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I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.04 (GNOME) and I'm just copying over certain files from my backup which is on a Windows computer. The backup includes:

  • A few scripts in /usr/bin
  • A number of websites in /var/www
  • A couple of startup scripts in /etc/init.d

I'm comfortable using the command line, but for this kind of one-off quick copy I'd rather use the GUI. I know I can gksudo nautilus but this is a bit cumbersome, loses any personal GNOME customisations, and keeps elevated privileges until the process is terminated.

What I'd like is that when I attempt a file copy that currently gives a permissions error, I get an option to temporarily elevate privileges. Can anyone help?

TIA

Andy

1 Answer 1

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Never heard about such thing. You could do this with checking the error message and then prompting for password. However this is a modification of Nautilus, not a simple addon, since I don't think Nautilus supports such addons. (Guess you could write this on a code freelancer page. You pay x$ if someone writes a nautilus fork with this feature. Well.. not a long term solution.)

Basically you could write a .sh script for the backup and run that with sudo, OR simply use sudo cp -R ... something like that. (Rsync?)

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  • Thanks, was hoping something already existed. I'm happy with command line-based approaches but was looking for a convenient GUI system for one-off unpredictable copies.
    – Andy
    Jun 4, 2010 at 17:48
  • One could write such an app easily... but... that would be really "FLOSS-like".. you know when they start an app , give out 0.1, let it die.
    – Apache
    Jun 4, 2010 at 19:34
  • not entirely with you?!
    – Andy
    Jun 4, 2010 at 20:03
  • You mean? :-/ ... (Seriously. If one can launch sudo cp or gksu , whatever, why would write an app? Why add MOAR bloat to the nautilus which is also "feel like sloooooow doooown"? Maybe if the permission problem would come in a way where we can intercept it with an app. (Means ALSO addig moar bloat to a system which is already slower than any other OS out there. Which we can't really let happen. (I'm an LXDE user/insider before you start thinking.. :))
    – Apache
    Jun 4, 2010 at 20:09
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    with you! I don't know if it could be gracefully handled with GNOME's architecture... but a feature like this doesn't have to be handled in a bloaty way... I reckon!
    – Andy
    Jun 4, 2010 at 20:55

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