Set a specific file manager for org.freedesktop.FileManager1.ShowItems

Question

The following command opens a file manager to show the directory.

dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.FileManager1 --print-reply \
 --type=method_call /org/freedesktop/FileManager1 \
 org.freedesktop.FileManager1.ShowItems array:string:"file:///path/to/your/directory" string:""

The problem is that the default file manager seems to be random. My guess is the last updated file manager, because it changed after a file manager was updated. Also, when a file manager is already running, it uses that file manager.

Instead of letting dbus-send determine which file manager to use, if I know which file managers are installed, can I set a specific file manager, like Nemo?

Answer 1

dbus-daemon does not officially support multiple .services being set up to be activatable with the same bus name; it basically chooses one at random, and that is likely to change on every boot.

• One way to make this work is have the file manager permanently run in background if it has such a mode (e.g. Nautilus does). That's how the org.freedesktop.Notifications service is provided by desktop environments – they do not rely on autostart (bus activation) but explicitly start the appropriate notification daemon as soon as you log in.

• Another way is to send the bus message to a different --dest=. The file manager will usually have not only the generic bus name but also its own "branded" bus name, e.g. Thunar is also available at org.xfce.Thunar; you can list them using busctl --user or d-spy/d-feet.

  When a service has multiple names, it doesn't matter which name you send the D-Bus message to – they're all resolved to the same bus address (unique name) – so you can specify --dest=org.xfce.Thunar without changing anything about the rest of the command (i.e. specifically no change in the object path or the interface name).

  gdbus call -e -d org.xfce.Thunar \
                -o /org/freedesktop/FileManager1 \
                -m org.freedesktop.FileManager1.ShowItems \
                "['file:///etc/passwd']" \
                "''"
  
  busctl call --user org.gnome.Nautilus \
                    /org/freedesktop/FileManager1 \
                    org.freedesktop.FileManager1 \
                    ShowItems ass 1 file:///etc/passwd ""
  

• The third way is to set up your package manager to not install the .service files for file managers which you don't want to be bus-activatable. Go through /usr/share/dbus-1/services and remove the ones you don't want.

  For example, on Arch Linux you could use NoExtract= in /etc/pacman.conf; on Debian you could dpkg-divert the unwanted files.