GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 687631
'Open' in context menus should be 'Run' for executables
Last modified: 2012-11-05 23:43:03 UTC
When you have set nautilus to run executable text files when they are opened and right click on an executable text file, it shows 'Open' as the first/default action in the context menu, which will actually run the script. The term 'Open' here is dangerous, as users might assume this action just opens the file in an editor and accidentally run a script. Shouldn't the default action for this case be called 'Execute' or 'Run'?
What's dangerous about it? We also use the term "Open" in the context menu for executable files which makes sense to me...why would this case be different? You would also have needed to change that option manually, since we default to displaying them. I tend towards leaving things as is (and closing this as NOTABUG), but if we change it I think we should make sure the wording is consistent with what we use for executable files.
(In reply to comment #1) ... > We also use the term "Open" in the context menu for executable files which > makes sense to me...why would this case be different? Yeah, it should be the same. (Changing the summary accordingly) I think you 'execute', 'run' or maybe 'start' a binary or script, not 'open' it. I personally associate 'open' with data, not with programs. (I agree that for programs with GUI 'opening' a window makes sense, but not so much from scripts and binaries that don't give you any feedback.) > What's dangerous about it? 'Open' does sound harmless, it's not obvious that it can have severe consequences. All you need to do is to 'Open' an executable file on an usb stick and you have been hacked. No warnings [0]. [0] OK, I notice this is a different issue ... ;)
OK, I also talked about this with Jon and we concluded that it's better if the wording is explicit in that case.
*** Bug 135144 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Pushed a fix to git master now.