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#77731
[PATCH] Add yank-media-handler for copied files from file manager
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[வெள்ளி ஏப்ரல் 11, 2025] Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Visuwesh <visuweshm <at> gmail.com>
>> Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2025 14:58:32 +0530
>>
>> [ This has been sitting in my drafts folder for many months now. ]
>>
>> Attached patch adds a yank-media-handler to message-mode to attach files
>> copied/cut from a file manager. I tested this patch using pcmanfm and
>> xfe. The regexp for the media-type was chosen after the blogpost [1],
>> pcmanfm in particular sets the media-type to
>> x-special/gnome-copied-files.
>
> Thanks, but copy/paste operations on files should first and foremost
> be supported in Dired, no? Limiting such support to message-mode
> seems too narrow and much less useful than it could be, let alone what
> users would expect.
>
> Can we support this in Dired?
Sure, I can prepare a patch that would copy/rename the file if the user
has copy/cut the file from her file manager. I have code for this
living in my init file.
>> I strip the null byte in the split-string call in the handler because
>> pcmanfm adds a null byte at the end of clipboard selection. I don't
>> know if this is the case with other file managers.
>>
>> I also cannot find the spec of this clipboard type but [2] and pcmanfm
>> suggests that the selection is
>>
>> OPERATION
>> file://FILE1
>> file://FILE2...
>>
>> where OPERATION is either cut or copy, and the rest of the lines are
>> links to the files. I do the same as what Org does to parse the above.
>>
>> 1. https://larsee.com/blog/2019/05/clipboard-files/
>> 2. https://indigo.re/posts/2021-12-21-clipboard-data.html
>
> I wonder if this is too specific to the specific file managers you
> tested this with. If it is, should we try to support more file
> managers?
I believe covering x-special/gnome-copied-files will cover a large
ground of file managers. Obviously, I have no idea how to support file
managers in MacOS or Windows.
>> +(defun message--yank-media-copied-files-handler (_ data)
>> + "Attach files copied/cut from the file manager.
>
> The name and the doc string should be more specific to the file
> managers for which this is supposed to work. I doubt that these
> details are general enough to say that any file manager capable of
> copy/pasting files will behave like that.
See above. I can say that it works with pcmanfm, xfe, and thunar if my
memory serves right.
> Btw, isn't copy/paste of files similar or maybe even equivalent to
> drag-n-drop?
They essentially serve to perform the same function in most cases, yes.
> If so, perhaps a better way would be to use the DND machinery we have
> in Emacs? Adding Po Lu in case he has opinions or comments about
> this.
As in, call the relevant function in dnd-protocol-alist for ^file:///?
This hasn't crossed my mind. I am not opposed to this idea.
This bug report was last modified 8 days ago.
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