nautilus-scripts

Some nautilus (GNOME file manager) scripts i made for myself but they should work for most linux setups!

Usage

# Create scripts folder
mkdir ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts/

# Move the script
mv <SCRIPT_NAME> ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts/

# Make it executable
chmod +x ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts/<SCRIPT_NAME>

# Create keybind file
touch ~/.config/nautilus/scr-keybinds

# Set keybind
echo "<KEYBIND> <SCRIPT_NAME>" >> ~/.config/nautilus/scr-keybinds

Scripts

Terminal at Folder Location
Universal File Preview
Fast Video Preview
Fast Text Preview
Fast Image Preview

Preview scripts auto-close when they lose window focus on Niri. The niri/ folder contains identical copies for convenience. Also these window rules should make the experience much better:

Window rules

window-rule {
    match app-id="imv"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.4; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.6; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="text-preview"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.4; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.6; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="ffplay"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.5; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.5; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="dev.ghostty.preview"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.4; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.6; }
}

OCR From Selected Image

open-terminal

Open terminal at the current folder location.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

detect_terminal() {
    if [ -n "$TERMINAL" ] && command -v "$TERMINAL" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "$TERMINAL"
        return 0
    fi
    for t in ghostty kitty alacritty wezterm foot konsole xfce4-terminal gnome-terminal; do
        if command -v "$t" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
            echo "$t"
            return 0
        fi
    done
    return 1
}

TARGET_DIR="$PWD"
SELECTED=$(echo -n "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | head -n 1)

if [ -n "$SELECTED" ]; then
    if [ -d "$SELECTED" ]; then
        TARGET_DIR="$SELECTED"
    else
        TARGET_DIR="$(dirname "$SELECTED")"
    fi
fi

TERM=$(detect_terminal) || exit 1

case "$TERM" in
    kitty) kitty --directory="$TARGET_DIR" & ;;
    wezterm) wezterm start --cwd "$TARGET_DIR" & ;;
    konsole) konsole --workdir "$TARGET_DIR" & ;;
    *) "$TERM" --working-directory="$TARGET_DIR" & ;;
esac

preview

Universal file preview that detects MIME type and opens the appropriate viewer. Supports images (imv), video/audio (ffplay), PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, archives (zip/tar), directories (eza), markdown (glow), and generic text (bat). Opens in your terminal with auto-close on unfocus via niri.

Requires bat, jq, niri to be installed (plus optional: imv, ffmpeg, pdftotext, docx2txt, catdoc, odt2txt, glow, eza).

#!/usr/bin/env bash

detect_terminal() {
    if [ -n "$TERMINAL" ] && command -v "$TERMINAL" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "$TERMINAL"
        return 0
    fi
    for t in ghostty kitty alacritty wezterm foot konsole xfce4-terminal gnome-terminal; do
        if command -v "$t" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
            echo "$t"
            return 0
        fi
    done
    return 1
}

TERM=$(detect_terminal) || exit 1

# Get the first selected file
FILE=$(echo -n "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | head -n 1)
[ -n "$FILE" ] || exit 0;

# Helper: Focus tracking
auto_close_on_unfocus() {
    local PID=$1

    # Phase 1: Wait for window to exist and be focused
    local count=0
    while kill -0 $PID 2>/dev/null; do
        FOCUSED_ID=$(niri msg -j focused-window | jq '.id' 2>/dev/null)
        WINDOW_ID=$(niri msg -j windows | jq ".[] | select(.pid == $PID) | .id" 2>/dev/null)

        if [ -n "$WINDOW_ID" ] && [ "$FOCUSED_ID" == "$WINDOW_ID" ]; then
            break
        fi

        count=$((count + 1))
        if [ $count -gt 50 ]; then
            break
        fi
        sleep 0.1
    done

    # Phase 2: Kill when it loses focus
    while kill -0 $PID 2>/dev/null; do
        FOCUSED_ID=$(niri msg -j focused-window | jq '.id' 2>/dev/null)
        WINDOW_ID=$(niri msg -j windows | jq ".[] | select(.pid == $PID) | .id" 2>/dev/null)

        if [ -n "$WINDOW_ID" ] && [ "$FOCUSED_ID" != "$WINDOW_ID" ]; then
            kill $PID 2>/dev/null
            break
        fi
        sleep 0.2
    done
}

# Helper: Launch a command in terminal, set window title, keep open until keypress.
preview_in_terminal() {
    local TITLE=$1
    local CMD=$2

    case "$TERM" in
        ghostty) "$TERM" --class="dev.ghostty.preview" --gtk-single-instance=false -e bash -c "printf '\033]0;%s\007' \"$TITLE\"; $CMD; printf '\n[Press any key to close]'; read -rsn1" "$FILE" & ;;
        kitty) "$TERM" --class "file-preview" --title "$TITLE" -e bash -c "printf '\033]0;%s\007' \"$TITLE\"; $CMD; printf '\n[Press any key to close]'; read -rsn1" "$FILE" & ;;
        *) "$TERM" -e bash -c "$CMD; printf '\n[Press any key to close]'; read -rsn1" "$FILE" & ;;
    esac
    auto_close_on_unfocus $! &
}

# Detect MIME type
MIME=$(file --dereference --mime-type -b "$FILE")

case "$MIME" in
    image/*)
        if command -v imv >/dev/null; then
            imv "$FILE" &
            auto_close_on_unfocus $! &
        else
            notify-send "preview" "imv not found"
        fi
        ;;
    video/*)
        if command -v ffplay >/dev/null; then
            SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland ffplay -v quiet -autoexit -window_title "preview" -x 1280 -y 720 "$FILE" &
            auto_close_on_unfocus $! &
        else
            notify-send "preview" "ffplay not found"
        fi
        ;;
    audio/*)
        if command -v ffplay >/dev/null; then
            SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland ffplay -v quiet -autoexit -nodisp "$FILE" &
        else
            notify-send "preview" "ffplay not found"
        fi
        ;;
    application/pdf|application/x-pdf)
        preview_in_terminal "PDF" 'pdftotext "$0" - | bat -l txt -p --color=always --paging=auto'
        ;;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document)
        preview_in_terminal "DOCX" 'docx2txt "$0" - | bat -l txt -p --color=always --paging=auto'
        ;;
    application/msword)
        preview_in_terminal "DOC" 'catdoc "$0" | bat -l txt -p --color=always --paging=auto'
        ;;
    application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
        preview_in_terminal "ODT" 'odt2txt "$0" | bat -l txt -p --color=always --paging=auto'
        ;;
    application/zip)
        preview_in_terminal "Archive" 'unzip -l "$0" | bat -p --color=always --paging=auto'
        ;;
    application/x-tar|application/gzip|application/x-xz|application/x-bzip2|application/x-zstd)
        preview_in_terminal "Archive" 'bsdtar -tf "$0" | bat -p --color=always --paging=auto'
        ;;
    inode/directory)
        preview_in_terminal "Directory" 'eza --tree --level=3 --color=always "$0" | bat -p --paging=auto'
        ;;
    *)
        EXT="${FILE##*.}"
        EXT=$(echo "$EXT" | tr '[:upper:]'[:lower:]')
        if [ "$EXT" == "md" ] || [ "$MIME" == "text/markdown" ]; then
             preview_in_terminal "Markdown" 'glow "$0"'
        else
             preview_in_terminal "Text" 'bat -p --color=always --style=numbers --paging=auto "$0"'
        fi
        ;;
esac

ffpreview

Video preview using ffplay from ffmpeg.

Requires ffmpeg to be installed.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
FILE=$(echo -n "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | head -n 1)
[ -n "$FILE" ] || exit 0

SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland ffplay -v quiet -autoexit -window_title "ffplay-preview" -x 1280 -y 720 "$FILE" &
FF_PID=$!

while kill -0 $FF_PID 2>/dev/null; do
    if niri msg focused-window 2>/dev/null | grep -qiE 'app_id: "ffplay"|title: "ffplay-preview"'; then
        break
    fi
    sleep 0.1
done

while kill -0 $FF_PID 2>/dev/null; do
    if ! niri msg focused-window 2>/dev/null | grep -qiE 'app_id: "ffplay"|title: "ffplay-preview"'; then
        kill $FF_PID 2>/dev/null
        break
    fi
    sleep 0.2
done

txtpreview

Text file preview using bat.

Requires bat to be installed.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

detect_terminal() {
    if [ -n "$TERMINAL" ] && command -v "$TERMINAL" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "$TERMINAL"
        return 0
    fi
    for t in ghostty kitty alacritty wezterm foot konsole xfce4-terminal gnome-terminal; do
        if command -v "$t" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
            echo "$t"
            return 0
        fi
    done
    return 1
}

FILE=$(echo -n "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | head -n 1)
[ -n "$FILE" ] || exit 0

TERM=$(detect_terminal) || exit 1

case "$TERM" in
    ghostty) "$TERM" --class="text-preview" -e bash -c 'bat -p --color=always --style=numbers --paging=auto "$0"; read -rsn1' "$FILE" & ;;
    kitty) "$TERM" --class "text-preview" --title "text-preview" -e bash -c 'bat -p --color=always --style=numbers --paging=auto "$0"; read -rsn1' "$FILE" & ;;
    *) "$TERM" -e bash -c 'bat -p --color=always --style=numbers --paging=auto "$0"; read -rsn1' "$FILE" & ;;
esac
TXT_PID=$!

while kill -0 $TXT_PID 2>/dev/null; do
    if niri msg focused-window 2>/dev/null | grep -qi 'text-preview'; then
        break
    fi
    sleep 0.1
done

while kill -0 $TXT_PID 2>/dev/null; do
    if ! niri msg focused-window 2>/dev/null | grep -qi 'text-preview'; then
        kill $TXT_PID 2>/dev/null
        break
    fi
    sleep 0.2
done

imvpreview

Image file preview using imv.

Requires imv to be installed.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
FILE="${1:-${NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS%%$'\n'*}}"

[ -n "$FILE" ] || exit 0

if command -v imv >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    imv "$FILE" &
    IMV_PID=$!

    (
        while kill -0 $IMV_PID 2>/dev/null; do
            FOCUSED_ID=$(niri msg -j focused-window | jq '.id' 2>/dev/null)

            IMV_WINDOW_ID=$(niri msg -j windows | jq ".[] | select(.pid == $IMV_PID) | .id" 2>/dev/null)

            if [ -n "$IMV_WINDOW_ID" ] && [ "$FOCUSED_ID" != "$IMV_WINDOW_ID" ]; then
                kill $IMV_PID
                break
            fi
            sleep 0.2
        done
    ) &

elif command -v xdg-open >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    xdg-open "$FILE" &
fi

ocr

Copy text from selected image file using tesseract.

Requires tesseract, tesseract-data-eng (or other languages), and wl-clipboard to be installed.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
FILE=$(echo -n "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" | head -n 1)
[ -n "$FILE" ] || exit 0

tesseract "$FILE" stdout -l eng | wl-copy

MIME_TYPE=$(file --mime-type -b "$FILE")

if [[ "$MIME_TYPE" == image/* ]]; then
    notify-send "OCR Complete" "Text from $(basename "$FILE") copied to clipboard."
fi

Setup Specialized Versions

Niri

I am currently using a Niri setup, these are the scripts specialized for the specific setup. They should work on your Niri setup too out-of-the-box or with some small adjustments. Refer to the: niri

Differences

Their window automatically close with this niri config:

window-rule {
    match app-id="imv"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.4; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.6; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="text-preview"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.4; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.6; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="ffplay"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.5; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.5; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="dev.ghostty.preview"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { proportion 0.4; }
    default-window-height { proportion 0.6; }
}

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Repository files navigation

nautilus-scripts

Usage

Scripts

open-terminal

preview

ffpreview

txtpreview

imvpreview

ocr

Setup Specialized Versions

Niri

Differences

About

Uh oh!

Contributors

Uh oh!

Languages

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 16 Commits
niri		niri
README.md		README.md
ffpreview		ffpreview
imvpreview		imvpreview
ocr		ocr
open-terminal		open-terminal
preview		preview
txtpreview		txtpreview

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

nautilus-scripts

Usage

Scripts

open-terminal

preview

ffpreview

txtpreview

imvpreview

ocr

Setup Specialized Versions

Niri

Differences

About

Resources

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Contributors

Uh oh!

Languages