.config .theme .index files can't be opened

[Christian González]

Binary package hint: nautilus

Running Ubuntu hardy beta
nautilus 2.22.0-0ubuntu3
Maybe that's a feature, not a bug, but very confusing.

1. create an empty file on the Desktop, name it
 xx.config
 xx.theme
or
 xx.desktop

2. double click on it.
->> error message

What I want:
Edit that file, or at least an option in the right click menu on it.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Could you describe easy steps to trigger the issue? Doing a touch example.config on the desktop and double clicking on this one using nautilus works correctly on my hardy installation

[Christian González (droetker)]

hm. funny, but right. I think I already changed the behaviour in nautilus for .config files, i can|t really
do .theme files work with your nautilus?
can anybody confirm that in a fresh&updated hardy install?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.

[Removed by request (removed1836289)]

Reopening. I can confirm this following the described steps. Attaching a screenshot.

[A. Walton (awalton)]

anyfile.desktop, anyfile.theme should always be a valid Desktop Entry file. An empty file is not a valid Desktop Entry file, which is why you're seeing that dialog.

I have no problems editing a .config, or .index file here, they're empty text files and open in GEdit as I would expect. An empty desktop entry file also does more or less what I'd expect (an error dialog, though a more helpful error message such as "This is not a valid desktop entry file" would be prettier.) It would be nice if we gave an "Open With" entry for those files as well though, so that users who know what they're doing can edit them by hand more readily.

[Christian González (droetker)]

e.g. in KDE as well, just make a new (invalid) .desktop file: right click on desktop,new, text file.
Name it "test1.desktop" - and try to edit it - at least I can't do it easily.
If you doubleclick it - you get the error "... hast no entry "Type=..." - which is ok, but you can't EDIT it.

e.g. Bob is a developer, opens a (valid) .desktop file, unknowingly changes a part (into invalid) and saves it.
Now he wants to correct his errors within KDE/GNOME easily.

It could be done with a VERY simple Konqueror/Nautilus servicemenu.

[Rog (0-launchpad-net-technicalbloke-com)]

There's definitely something flaky about nautilus/ubuntu's handling of .theme files - I need to edit .theme files for my Drupal installation and every time I click on them in Nautilus comes up with an error: Couldn't display /blah/blah/blah the location is not a folder. Indeed it isn't a folder... it's a file.

Right click + properties only gives you the Basic, Emblems, Permissions & Notes tabs... 'Open With' is conspicuously missing.

Moreso, although it is possible to rename the file when you double click it displays exactly the same message as before, with the same filename as before, even though it is called something different now.

It then refuses to let you change it back to it's original name!

This seems very broken to me :-(

Roger.

[Rog (0-launchpad-net-technicalbloke-com)]

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