous OS had, which one reply said. Therefore,I was wondering if anyone has found a work around to get the first few lines to show, so at a quick glance I can see if the file has text in it or not?. Or has everyone just accepted this as the new norm?. Or has everyone moved on to 18.04?. Thanks for any help in this matter.

Edit update. I found this answer Generate thumbnails for text?, but I am unable to get it to work, so not sure if it is what I need. If Jacob Vlijm or anyone else who knows tell me where to put it and what to put in the output path. I have tried putting the python file and text file in Home folder and the output there also and get nothing.

Albert
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1 Answers1

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This is known bug of modern Nautilus - it was reported as bug 1426085 for Ubuntu 14.10 (Vivid Vervet).

This functionality was removed upstream.

Currently it is confirmed on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS and so on.

Moreover - Caja, Nemo, PCManFM and Thunar do not provide this functionality out-the-box for text files.

Consider to try Dolphin. To have previews install it with

sudo apt install dolphin dolphin-plugins kdesdk-thumbnailers kdelibs5-plugins kio-extras

It has previews for almost all file-types:

  1. Set previews from Control → Configure Dolphin... → General → Previews and click OK.

    Dolphin settings

  2. Click on Preview button on panel

  3. Navigate to the folder with text file:

    text preview in Dolphin

Information sources:
1. ArchLinux Wiki - File manager functionality
2. ArchLinux Wiki - Dolphin

N0rbert
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