Right now binary files are detected as binaries according to Gio's definition...


We need to decide how to tackle this... try to fix gio (or even the underlying shared-mime-info)? add our own white/black lists?

Well technically .lo and .la files are text files, not binary. So the file browser's mime-type detection is correct. But maybe we can add a black list?

.lo and .la files are really an odd edge case.  Technically they are text files, but semantically they are binary files and in my opinion it's bothersome to see them in the file browser when you're working in a tree where you've performed a build.

Since this is such an edge case, I'd lean toward having a simple blacklist that excludes (perhaps only) these file types when the user is filtering out binary files.  It's hard for me to think of another use case that would justify pushing this change into gio.

I too cannot see how gio or shared-mime-info would allow a patch to make this binary as it would conflict too much.

Example: What if someone wanted to open the file? Well if the application first checks to see if the file is binary or text it would probably refuse to open it.


So, how should this be fixed?
    - Internal blacklist
    - Hidden setting
    - Setting exposed in the configure dialog

Any other solution ideas?

I'd use a blacklist with a hidden setting, with the default values for those extensions...

That sounds fine to me.  I think a visible setting for this would certainly be overkill.

Created attachment 246938 [details] [review]
Bug 697428 - Add binary-patterns setting to the file browser

This is a list of extra glob patterns to consider as binary files.

This problem has been fixed in the development version. The fix will be available in the next major software release. Thank you for your bug report.