Save session on close

[Danielle Foré]

When Marlin is closed, it should remember the last open directory (and tabs).

[xapantu (xapantu)]

Hum, I'm not sure it is a good idea... what if I had a sftp/ftp/smb share? what if a disk was mounted? what if I had 4 windows of marlin? etc... No, really, it doesn't appear to be a good idea.

[Cassidy James Blaede (cassidyjames)]

This is an interesting issue; if it were a single-window application, it'd be fine. However, Marlin isn't. The sftp/ftp/smb issues could be solved easily (welcome widget with a "reconnect" option), but the multi-window one is different.

[Damien (youpla-b)]

It should be at least an option, considering the emphasis put by the elementary team on the disappearance of the minimise button. Pantheon-files already acts like a single-window application for most users. When I started using Luna I first expected pantheon-files to remember my current path and opened tabs after I closed it and was disappointed to have lost my work. Considering pantheon-files is a core in-house app, this expected behaviour was a given to me.

I was thinking the close/minimise behaviour could be tweaked slightly to be adapted to the pantheon-file common use:
No savestate on close,
The close button closes windows,
The last standing window is minimised instead.

One could even think of a way to close the last opened window (and save memory?): closing the last tab closes the app or shows the home folder, clicking close with only the home folder showing closes the app.

I believe this behaviour would be transparent to the user, not cluttering him with dozen of minimised windows while still providing a quick access to the last closed window and properly closing the app when the user is done with it.

pantheon-files should be made a single-window app with the option to use more windows (currently it's a multi-windows app with the option to use more tabs).

in any case I don't think this should be labelled as wishlist, in my view it is a bug that clashes with current elementary conceptions.

[Jeremy Wootten (jeremywootten)]

The related branch addresses this issue.