[SOLVED] Problem to create a folder in KDE 6.

[FrancoisVal]

Maybe I am blind but I wonder how it is possible to create a new folder now in KDE 6. If I click on "Create new", the list of all the folders of my home directory appears and there is a no choice to create a new folder. If I chose one of the folders and a name, a directory is created with a copy of the files in the original directory.
How is this possible ? Why such a basic operation has become so compilcated ?
Here is a link to a screenshot: https://pasteboard.co/eUxsPV6eogiW.png


Has anyone also noticed this ?
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François Valenduc

[rab0171610]

I cannot replicate this. In Dolphin, when selecting File > +Create New > and then clicking on the top item 'Folder . . . CTRL+SHIFT+ N' a dialog box pops up --
'Create New Folder - Dolphin'. There is a editable dialog box as well that uses the default folder name 'New Folder' that is highlighted allowing for editing of the new folder name. You can also do this by right clicking anywhere on the display pane and selecting create new from the context menu.

If you have a lot of directories/folders in the current directory, the top item in the context menu 'Folder . . . CTRL+SHIFT+N' may not be visible depending on your display resolution or scaling. Try creating the new directory in an empty directory ( or one that contains fewer to no items) and moving it to where you would like as a workaround.

You can also hit 'F4' to open a terminal in Dolphin at the current directory location and use 'mkdir <foldername>' to create the directory manually.

[steve_v]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=494679

TLDR: Set XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR to some empty directory (i.e. not $HOME)
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Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

[rab0171610]

Per that bug, you can change XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/" to XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="" in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs if the auto populating of the home directory is actually causing the sub-context menu entry 'Folder . . . CTRL+SHIFT+ N' to be obscured or demoted due to excessive number of items in the context menu. It will definitely reduce the size of the context menu on the screen and take up less space, hopefully bringing the +Create > Folder option into view if that is the cause.

[FrancoisVal]

Thanks for your help. Using the commit from https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/commit/c48a170cf87034ebf5aa3afce5982ce8b8de7a85 and putting it in /etc/portage/patches also solves the problem.
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François Valenduc

[dmpogo]

[rab0171610]

I don't really know what the Templates directory that is placed in the home directories after KDE Plamsa installation or upgrade is actually for. I don't use any kind of templates so I delete it. I can only assume in this context it works like the default naming scheme 'New Folder', 'New Folder1', 'New Folder2'. Instead you can name a folder similar to one that is already named by clicking the name of that directory in the context sub-menu of create a new folder, and then edit it slightly to distinguish. Otherwise it adds the numbers at the end automatically, 1, 2, 3 etc. 'Data', 'Data 1', 'Data 2'. Or one can add an identifying suffix, 'Data-Jack', 'Data-Jill', 'Data-Jeff' by editing the name in the dialog box that pops up when creating a new folder. That is purely conjecture on my part from testing the context menu to create new folders with template directory set to the home directory. Maybe a template would allow the default suffix of 1, 2, 3 to be changed to something more meaningful, i.e A, B, C, etc.. This would only be helpful if creating directories often or multiple directories, for say like alphabetizing music or videos into sub-directories.

[steve_v]

AFAIK it's supposed to contain files, e.g. a 'simple html.html' could contain some headers or whatever, and you'd see it as an option for create new -> simple html file.

Personally I wish the whole xdg_user_dirs concept would just die in a fire, I know where I keep my stuff and I don't need or want my home directory polluted with "well known" directories like "Music", "Pictures", "Documents", "Downloads" or any other such trash. I really have no use for "templates" either, for that matter.
The whole thing is just the usual pandering to pathologically indecisive and disorganised ex-windows/mobile-generation users who can't decide on a logical directory structure for themselves.
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Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

[dmpogo]

[sam_]

[steve_v]

Change yes, disable no. KDE for example will create all those directories at the default locations if the variables are unset, regardles of whether anything is using or ever will use them.
To me, XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR being unset means "I don't want an xdg templates directory, so don't create one". To KDE it means "You must be mistaken, I'll set it for you and mkdir a bunch of stuff you just rmdir'd".
Same goes for the rest, you can point your "Pictures" directory somewhere else, but you must have a directory for pictures, even if nothing actually uses it.

You could set them all to $HOME of course, but then stuff like the OP happens, and KDE claims it's a "distro problem, the variable is incorrectly set"... AKA freedesktop knows best, you can put your stuff wherever you like, but you must use the categories dictated by freedesktop.

I don't have any templates, why must I have a templates directory? I don't have any pictures or videos in my home dir either, so why must I assign directories for them? What's wrong with "save as -> select destination" anyway?
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Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

[rab0171610]

@steve,
I do not want a Templates directory either, esp in my home folder. My previous workaround, setting the Templates directory to "" , effectively null, instead of the home directory to avoid undesirable population in context menu lead to KDE Plasma updates recreating the Templates folder in my home directory, even though I had deleted it. Also, as you pointed out, the default Templates directory would be changed in settings to ~/Templates again. My thought now is to create an empty Templates directory in a hidden directory, such as ~./config/Templates and setting the default Templates directory to that. This should keep the directory from re-creating itself in my home directory every time I update KDE. The criteria for having a default Templates directory, even though it is of no use to me and distracting in Home, will have been met. Out of sight, out of mind.