Scripts for PCManFM

PCMan File Manager (PCManFM) is a file manager designed to be a lightweight and fast replacement for Nautilus or Konqueror, for example. It aims to be a usable file manager (and nothing more) and follows the Freedesktop.org standards. For basic usage and on which platforms the program is available read more about here.

Build-in actions, desktop applets and default MIME are stored in:

• /usr/share/file-manager/actions
• /usr/share/applications
• /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

The corrospending user-space for actions, desktop applets and default MIME are stored in:

• /userdata/system/.local/share/file-manager/actions/
• /userdata/system/.local/share/applications
• /userdata/system/.config/mimeapps.list

Unlike Windows systems, it is much less common in Linux to identify files by the ‘file extensions’. Instead, the operating system recognises the file type based on file permissions and metadata, not just the extension. However, common file extensions are still used for organisation and compatibility, for example for compressed archives such as .gz and .bz2 or Office formats such as .odt and .docx or for some special usage like make

So yes, we are talking about MIME (aka Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) types, rather then file extenions. Best praxis to determine the MIME-type that PCManFM uses is, if you just right-click the file and then read its properties. Or you can just select the file and you'll the file-description into the down-left corner of the filemanager. Valid descriptions are plain/text or inode/directory (for directories) or application/zip - you've got the idea.

Doubleclick on a file that is not yet bound to an application, then a small window appears that's asking which application should be used open the file. You click on Custom Command Line register and from there you can type the command or browse your filesystem to select a valid file-application.

Important steps:

1. Fill: Application name (free selectable, as you like)
2. Tick: Set selected application as default for this file type

All data is set to: /userdata/system/.config/mimeapps.list, if you edit this file you will see an entry like

[Default Applications]
font/ttf=userapp-l3afpad-UMKSE3.desktop

So you see: Associated MIME is font/ttf and used application is l3afpad.

The .desktop-file contains all the additional data and can be found in /userdata/system/.local/share/applications from here you can change some values or set your own script in the EXE-Section and see even the Name you gave it. Type=Application is important here, this will indicate PCManFM that this file is an application type.

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Open TTF
Exec=l3afpad %f
Categories=Other;
NoDisplay=true
MimeType=font/ttf
Terminal=false

PCManFM and its desktop-files support several parameters, most common is the one for the EXEC section which is essential for file handling and file operation.

A custom action is a “desktop entry” inside the directory /userdata/system/.local/share/file-manager/actions or /usr/share/file-manager/actions. A desktop entry has a name like NAME.desktop (“NAME” is sometimes called its “ID”). It starts with the [Desktop Entry] group, which can contain the following keys and their corresponding values:

A profile tells the action what to do. Each profile that is added to the Profiles key must be defined in a [X-Action-Profile profile-id] group, where profile-id is its identifying string, like [X-Action-Profile profile-zero]. The group can have the following keys:

Some of well-known mimetypes include:

• all/all: matches all items
• all/allfiles: matches only files
• inode/directory: matches only directories

If you place your .desktop files to /userdata/system/.local/share/file-manager/actions/ you can create entries in context menus by right clicking on a file or folder. I've created a small application that calculates the md5sum of all selected files. Talking about the Type you see here the Type=Action is present. You'll also need the profile settings.

system.md5sum.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Action
Name=Show md5 Checksum
Profiles=Desktop
 
[X-Action-Profile Desktop]
MimeTypes=all/allfiles
Exec=bash -c "md5sum %F | yad --text-info"

Again, just change the Type you want to descripe into the .desktop file and use Type=Menu - rather undocumented it seems not to work to set the Name only instead use Tooltip to get the entry visible into the context menu. Then just enter the .desktop-files you want into your ItemList (remember, only the one placed in the DIR action will work) and just dismiss the desktop-extension.

menu.cascade-example.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Menu
Icon=menu
Name=
Tooltip=★ Misc. Actions >
ItemsList=md5sum;further-action-1;further-action-2;

Here you see how PCManFMs internal parametes are used. %d is the path (dirname) of the first file, so change directory to this. Later %B is used to work with the filenames only to deal with the for-loop and to operate the filenames. The big challange is to mask all quotes. Selection Count is set to hinder unintended renaming (for example you marked 1000 of rom files and hit the context entry for example).

Destination: /userdata/system/.local/share/file-manager/actions/

system.toggle-filenames.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Action
Name=Toggle filenames upper-/lowercase
Profiles=Batocera
SelectionCount=<50
 
[X-Action-Profile Batocera]
MimeTypes=all/allfiles
Exec=bash -c "cd %d; [[ %b =~ [A-Z] ]] && { for f in %B; do mv \"$f\" \"${f,,}\"; done; } ||  { for f in %B; do mv \"$f\" \"${f^^}\"; done; }"

You enter the gamefolder and click on a windows-exe-file. From there select Create autorun.cmd (Attention, no backup of your old autorun.cmd will be made). I made this because here you see that you heavily have to look out which variables you are using. If you need a literal % you have to write it twice - escape all quotes and use printf rather then echo. This script will work only if you are within /userdata/roms/windows.

• p1 = Location of all wine-games
• p2 = Directory of our current EXE
• p3 = Windows game directoy itself

So with clever subtrating the strings you can extract all data you need and you are able to write back the needed data to autorun.cmd

Destination: /userdata/system/.local/share/file-manager/actions/

wine.create-autorun.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Action
Name=Create autorun.cmd
Folders=/userdata/roms/windows/*;
Profiles=Batocera
SelectionCount==1
 
[X-Action-Profile Batocera]
MimeTypes=application/x-ms-dos-executable
Exec=bash -c "p1=/userdata/roms/windows/; p2=%d; p3=${p2/$p1/}; p3=${p3%%%%\/*}; printf 'CMD=\"%%s\"\nDIR=%%s' %b \"${p2/$p1$p3/.}\" > \"$p1$p3/autorun.cmd\";"