Thunar, since version 1.6, has started using the gvfs-metadata daemon to store metadata. The metadata is stored in ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata, however you can't read it from the files (it's stored in some binary format I think). In order to read metadata you use the gvfs-info command like this:
gvfs-info -a metadata:: /some/location
Which will print out the metadata of /some/location.
If you want to change metadata you can use the gvfs-set-attribute command like this:
gvfs-set-attribute /some/location -t stringv metadata::mdtype value
/some/location is the location of the file/folder whose metadata you want to edit, -t stringv tells the command to expect string input, mdtype sets the type of metadata you want to change (e.g. emblems) and new value sets value as the metadata for mdtype. For example:
gvfs-set-attribute Downloads -t stringv metadata::emblems emblem-default
Gives the Downloads folder the default emblem.
Set the value to none to remove emblems. You will have to restart the file manager to see the changes.
I wrote a small script that allows you to change the emblem of more than one folder/file at a time:
run() {
cd # make sure we're in the home directory
echo 'What emblem do you want to apply?'
read emblem
if ! [ -z $emblem ]; then
for i in $@
do
echo 'Changing stuff...'
$(gvfs-set-attribute $i -t stringv metadata::emblems $emblem)
done
echo 'Done!'
else
echo 'Emblem must be specified! Exiting...'
exit
fi
}
init() {
if [[ -z $@ ]]; then
echo "No arguments provided"
else
run $@
fi
}
init $@
Sources:
~/.cacheis a hidden file you know.. – Seth♦ Jan 21 '14 at 19:58~/.cache/Thunar/doesn't even exist. Not even after adding an emblem to a file in Thunar. I have Thunar version 1.6.3 installed. – Remco Haszing Jan 21 '14 at 20:22