How can I automatically relaunch nautilus if I quit the program?

Question

Due to strange window focus and/or key-binding behavior on my system, sometimes I accidentally close a Nautilus/Files window when my intention is to close the uppermost application window (e.g., a LibreOffice document). I end up having to manually relaunch Nautilus/Files. I have to do this way more often than I would like.

I can see no use-case where I would desire for Nautilus/Files to not immediately relaunch after quitting in my daily use.

How can I automatically check to see whether Nautilus/Files is running, and, if it is not, to relaunch it?

Bonus points for efficiency of resource use in a solution.

Answers predicated on me not wanting this behavior will be down-voted.

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Update: October 16, 2019.

Thanks to gnome expert's answer on linked question below, a faster more stable method of relaunching Nautilus File Manager has been implemented.

This turned out to be a challenging problem because Nautilus is always running to control the desktop. If you kill the program nautilus all your desktop icons will disappear. When nautilus is running and your desktop icons are present and you type nautilus in the terminal then the Nautilus File Manager appears.

Copy this script to a file called ~/ttlus:

#!/bin/bash

# NAME: ttlus (Twenty Thousand Loops Under Startup)
# PATH: $HOME/askubuntu/
# DESC: Answer for: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1180043/how-can-i-automatically-relaunch-nautilus-if-i-quit-the-program
#       Call Nautilus, named after Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea novel,
#       20,000 times in loop from Startup Applications
# DATE: October 10, 2019.  Modified October 16, 2019.

# NOTE: Things that don't work:
#       https://askubuntu.com/questions/965052/how-to-make-script-wait-for-nautilus-to-exit
#       https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1604843

# UPDT: Rpelace loop with occassional focus grabbing and unpredictable delays:
#    while ps -L -p "$PID" -o pid,nice,lwp,comm | grep pool > /dev/null ; do
#       with:
#    while gdbus introspect --session --dest org.gnome.Nautilus \ ... 3 lines

LoopLimit=20000
Program="nautilus"
#Program="/usr/bin/nautilus --gapplication-service"
PID=$(pgrep nautilus)
Sec=3

if [[ $PID == "" ]] ; then
    notify-send "ERROR in $0: Cannot find nautilus PID"
    exit
fi

for (( l=0; l<LoopLimit; l++ )) ; do
    # Is nautilus file manager running? 1 Window only is desktop icons
    while gdbus introspect --session --dest org.gnome.Nautilus \
        --object-path /org/gnome/Nautilus --recurse | \
        grep -q '^ *node /org/gnome/Nautilus/window/' | \
        grep -v '/window/1' ; do
            sleep "$Sec"
    done
    "$Program" "$HOME" 2> /dev/null
    sleep $(( Sec / 2 ))
done

notify-send "ERROR in $0: $Program exceeded $LoopLimit loop limit"

Make it executable with chmod a+x ~/ttlus

First test is by typing ~/ttlus & in the terminal. After you are satisfied add it in Startup Applications.

If program runs amok use:

$ pgrep ttlus
7970
$ kill 7970
[1]+  Terminated              ttlus

Notes:

Due to the sleep "$Sec" command after exiting Nautilus with Alt+F4 or clicking X on window a three second delay (to reduce resource usage) will occur before Nautilus reappears on the desktop.

How can I automatically relaunch nautilus if I quit the program?

1 Answers1

Update: October 16, 2019.