Click to "Extract here" possible?

Question

For my work I constantly need to unzip zip-archives. I know I can right-click and select "Extract here", but since I do this a lot, this is becoming annoying.

Is there a way to set the default action when double clicking a zip (or any other archive) to "Extract here"?

All tips are welcome!

There is no way to set the double click action to default to "Extract Here". Double-clicking executes the "Open" action, and it defaults to a package manager for that. There's no way that I know of to change that default behavior. — Thomas Ward, Mar 12 '18 at 15:59
You might have more luck making a keyboard shortcut to do that. — wjandrea, Mar 12 '18 at 18:04

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 16 '21 at 10:06

8

It's much easier in 18.04! (I'm not sure since when this works)

In "Open With" set the application "Files" as default and that's it.

screenshot

Now when you right-click on the archive, "Extract Here" is the first entry in the context-menu and will be called on doubleclick.

screenshot

edited Apr 16 '21 at 10:06

froblesmartin

150
6

answered Oct 16 '18 at 11:09

P1zz4br0etch3n

98
1
3

1

Awesome, this was the comment I hoped for! – kramer65 Oct 16 '18 at 12:50
1

Ingenious. This should be the default out of the box. – Andreas Feb 19 '21 at 16:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 04 '18 at 20:43

Everything is possible on Linux!

Select a *.zip file with a right mouse click and go to properties. Instead of using a mouse, you can use Alt+Enter.

In the textbox, write file-roller -h¹. Select Add to list. In case you don't have it installed, use sudo apt install file-roller -y.

Then select file-roller and Set as default.

Now, file-roller is set as default. You can close the properties window. Now when you open a zip, it will be automatically decompressed for you. To do the same for *.tar.gz files (application/x-compressed-tar in general), skip adding file-roller to list as it's already there - only set as default.

Why does it work? Read the manual (man file-roller):

SYNOPSIS
   file-roller [OPTIONS...]  [FILE...]
OPTIONS
   -f, --extract
          Extract archives asking the destination folder and quit the program

   -h, --extract-here
          Extract archives using the archive name as destination folder and quit the program

¹ Some people prefer file-roller -f instead of -h to choose the destination folder.

See also Archive manager that extracts into new folder named after archive

Click to "Extract here" possible?

2 Answers2