Executable files do not launch

[Simplehuman]

If I make a text file executable - I can launch it in 12.10, or 12.04 . But in 13.04, 13.10 and 14.04 it is just opening in gedit . I need to use terminal to launch it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: nautilus 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-2.6-generic 3.8.0-rc4
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-2-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.8-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jan 31 14:05:23 2013
GsettingsChanges:
 b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'geometry' b"'800x550+261+167'"
 b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'maximized' b'true'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-28 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=ru_UA:ru
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=ru_UA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-01-28 (2 days ago)
mtime.conffile..etc.xdg.autostart.nautilus.autostart.desktop: 2013-01-28T16:57:30.718877

[Borivoje Petrovic (borivoje)]

Just in Nautus File/Preferences/Behaviour Under Executable Files check Ask me always.

[Luis Silva (luis-silva)]

Hi,

For me this is a bug, the fix should be applied to the original package, so 13.04 and future ubuntu installations will not suffer from this.

There is no sense with behavior 'View executable text files' selected by default for a regular user.
Shellscripts are commonly used to launch other executables, so a regular user will expect that double clicking on a given application executable (being script or ELF) will launch an application instead of gedit showing 'strange programming mambojambo'.

I will give you an example: here in Portugal, we pay our taxes using an official application that is downloaded from a goverment site.
The application is developed in java and it worked flawlessly with ubuntu. The application is packaged inside a special script file that will auto-extract the application content to a selected installation dir (by the way the application launcher is also a shellscript). So a regular user when double clicking this script, a gigant script will be opened in gedit! This really doesn't make any sense from a regular user prespective.

[Simplehuman (simplehuman)]

It is still actual in 13.10 x64. Any attention to this bug?

[Jaromil (jaromil)]

We should pay attention to this indeed.

This is a radical change for many users acquainted to execute shell scripts or having them written by friends to fix things.
Believe me, this happens *all the time*.

Changing this behavior without any notice is irresponsible, a very conservative step that disempower users.

At the very least, on the first execution of a shell script this way, a dialog should pop-up asking about the user's intention:
- do not execute
- execute this shell script once and ask again next time
- execute any shell script (and/or open preferences)

Ideally there could be a per-script configuration that can be tuned this way on first execution.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

This was an intentional change done by upstream Nautilus developers. Showing a dialog by default makes problems for users that have external drives with FAT32-like filesystem, where all files are executable. See:

https://git.gnome.org/browse/nautilus/commit/?id=72d6c7ce7febd573
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=601736

Like Borivoje said, it is easily configurable from the Preferences dialog.

[Jaromil (jaromil)]

Thanks for the references to the upstream process.

Not just the executable bit, but also the file magic (shell script or ELF) could be parsed to sort out problems.

However, I guess this is not the place for discussing this.

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

It's simple to return back old behavior - set dconf setting value:
 org.gnome.nautilus.preferences executable-text-activation
to 'ask'

[Jaromil (jaromil)]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2014, Mantas Kriaučiūnas wrote:

> It's simple to return back old behavior - set dconf setting value:
> org.gnome.nautilus.preferences executable-text-activation
> to 'ask'

"simple"? most ubuntu users are afraid to open a Terminal.

however, thanks for the info, but this discussion should really be about
the default choice.

BTW, is there also a value 'always'?

thanks,
ciao

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

It's a completely incorrect behavior always to open executable text files with Text Editor - lots of executable installers are very big (200-500Mb) and opening very big files with Text Editor causes freeze of operating system for several minutes on older computers, try for example to open Unigine_Valley-1.0.run on computer with 1GB RAM or less: http://unigine.com/products/valley/download/

jaromil (jaromil) wrote:
>> set dconf setting value: org.gnome.nautilus.preferences executable-text-activation
> "simple"? most ubuntu users are afraid to open a Terminal

I was writing not to users, but to developers/system administrators - for example Ubuntu-based Baltix GNU/Linux OS release 13.10 will always ask if user wants to execute or to view executable text file.

Users can simply click on File->Preferences->Behavior and choose "Run executable text files when they are opened" or "Ask each time" under "Executable Text Files" in File Manager

[Simplehuman (simplehuman)]

In Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10 the problem is still there

[Jamie (negatron99)]

I just had this problem. Coming from 12.04 to 14.04 my executable that was launching WebStorm just started opening in GEdit.

It felt like a bug, not a "Feature".

This is why I went back to Windows. Someone decided to make an arbitrary decision and now I have to find why it happened. These developers really don't care about the end-user.

Thank god I didn't try to launch the ATI graphics installer in Nautilus.

Sorry for the unhelpful comment, but someone made an unhelpful change that wasn't needed, without thought of the consequences, like happens so many times around here.

[Jaromil (jaromil)]

It is not an unuseful comment, is UX feedback, which should be valued the most. When I initially reacted to this bug, I was reporting my experience helping users update and observing their struggle with layers of fixes on their desktop, often scripts made by friends to help execute tasks.

A LEAN UX would help here, plus much less arrogance in imposing technical decisions that are not justified by a user centered analysis of the solution proposed.

I guess with age comes more wisdom. I hope this will be the case for Ubuntu.

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

Fix committed in ubuntu-defaults-baltix package source revision 14