GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 308437
No way to conveniently copy linked folder + I get a confusing error message when I try to do so
Last modified: 2013-04-23 19:16:50 UTC
I have a linked folder on my desktop. I want to copy the folder to a network folder (samba). I middle click drag and drop the folder from my desktop to the samba folder. I get three options - "move","copy" and "link" - and choose "copy" from the options. I get the following confusing error: Error "Unsupported operation" while copying "/home/tom/De...ne Comments".Would you like to continue? After some head-scratching, I think I know what the problem is: nautilus decided to copy the symlink rather than the folder I meant to copy and then realized it could not put a symlink to my local filesystem onto a samba share. I look for a way to tell nautilus to copy the folder rather than the link but can't figure out how. I open the folder and see if there is an easy way to copy the object, but once again can't figure out how (clicking on the button in the lower-lefthand corner gives me a path back to the desktop containing the link, not a path back to the linked-to folder). I would suggest a number of improvements to this scenario. 1. Don't show "link here" options in Samba shares or other folders where a link isn't allowed. 2. Copy the target of my link when I drag and drop to a new location, such as a samba share, a disk, or a usb flash drive. This is what I want. If you think it's possible someone wouldn't want this behavior, offer me a choice when I copy and paste. 3. If you can't do the above, offer me some efficient way to get from a symlink to its actual target so that if I want to copy something linked-to on my Desktop, I can do so quickly. 4. Do not include "Skip" and "Continue" buttons on an error dialog when there is only one action. Skip what? Continue to what? All I wanted to do was copy a folder. 5. Do not allow generic "Unsupported operation" errors! Create messages that explain what went wrong. Other information: I realize this might be better as several bug reports, but it's one user "story"/epxerience, and the usability problem was amplified by the collision of multiple bugs (bad behavior on copying links + bad error message + confusing buttons). Please let me know how I could make this kind of report more useful in the future!
Same problem here, only with files: I wanted to conveniently create a directory with symlinks of files I planned to copy to a usb flash disk later. Since the flash disk uses FAT16, I get an error dialog when dragging the files to the FAT partition. I think there should be the possibility to copy/move the link target when dragging files from a Linux partition to a FAT. When dragging and dropping a symlink with the middle mouse button, instead of the normal submenu Move Here Copy Here Link Here Set as Background -------- Cancel there should be the following menu when dragging from a linux partition to FAT: Move Here Copy Here Link Here Copy Link Target Here Set as Background -------- Cancel "Move Link Target Here" probably doesn't make much sense, since it breaks the symlink you are dragging. Any file operations on filesystems that don't support symlinks also should gray out (or don't display) operations involving symlinks ("Link Here" on normal files and all "Move/Copy/Link Here" on syminks").
for solution 3., there is a nautilus plugin that does that at http://p.outlyer.net/nautilus-follow-symlink/#src
(In reply to comment #0) > 1. Don't show "link here" options in Samba shares or other folders where a link > isn't allowed. Not sure this is a good idea, but feel free to file a new bug about this. > 2. Copy the target of my link when I drag and drop to a new location, such as a > samba share, a disk, or a usb flash drive. This is what I want. If you think > it's possible someone wouldn't want this behavior, offer me a choice when I copy > and paste. This is tracked on bug 581830. > 3. If you can't do the above, offer me some efficient way to get from a symlink > to its actual target so that if I want to copy something linked-to on my > Desktop, I can do so quickly. Currently, when a symlink is opened, Nautilus actually opens the target folder. This means that the target folder can be easily copied or dragged from the respective Path Bar button. > 4. Do not include "Skip" and "Continue" buttons on an error dialog when there is > only one action. Skip what? Continue to what? All I wanted to do was copy a folder. I filed a new report about this: bug 698694 > 5. Do not allow generic "Unsupported operation" errors! Create messages that > explain what went wrong. Currently, the error dialog explains that symlinks are not supported: > . > / \ Error while copying “foo”. > / ! \ > /_____\ There was an error copying the file into smb://bar/users/Public. > > v Show more details > > Symlinks not supported by backend > > [ Cancel ] [ Skip ] *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 581830 ***