Nautilus Hide/Remove Star Column

[tekstryder]

I installed Nautilus 45.2, and I cannot see a way to hide or disable the star column in List View.

To ensure a default configuration state before running nautilus 45.2, I:

• Removed these three directories:

~/.config/nautilus
~/.local/share/nautilus
~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata

• Fully reset defaults recursively in org.gnome.nautilus

I then configured only the columns I wish to display, and confirmed the settings thusly:

$ gsettings get org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-visible-columns
['name', 'size', 'type', 'owner', 'permissions', 'date_modified']

However, I’m still seeing the star column for all folders/subfolders and files in my home (~/).

How to I prevent the star column from displaying?

[antoniof (António Fernandes)]

There is no star column.

(Technically, it may be implemented as a column, but that’s a technical detail).

[Don-Keehotee]

@antoniof

There is no star column.

It looks like a column (it’s displayed as a column, alongside, and separate from, other columns), and acts like a column (it’s actionable by its column header being selectable, and for manipulating sorting order), so it passes the Duck Test as a column.

@antoniof

(Technically, it may be implemented as a column, but that’s a technical detail).

Pedantry aside, if it is “technically” referred to by a different term, please use that term.

Back to the question at hand… how do we prevent this thing from displaying?

[antoniof (António Fernandes)]

@Don-Keehotee

acts like a column (it’s actionable by its column header being selectable, and for manipulating sorting order)

That’s a bug. It shouldn’t act like a column.

[antoniof (António Fernandes)]

So, I’m sorry for the misleading behaviors, but this is not a column and, therefore, it’s not supposed to be configurable like columns are.

[tekstryder]

@antoniof

That’s a bug. It shouldn’t act like a column.

Thanks, I will file a bug report if this column should not exist.

I tried to upload a screencast of this, but it seems only picture formats are supported.

See below for the star column being selectable and sortable:

[tekstryder]

@antoniof

There is no star column.

@antoniof

So, I’m sorry for the misleading behaviors, but this is not a column and, therefore, it’s not supposed to be configurable like columns are.

It sure looks oddly intentional in the current nautilus source.

It’s even referred to as the “star column” and star_column.

/* always show star column if supported */
    if (nautilus_tag_manager_can_star_contents (nautilus_tag_manager_get (), location) ||
        g_file_has_uri_scheme (location, SCHEME_STARRED))
    {
        g_hash_table_insert (visible_columns_hash, g_strdup ("starred"), g_strdup ("starred"));
    }

else if (g_strcmp0 (name, "starred") == 0)
        {
            g_signal_connect (factory, "setup", G_CALLBACK (setup_star_cell), self);

            gtk_column_view_column_set_title (view_column, "");
            gtk_column_view_column_set_resizable (view_column, FALSE);

            self->star_column = view_column;
        }

Been many years since I worked with C. Maybe I’ll poke around and see if I can rip out this unwanted functionality.

[tekstryder]

@antoniof

Technically, it may be implemented as a column

@tekstryder

Maybe I’ll poke around…

Oh my stars haha… turns out this only required trivial modifications!

I built nautilus 45.2.1 with just a couple changes to enable the star column as an option in the snazzy new column picker:

Rather than disable the functionality completely, this is even better, as it can always be toggled on/off:

I’ll file an issue (and MR if desired) for this. Does that sound good @antoniof?

All the validation checks passed successfully when building and packaging (for Arch LInux):

ninja: Entering directory `/build/nautilus/src/build'
[1/125] Generating config.h with a custom command
 1/14 validate-desktop                               OK               0.03s
 2/14 validate-desktop-autorun-software              OK               0.03s
 3/14 validate-appdata                               OK               0.02s
 4/14 test-file-utilities-get-common-filename-prefix OK               0.02s
 5/14 test-eel-string-get-common-prefix              OK               0.02s
 6/14 test-file-operations-dir-has-files             OK               0.02s
 7/14 test-nautilus-search-engine-model              OK               0.02s
 8/14 test-file-operations-trash-or-delete           OK               0.03s
 9/14 test-nautilus-search-engine-tracker            OK               0.29s
10/14 test-file-utilities                            OK               0.42s
11/14 test-nautilus-search-engine                    OK               0.52s
12/14 test-nautilus-search-engine-simple             OK               0.51s
13/14 test-file-operations-move-files                OK               0.84s
14/14 test-file-operations-copy-files                OK               1.69s

Ok:                 14  
Expected Fail:      0   
Fail:               0   
Unexpected Pass:    0   
Skipped:            0   
Timeout:            0

EDIT: Also, the “Starred” bookmark still functions, even when the star column is not displayed:

[tekstryder]

I filed an issue for this:

Unable to hide Star column (#3214) · Issues · GNOME / Files · GitLab

[tekstryder]

@tekstryder

I filed an issue for this.

Well, no luck with that route. The issue was closed as ‘Expected Behavior’.

I do not use the star system. As such, I’ll simply maintain my patched local version for now.

While at it, I also removed the Starred entry from the bookmarks/places sidebar.

Even less clutter now:

I didn’t remove any functionality of the Star system, and can still enable the Star column to use stars.

Hopefully a future version of Nautilus will provide a toggle to enable/disable the star icons in List View.

Wrapping up this thread by returning to the original question posed:

@tekstryder

How to I prevent the star column from displaying?

Answer(s):

1. You don’t
2. Build a patched local version