nemo: Move file when dragging

[WhyNotHugo]

When I drag a file, most of the time it's copied instead of moving.

I never want this behaviour; if I drag a file, I mean to move it.

I tried pressing shift, alt or ctrl. The behaviour never changes, the file is always copied.

In some rare situations, I notice that files are moved instead of copying, but this seems to be the exception rather than the norm.

How can I force nemo to always move a file when I drag it from one directory to another.

[Axel-Erfurt]

shift + drag works for me to move files.

[cplittlfield]

Copying is the default behavior if you are dragging from one device to another. If you are dragging from one folder to another on the same device, the default is to move the item, not to copy it..

The reason for the default in the former case is that moving a file from one device to another is inherently risky. If the file is important, the copy should be verified before the original is deleted. In the event that you don't care about your data, the original files remain highlighted in the source directory. I know it's a real drag (so to speak 😄 ) to have to actually hit the Delete key, but such is life.

When dragging between folders on the same device, however, moving is the default because there is no risk, since only the directory entry is being moved; the data on disk remain untouched. Much less can go wrong.

You might like to check out the mv and cp commands in the terminal. There, move is always move and copy is always copy, regardless of source or destination.

[WhyNotHugo]

Thanks for explaining this. Pedantic correction: is seems that the behaviour changes if they’re different mount points, not just different devices. Two mount points on the same device also copy when dragging. A big downside of this behaviour is how incredible opaque it is. Until you explain it to me, or would never have occurred that the behaviour changed based on this property. I’d imagine that to most people it just seems arbitrary and unpredictable. Is it possible to disable this “smart” behaviour and just consistently “move on drag”?

The reason for the default in the former case is that moving a file from one device to another is inherently risky.

I’ve never heard this before; in what way is moving a file risky? I’ve never had any issues with `mv`.

I know it's a real drag (so to speak 😄 ) to have to actually hit the Delete key, but such is life.

I mean this in a polite, not hostile way: If you think this is annoying behaviour, why implement it? Side note: Delete doesn’t work for me; only shift+delete works. I have to use the `trash` cli command if I want to trash files.

[cplittlfield]

Pedantic correction: is seems that the behaviour changes if they’re different mount points, not just different devices. Two mount points on the same device also copy when dragging.

I never noticed this; I'll have to check it out.

Is it possible to disable this “smart” behaviour and just consistently “move on drag”?

Not to my knowledge. But you could check the options available in dconf.

I’ve never heard this before; in what way is moving a file risky? I’ve never had any issues with mv.

Moving a file from one device to another is a two-step process: the copying of the data and the deletion of the original. It's more complicated to implement than you might think, and it is possible for a power failure, say, to put you in a position where you no longer have either the original or a copy. So for data files that you care about, copy-first-and_then-delete has always been the recommended strategy. That's all. Of course, today's equipment is faster and more reliable, so the problem is less frequent, but that's the logic behind Nemo's behaviour. Note, however, that the mv command doesn't worry about any of this; it just copies and deletes in one go.

I mean this in a polite, not hostile way: If you think this is annoying behaviour, why implement it?

Sorry, I was being snarky. Ignore that remark. I don't actually find this behaviour of Nemo's to be a problem; I think it's exactly right, since holding down the Shift key while dragging gives the desired result in those cases when moving is really what I want. But I don't mind copying and then deleting the original as a separate step.

Side note: Delete doesn’t work for me; only shift+delete works. I have to use the trash cli command if I want to trash files.

That's not right. Go to Nemo > Edit > Preferences > Behavior and check the settings under "Trash". Also go to Preferences > Context Menu and make sure "Move to Trash" is checked.

If editing the preferences doesn't make the Delete key work properly, you might try removing Nemo and deleting your ~/.local/share/nemo directory and all its contents (there might be something in there causing trouble). Then re-install Nemo. Nemo will simply create its configuration files again when you re-install it. Good luck!

[WhyNotHugo]

> Is it possible to disable this “smart” behaviour and just consistently “move on drag”? > Not to my knowledge. But you could check the options available in dconf.

There doesn't seem to be any :(

> I’ve never heard this before; in what way is moving a file risky? I’ve never had any issues with `mv`. > Moving a file from one device to another is a two-step process: the copying of the data and the deletion of the original. It's more complicated to implement than you might think, and it is possible for a power failure, say, to put you in a position where you no longer have either the original or a copy.

If there’s a power failure before the operation completes, the original will still be in place. The original will only be deleted _after_ the copy operation completes. You're basically doing a "move" operation manually. I'd like the file manager to do that for me. That's been the usual convention when dragging a file for decades now.

So for data files that you care about, copy-first-and_then-delete has always been the recommended strategy. That's all. Of course, today's equipment is faster and more reliable, so the problem is less frequent, but that's the logic behind Nemo's behaviour. Note, however, that the *mv* command doesn't worry about any of this; it just copies and deletes in one go.

I don't really know what you mean by "copies and deletes in on go". `mv` copies the file first, and then deletes it. See mirror here: https://github.com/brgl/busybox/blob/master/coreutils/mv.c

> I mean this in a polite, not hostile way: If you think this is annoying behaviour, why implement it? > Sorry, I was being snarky. Ignore that remark. I don't actually find this behaviour of Nemo's to be a problem; I think it's exactly right, since holding down the Shift key while dragging gives the desired result in those cases when moving is really what I want. But I don't mind copying and then deleting the original as a separate step.

Copying multi-gigabyte files can take tens of minutes. It's kinda annoying when halfway through I realised that nemo decided to copy instead of move, because I have to pinpoint exactly which files were copied in order to remove the origin once the operation is done.

> Side note: Delete doesn’t work for me; only shift+delete works. I have to use the `trash` cli command if I want to trash files. > That's not right. Go to Nemo > Edit > Preferences > Behavior and check the settings under "Trash". Also go to Preferences > Context Menu and make sure "Move to Trash" is checked.

There's no "Move to Trash" option here. Right clicking on a file also doesn't show a "Trash" option.

If editing the preferences doesn't make the Delete key work properly, you might try removing Nemo and deleting your *~/.local/share/nemo* directory and all its contents (there might be something in there causing trouble). Then re-install Nemo. Nemo will simply create its configuration files again when you re-install it. Good luck!

~/.local/share/nemo only has my nemo_action files.