Enforce copying instead of moving to preserve the files in original locations

Zbigniew · 06-12-2020, 12:53 PM

Is it possible to set constraints on folder to not move files to it (only copy)?
I want to create a temporary RAM disk and protect files from other locations against moving them to RAM disk. Similar behaviour is applied when moving files between drives - files are copied. When moving inside the same drive, files are moved from source folder to other one. I want to allow only copying files to RAM disk.

syg00 · 06-12-2020, 06:42 PM

Seems you are in the habit of using a GUI file manager to handle your files. In which case that behaviour may be customisable - or not, will depend on the file manager. Personally I'd use rsync or cp - when you're in control, you are in control.

I note you appear to have no intention to copy updated files back to the original location - do you not care ?. These days there is little advantage in using RAMdisk rather than tmpfs.

Zbigniew · 06-13-2020, 01:17 PM

Hi syg00,
Thank you for your response and apologize for not being specific enough.

Yes, mostly I use Nemo to handle the files. Do you know how to set described behaviour in Nemo on Cinnamon? Do you think it may be set somewhere in GUI settings or it might be necessary to edit configuration files (which ones)? Frankly speaking, I didn't see that option. Where should I look for it?

Saying RAM disk I mean virtual file storage located in RAM memory, not ramfs specifically. I use tmpfs as I can set the size limit to avoid potential errors ('disk full' error is better than crash when all memory is used).

I do not plan to copy files back to their source locations. I want to use RAM disk (tmpfs) as temporary 'Upload' folder for browser run from different user profile. I described what I want to achieve in dedicated topic: Run program with GUI and sound as a different user. This thread has been created separately as it might be useful for others.

michaelk · 06-13-2020, 03:29 PM

You can disable the move action ( i.e. right click menu) at /usr/share/nemo/actions/. You should be able to create a new action to copy files to just your tmpfs filesystem. Same thing can be done for copying if you only want to allow copying files to RAM.

I don't if this works or even still possible but you might be able to disable nemo shortcuts key for moving/copying by creating a user configuration file.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=264754

If you need to limit terminal commands you can create an alias or your own functions.

Zbigniew · 06-14-2020, 12:51 PM

Hi michaelk,
Thank you for advice. I found that RAM disk (tmpfs) is treat like other drive and files are copied to it (that is what I want), anyway I tried to set a rule for educational purposes. ;-)

I created a file copying-instead-of-moving.nemo_action in /usr/share/nemo/actions with the same permissions as other files there have. Inside the file I wrote:

Code:

Name=Copy instead of move
Active=true
Comment=Prevent moving files into test folder
Exec=cp %P/* /home/testuser/Documents/test/
Icon-Name=system-run-symbolic
Selection=Any
Extensions=Any

Unfortunately, it does not work. When I dragged and dropped files to test folder, files were moved, not copied. I tried also with the followings

Code:

Exec=cp %P/* /home/testuser/Documents/test/*
Exec=cp * /home/testuser/Documents/test/
Exec=cp * /home/testuser/Documents/test/*
Exec=<cp %P/* /home/testuser/Documents/test/>
Exec=<cp %P/* /home/testuser/Documents/test/*>
Exec=<cp * /home/testuser/Documents/test/>
Exec=<cp * /home/testuser/Documents/test/*>

also with no success. After each modification I restarted Cinnamon (Ctrl+Alt+ESC), just in case.

Parameters for Nemo actions I found on sample.nemo_action.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?