XDG Extended Attributes guidelines include metadata about files that is supported on the file system level. Many programs attach this metadata to downloaded or produced files, and it would seem an essential feature for a file manager to provide a way to view and edit this metadata. In particular, these xattrs are of high relevance:
user.xdg.comment: supported by Dolphin and other file managers.
user.xdg.origin.url: for files downloaded from a url.
user.xdg.robots.index: "true" if a file is included in indexing, "false" otherwise
user.xdg.robots.backup: "true" if a file is included in backup, "false" otherwise
user.xdg.language
user.xdg.creator
user.xdg.publisher
user.xdg.origin.email.subject
user.xdg.origin.email.from
user.xdg.origin.email.message-id
Implementation:
Add viewer/editor when checking file properties and permissions.
Add columns when in list view showing tags, and other relevant XDG attributes.
Hi, the spec says âThese attributes are currently proposedâ, so calling them âan essential featureâ seems like quite a stretch. I donât think that a merge request that implements showing them would necessarily be dismissed, especially âcommentâ might be interesting to have, since Dolphin supports it, but as long as the spec is merely a proposal, I donât see any urgency for Files to support them.
It is an essential feature regardless of the standard. Just as a note, XDG isnât the only standard. Take a look on Dublin Core. Iâm saying itâs âessentialâ because file managers should tell you everything about files at least from the file system level. So just like it tells you about timestamps, ownership and permissions and allows you to edit them, it should also do the same for extended attributes.
Itâs not currently widely supported (E.g: Chromium browsers used to attach xdg.origin.url and xdg.referrer.url), but in general download managers like curl, wget, youtube-dl have --xattrs option.
Looking at the examples provided at the top post, I think user.xdg.origin.email.from and user.xdg.origin.url could be put to good use in the Downloads directory by displaying the origin source of the file.
So, I looked more into this in hopes to have a nice new feature.
The reality is, as I wrote in a previous thread, that the âuser.*â class of extended attributes doesnât have a success story to tell for almost two decades.
The information in the CommonExtendedAttributes page linked in the top post is very old and outdated. The fact it even mentions âBeagleâ signals its antiquity. It should probably have a warning âTHE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE IS OBSOLETE.â to avoid wasting everyoneâs time on a dead end.
It didnât gain traction at the time where filesystem-based metadata was a cool new thing. So, letâs be real: it wonât gain traction now.
gvfs-metadata being a local database makes it safer than xattrs which can be leaked when transferring the file elsewhere.
Unfortunately no other web browser does this. We could try to get epiphany on board.
Still, this being information thatâs not always present, a column in list view is probably not the right way to display it. Maybe a caption? Maybe a button which opens a popover (like search snippets)?
Doesnât matter, @antoniof. If you donât know what I was referring to with that quotation, you obviously didnât want what I expected you wanted. Apologies.