Empty Files don't show in SideBar - File Browser

[acpadhi]

Expected behaviour

Should show all files that are in a folder.

Actual behaviour

Files sized 0 Bytes don't show up in the list. This affects when creating a new empty file also, and it tells The New File is curently filtered out. Not sure where the filter settings are, I could not locate it in preferences.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

Create a New file in File Browser or Browse a folder where 0 byte files are there, and it will now show those empty files.

MATE general version

Running this on Manjaro KDE

Package version

Pluma 1.28.0

Linux Distribution

Manjaro

Link to bugreport of your Distribution (requirement)

[Bob-A-Dook]

This issue is probably caused by a combination of two factors:

1. Pluma marking empty files as binary instead of text
   (due to them having the MIME type application/x-zerosize instead of text/plain);
2. Pluma filtering out binary and hidden files by default.

Workarounds

Luckily, Pluma's filters can be changed via Gsettings. If you want to create new files through Pluma's interface, and don't mind non-text files showing on the list, you could use this command:

gsettings set org.mate.pluma.plugins.filebrowser filter-mode 'hidden'

(Closing and reopening Pluma might be necessary for changes to take effect. To switch back, use 'hidden_and_binary' instead of 'hidden').

I've verified that this fixes the issue and makes it possible to create new files through Pluma.

Root cause and potential fixes

Note: this is all based on reading the code. I don't know C too well, haven't compiled Pluma and can't confirm it at the moment. Treat it as a hypothesis.

The code checking whether a file is a text file is in pluma-file-browser-store.c. A file is considered textual if it meets any of the three criteria:

if (!content ||
    g_content_type_is_unknown (content) ||
    g_content_type_is_a (content, "text/plain"))
	node->flags |= PLUMA_FILE_BROWSER_STORE_FLAG_IS_TEXT;
	}

In the case of empty files, content (which is actually the MIME type) exists, is not unknown, and is not equal to text/plain. So they fail all three checks and are marked as non-text, or binary.

Then, if the filters set in Pluma are instructed to exclude binary/non-text files (and they are in the default 'hidden_and_binary' mode), files marked as binary are filtered out. They don't show up on the list and attempting to create them leads to an error message.

The error could probably be fixed by adding a fourth criterion to the “file textuality check” mentioned above, by changing the line:

g_content_type_is_a (content, "text/plain"))

to:

g_content_type_is_a (content, "text/plain") ||
g_content_type_is_a (content, "application/x-zerosize"))

If anyone wants to verify the solution and send a PR if it works – feel free :)