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Bug 748185 - Sort by mtime should be preferred to atime sorting
Sort by mtime should be preferred to atime sorting
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.16.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: 3.18
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2015-04-20 14:23 UTC by Bastien Nocera
Modified: 2015-12-04 03:51 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Attachments
toolbar-menu: change access-date by modification-date (1.39 KB, patch)
2015-04-28 15:59 UTC, Georges Basile Stavracas Neto
needs-work Details | Review
toolbar: show modified time for all places except Recent (5.96 KB, patch)
2015-07-01 14:32 UTC, Carlos Soriano
committed Details | Review

Description Bastien Nocera 2015-04-20 14:23:45 UTC
nautilus-3.16.0-1.fc22.x86_64

Using "access time" sorting is really cumbersome. If I have a list of downloaded files or folders, opening the file, or entering the folder, will cause the list's order to change. This is pretty painful in my Downloads folder.

Instead I'd want to use mtime sorting for it.

mtime is still available, just not in the UI, as I have a directory that's sorted that way, and none of the "sort by" radio buttons are toggled.
Comment 1 Allan Day 2015-04-27 15:05:37 UTC
I pretty much agree with this - atime is rather unstable as a sort order. Also, the list view prefers mtime over atime, which makes the views inconsistent.
Comment 2 Georges Basile Stavracas Neto 2015-04-28 15:59:10 UTC
Created attachment 302523 [details] [review]
toolbar-menu: change access-date by modification-date

Access date is inconsistent across different systems,
and also isn't a good sorting classifier. Use modification
date instead, which is more stable and consistent.
Comment 3 Carlos Soriano 2015-04-28 17:54:31 UTC
Review of attachment 302523 [details] [review]:

Recent uses atime, you need a smarter way to deal with it (it will be ok disabling and enabling actions I believe)
Comment 4 Georges Basile Stavracas Neto 2015-04-30 17:50:32 UTC
As proposed by Allan, we should use mtime everywhere (including Recents)
Comment 5 Debarshi Ray 2015-06-22 16:03:52 UTC
(In reply to Carlos Soriano from comment #3)
> Review of attachment 302523 [details] [review] [review]:
> 
> Recent uses atime ...

(In reply to Georges Basile Stavracas Neto from comment #4)
> As proposed by Allan, we should use mtime everywhere (including Recents)

For what it is worth, gnome-documents and gnome-photos also use the mtime to sort the "recent" view.
Comment 6 Allan Day 2015-06-22 16:22:48 UTC
It would be great if this fix could be included in a 3.16.x update, since this bug was introduced recently and is a regression for some users.

I've tested the patch and it appears to behave correctly. My only concern is the Recent view - I don't really understand what's going on there (but that's not probably not new).
Comment 7 Allan Day 2015-06-22 16:26:53 UTC
(In reply to Allan Day from comment #6)
> ... My only concern is
> the Recent view - I don't really understand what's going on there (but
> that's not probably not new).

(Could be related to bug 751336.)
Comment 8 Carlos Soriano 2015-06-27 16:59:53 UTC
Rishi,
Yeah decision is to use mtime.

Georges,
The patch needs work. If we don't use atime we should remove it from nautilus code. Also, the patch itself is wrong since it needs to rename the id, etc.
Are you planning to work on it or should I take over it?
Comment 9 Allan Day 2015-06-29 11:10:08 UTC
(In reply to Georges Basile Stavracas Neto from comment #4)
> As proposed by Allan, we should use mtime everywhere (including Recents)

Note that bug 686137 specifically requested atime for the recent view, and bug 698365 is asking the same thing for the file chooser.

It's probably best to leave atime for the Recent view, but use mtime elsewhere.
Comment 10 Georges Basile Stavracas Neto 2015-07-01 01:26:48 UTC
I'm not working on it at the moment, and won't work on it until I finish Gtk+ work.
Comment 11 Carlos Soriano 2015-07-01 14:32:22 UTC
Created attachment 306525 [details] [review]
toolbar: show modified time for all places except Recent

We changed to only show access time for sorting in the sort menu
in 3.16 to avoid having both sorting options always present.
But for folders like Downloads, the most useful sorting criteria is
actually modified time, since it orders the files in downloading order.
Actually modified time is more useful than access time is all cases
except in "Recent", which what we actually want is the most recent
accessed or modified file.

For that, show only Modified Time sorting menu item in all places
except in "Recent", where we will show only Access Time.
Comment 12 Carlos Soriano 2015-07-01 14:34:20 UTC
Pushed to master and will push to 3.16.

Attachment 306525 [details] pushed as 76c63eb - toolbar: show modified time for all places except Recent
Comment 13 Debarshi Ray 2015-07-01 17:32:51 UTC
Review of attachment 306525 [details] [review]:

::: src/nautilus-toolbar-view-menu.xml
@@ +136,3 @@
+                <property name="visible">True</property>
+                <property name="can_focus">True</property>
+                <property name="text" translatable="yes">Last _Modified</property>

This breaks the string freeze for gnome-3-16. This can be solved by also restoring the translations which existed before the string was removed.
Comment 14 Bastien Nocera 2015-07-01 17:35:48 UTC
(In reply to Debarshi Ray from comment #13)
> Review of attachment 306525 [details] [review] [review]:
> 
> ::: src/nautilus-toolbar-view-menu.xml
> @@ +136,3 @@
> +                <property name="visible">True</property>
> +                <property name="can_focus">True</property>
> +                <property name="text" translatable="yes">Last
> _Modified</property>
> 
> This breaks the string freeze for gnome-3-16. This can be solved by also
> restoring the translations which existed before the string was removed.

If you're reviving old strings, it doesn't actually count as a string break. At least, I've revived old strings, and not had problems as the translators can revive the old strings in their translation tools.
Comment 15 Debarshi Ray 2015-07-01 18:03:31 UTC
(In reply to Bastien Nocera from comment #14)
> If you're reviving old strings, it doesn't actually count as a string break.
> At least, I've revived old strings, and not had problems as the translators
> can revive the old strings in their translation tools.

Yet, they are complaining:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/nautilus-3.16.2-2.fc22

... and on gnome-i18n@gnome.org.
Comment 16 Carlos Soriano 2015-07-03 11:32:27 UTC
Sorry for that, we are managing it on gnome-i18n list.

The string is not an old one (as some of us, like me, though), since we were using different strings before to say the same, so it needs new translation.

I don't have any rush for a 3.16.3, so I will delay the release until we have some translations in place.
Comment 17 Atri 2015-11-12 10:31:14 UTC
Hi Carlos,
For openSUSE Leap 42.1, which ships GNOME 3.16, we were planning to release a mass update of GNOME apps to their latest 3.16.x versions. Is it possible you might have the time to do a 3.16.3 release for nautilus any time soon?
Thanks!
Comment 18 Carlos Soriano 2015-11-12 10:45:48 UTC
(In reply to Atri from comment #17)
> Hi Carlos,
> For openSUSE Leap 42.1, which ships GNOME 3.16, we were planning to release
> a mass update of GNOME apps to their latest 3.16.x versions. Is it possible
> you might have the time to do a 3.16.3 release for nautilus any time soon?
> Thanks!

Sure, ping me if I forgot.
Comment 19 Atri 2015-11-19 20:07:24 UTC
(In reply to Carlos Soriano from comment #18)
> (In reply to Atri from comment #17)
> > Hi Carlos,
> > For openSUSE Leap 42.1, which ships GNOME 3.16, we were planning to release
> > a mass update of GNOME apps to their latest 3.16.x versions. Is it possible
> > you might have the time to do a 3.16.3 release for nautilus any time soon?
> > Thanks!
> 
> Sure, ping me if I forgot.

Ping ;)
Comment 20 Carlos Soriano 2015-12-02 11:30:23 UTC
3.16.3 released.

Atri, if you have more requests or things to discuss important for Open Suse I prefer if you can ping on IRC or so rather than in bug reports, and don't hesitate to do it.

Cheers
Comment 21 Atri 2015-12-04 03:51:21 UTC
(In reply to Carlos Soriano from comment #20)
> 3.16.3 released.

Thanks for the release.

> 
> Atri, if you have more requests or things to discuss important for Open Suse
> I prefer if you can ping on IRC or so rather than in bug reports, and don't
> hesitate to do it.
> 

Will keep in mind. Thanks.