Nautilus is the default file manager on GNOME. Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions use it by default.
Nautilus scripts are user scripts that can be run from the file manager. They allow us to automate file management tasks.
Picture this: you have a video file and you want to extract the audio. Instead of using a video editor or an online platform, you right-click on the file, run ‘Extract audio` and be done.
If you like the idea of this simplicity and power, you will LOVE Nautilus scripts.
# What exactly are they?
Nautilus lets us attach custom scripts to its context menu (aka. the
right-click menu). Any executable placed in ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts
automatically appears under Right click → Scripts.
When you run one of these scripts, Nautilus passes absolute file paths of selected files as arguments to the script. That’s it. You don’t have to install any plugins or read any documentation. You can build a lot of little automation tools.
You can write these scripts in Bash, Python, or any other programming language that can run on the CLI.
# Why they’re useful
Here’s an example: FFMpeg can extract audio from a video file. But it’s command-line user interface is not that easy to remember (at least to me). I would always have to search for the correct command. Instead of that, we can encapsulate that in a script and re-use it with no friction.
And even if you remember the command, you can save the time you spend on typing it out. You might think it’s not a big deal, but believe me, it is.
# The scripts I have
I have implemented and use a handful of scripts.
- Install fonts
- Images to PDF
- PDF to images
- OCR (image or pdf)
- Merge PDFs
- Clean MP3 metatags
- Create MP3 playlist
I have put them up on GitHub with installation steps and documentation for each script. Grab them if they sound useful for your usecases.
When you start notice yourself repeating actions with the files, see if you can automate that using a little script.