Is there a command to get the location of a file which is selected in nautilus?

Question

I want to be able to select a file, enter a command and have it return the current location of the file selected in a terminal.

Answer 1

If you want to get a file name into a terminal program, you should be able to use either mouse drag'n'drop or Ctrl-c and Ctrl-(Shift-)v to copy/paste it into an editor/terminal.

Answer 2

I think the best thing to fit here is a nautilus plugin.

1. Install python-nautilus

   sudo apt-get install python-nautilus
   

2. Create a plugin "TestExtension.py"

   sudo nano /usr/share/nautilus-python/extensions/TestExtension.py
   

   This extension will call your script whenever the selection changes and pass the selection one by one as second command argument $1:

   from gi.repository import Nautilus, GObject
   import os
   
   class ColumnExtension(GObject.GObject, Nautilus.MenuProvider):
       def __init__(self):
           pass
   
       def menu_activate_cb(self, menu, file):
           print "menu_activate_cb",file
   
       def get_file_items(self, window, files):
   
           for file in files:
               uri = file.get_uri()
               if uri.startswith("file:///"):
                   os.system("yourscript_path"+" \""+uri[7:]+"\"")
   
           return
   

   Or you may make a list, combine them as single string, then export it as env variable. So current selection will be accessible for all other scripts. (security hole)

3. Kill nautilus

   pkill nautilus
   

Reference:

• nautilus-python Reference Manual