Developer Guide

This extension is designed for the Nemo File Manager.

It provides additional columns in the List View related to the Git status of files.

This guide is for developers who want to understand, modify, and test the Nemo Git Integration actions and extensions.

Project Structure

.
├── icons/                 # PNG icons and README for visual enhancements
├── nemo/                 # Contains .nemo_action files for context menu integration
│   └── actions/          # Each file corresponds to a specific Git operation
├── nemo-git-integration/ # Backing scripts grouped by CRUD-like categories
│   ├── s01-create/       # Scripts for repo creation (init, clone, branch)
│   ├── s02-read/         # Scripts for reading repo state (status, log, fetch)
│   ├── s03-update/       # Scripts for updating (pull, add, commit, push)
│   └── s04-delete/       # Scripts for undoing changes (reset, uninit, etc.)
├── nemo-python/ # Python extension columns and helpers
│ └── extensions/
├── tests/                # Bats-compatible test scripts for integration logic
├── makefile              # Install/uninstall .nemo_action files
├── LICENSE               # Licensing information
└── README.md             # This documentation

Installation for Development

  1. Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/wilsonify/nemo-git-integration.git
cd nemo-git-integration
  1. Install dependencies (system + Python):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git zenity nemo-python python3-pip bats
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip pytest
  1. Install the Nemo actions and extensions:
make install
  1. run the tests 
    make test          # Runs Bats tests in `tests/`
  2. Python Tests (Nemo extension)
cd nemo-python
export PYTHONPATH=$PWD/extensions
pytest tests/

Script Development Guidelines

Scripts are organized by CRUD-like categories:

  • s01-create: init, clone, branch
  • s02-read: status, log, fetch
  • s03-update: pull, add, commit, push
  • s04-delete: reset, uninit, unbranch

Scripts use Zenity for dialogs;

you can mock zenity in tests:

export PATH="$TEST_DIR:$PATH"
echo '#!/bin/bash' > "$TEST_DIR/zenity"
echo 'echo "[Zenity Mock] $@" >&2' >> "$TEST_DIR/zenity"
chmod +x "$TEST_DIR/zenity"

Caching of branch state uses ~/.cache/nemo_git_*.

Nemo Extension Development

Python scripts in nemo-python/extensions/ define columns for Git repo, Git branch, and Git status.

Use PYTHONPATH to include extensions/ for testing.

from gi.repository import Nemo, GObject
  • Nemo.ColumnProvider
  • Nemo.InfoProvider
  • Nemo.NameAndDescProvider

nemo source code

Running in CI (GitHub Actions)

Set Git user/email to avoid commit errors in temporary repos:

git config --global user.name "CI Runner"
git config --global user.email "ci@example.com"

Debugging

Run Nemo with debug flags:

NEMO_DEBUG=Actions,Window nemo --debug

capture Zenity logs with:

export ZENITY_LOG=~/zenity_debug.log

Contributions are welcome! If you want to contribute to this project, follow these steps:

  1. Open an Issue so that it can be discussed in the open.
  2. Fork this repository.
  3. Create a new branch for your feature
  4. Make your changes
  5. commit them
  6. Push them
  7. Submit a pull request from your remote into my remote

Testing

Scripts under tests/ use Bats for shell testing. Each test corresponds to a script under nemo-git-integration/.

make dev # installs bats
make test # bats tests/*

Run Nemo in Debug Mode

see nemo –help for more details

NEMO_DEBUG=Actions,Window nemo --debug

Action Syntax Cheatsheet

Some useful nemo_action stuff to help understand the code

%P: This placeholder represents the full path to the directory containing the selected file or folder. This ensures that the command navigates to the correct directory before executing the Git command.

%F: This represents the full path to the selected file.

%N: This represents the filename without the path, useful for commit messages.

valid Selection(s)

s: Action is available when only one item is selected.

m: Action is available when multiple items are selected.

a: Action is available when one or more items are selected.

f: Action is available when files are selected.

d: Action is available when directories are selected.

You can combine these values to create more specific conditions. For example:

af: Action is available when one or more files are selected.

ad: Action is available when one or more directories are selected.

adf: Action is available when one or more directories or files are selected.

Explanation

“$1” is the path to the current directory (%P in .nemo_action).

”$@” handles the selected files (%F in .nemo_action).

Uses zenity –question to confirm reset, which is destructive.

Aggregates errors to show at the end if anything failed.