Disable GTK "recently used files"

[s243a]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned or not but one way to disable this is to delete the folder that contains the file (I.e. ~/.local).

Maybe hasn't been mentioned because it doesn't work ?

It worked for me but it might depend on which programs are using it. Also prior to using any program which writes to this folder one could drop the permissions of said program (e.g. runasspot) so that said program can't write to the folder. However, don't run as spot. Run as a user without a home folder .

[MochiMoppel]

recently-used.xbel is created in whatever directory the environment variable XDG_DATA_HOME is assigned to.
In my Puppy XDG_DATA_HOME is set to /root/.local/share, so the file location becomes ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/recently-used.xbel.

Removing /root/.local/share can prevent the saving of recently-used.xbel , but only as long as no other program recreates it. Parcellite is such a program. Parcellite doesn't care about XDG_DATA_HOME, it has this directory hard coded and creates it when it doesn't exist.

[s243a]

recently-used.xbel is created in whatever directory the environment variable XDG_DATA_HOME is assigned to.
In my Puppy XDG_DATA_HOME is set to /root/.local/share, so the file location becomes ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/recently-used.xbel.

Removing /root/.local/share can prevent the saving of recently-used.xbel , but only as long as no other program recreates it. Parcellite is such a program. Parcellite doesn't care about XDG_DATA_HOME, it has this directory hard coded and creates it when it doesn't exist.

What if you set XDG_DATA_HOME=/dev/null

[MochiMoppel]

What if you set XDG_DATA_HOME=/dev/null

Brutal, but works.
However symlinking /root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel to /dev/null would not work

If you only want to prevent certain applications to access the .xbel file you can redefine XDG_DATA_HOME before executing the application, e.g this will start geany with a disabled .xbel file:

Code: Select all

XDG_DATA_HOME=/dev/null geany

Not surprisingly a barrage of error messages will follow:

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(geany:6698): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at `/dev/null/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/dev/null/recently-used.xbel': Not a directory.

(geany:6698): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to store changes into `/dev/null/recently-used.xbel', but failed: Failed to create file '/dev/null/recently-used.xbel.VCML6Z': Not a directory

(geany:6698): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to set the permissions of `/dev/null/recently-used.xbel', but failed: Not a directory

[s243a]

What if you set XDG_DATA_HOME=/dev/null

Brutal, but works.
However symlinking /root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel to /dev/null would not work

If you only want to prevent certain applications to access the .xbel file you can redefine XDG_DATA_HOME before executing the application, e.g this will start geany with a disabled .xbel file:

Code: Select all

XDG_DATA_HOME=/dev/null geany

Not surprisingly a barrage of error messages will follow:

Code: Select all

(geany:6698): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at `/dev/null/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/dev/null/recently-used.xbel': Not a directory.

(geany:6698): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to store changes into `/dev/null/recently-used.xbel', but failed: Failed to create file '/dev/null/recently-used.xbel.VCML6Z': Not a directory

(geany:6698): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to set the permissions of `/dev/null/recently-used.xbel', but failed: Not a directory

Maybe redirect standard error to some kind of error filter function. For instance such a function could remove the offending lines with a statement like:

Code: Select all

 grep -v recently-used.xbel

[MochiMoppel]

Maybe redirect standard error to some kind of error filter function.

???
These warnings are good!. They can tell you if and how applications try to use the .xbel file. This is valuable information, don't redirect it. At least not yet.

[perdido]

recently-used.xbel is created in whatever directory the environment variable XDG_DATA_HOME is assigned to.
In my Puppy XDG_DATA_HOME is set to /root/.local/share, so the file location becomes ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/recently-used.xbel.

Removing /root/.local/share can prevent the saving of recently-used.xbel , but only as long as no other program recreates it. Parcellite is such a program. Parcellite doesn't care about XDG_DATA_HOME, it has this directory hard coded and creates it when it doesn't exist.

What if you set XDG_DATA_HOME=/dev/null

Or this

Code: Select all

export XDG_DATA_HOME=/tmp/

Interesting discussion.