RabbitVCS

Getting RabbitVCS to run on Thunar required me to create python bindings for the Thunar Extension Framework, but that is done now and the thunarx-python bindings are a reality.  I’m in the process of getting the source code hosted on Xfce’s git repository.

With RabbitVCS running on Thunar, we’re a small step closer to one of our big goals, which is to become file manager agnostic.

You can read my post on our mailing list about my trials and tribulations getting this all to work, but RabbitVCS on Thunar is a mixed bag.  On the one hand, I was able to get sub-menus working without having to patch Thunar, but on the other hand, there will be no emblem support for the foreseeable future.  However, one thing that Thunar has that Nautilus does not is a get_dnd_actions call, which asks plugins for menu items for when the user drags and drops an item into a folder. I haven’t implemented it yet, but in the near future this will allow you to move files around in your SVN repository via drag ‘n drop in Thunar.  Also not implemented yet is a property page that reports file status and ownership, etc.  All of that will be ready for the v0.13 release.

For now, I leave you with a short video of RabbitVCS running Thunar.

Get thunarx-python here: http://github.com/adamplumb/thunarx-python.  I’ve made a release, and you can get that in the Downloads section in github.  Currently, the only way to install the Thunar extension for RabbitVCS is to check out the latest code from SVN and run the development install.  Instructions for installing a thunarx-python plugin is available in the thunarx-python README file.  If you’re willing to brave the install, I’d love to hear your feedback!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Community, Status Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.