Given that I started this thread, and now Alexander Schwinn on Gitlab XFCE
project
has found what he thinks is the cause, and is seeking both a workaround and
upstream
fix. Problem apparently arises in glib somewhere, which then gets used in
various
file managers. Quoting:
Alexander Schwinn commented:
Thank you! I can reproduce the difference to ls -rtl via thunar master
Here is a simplified reproducer:
mkdir test
touch test/194P
touch test/196A
touch test/20P
ls test
194P 196A 20P
thunar: 196A 194P 20P
thunar_file_compare_by_name uses collated strings to compare filenames, which
is done by utf8_collate_key_for_filename.
I think at least for glib based file managers (nautilus, nemo, caja, thunar, pcmanfm) the
reason for the weird result is some "automatic smartness":
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/1344#note_1652000
In a nutshell, what the filename sorting does is to break the names into
segments that are either words or numbers, and compare the words
alphabetically, and the numbers numerically. That is why leading zeros are
ignored.
So it numerically compares 196, 194 and 20 and sorts the files in that order.
And it looks like it's desired like that by glib 🙁
So actually not a thunar issue. Beast either comment your concrete use-case on
the existing issue, or create a new one. I will close this issue.
(I once wanted to provide a fix for it, see comments below the issue, though I
did not have the time to further look into it)
Since there is a constant stream of complaints regarding that weird utf8_collate_key_for_filename
call (#68 (closed), #1015 (closed)), I will open a dedicated thunar issue, to possibly implement a
workaround, so that people can choose between "automatic smartness" and "plain
sorting".
Anyway, I'll stick to Double Commander or Krusader or mc or command line for
now, but will
watch to see if there are fixes in a while.
Cheers, John Nash
On 2025-06-30 15:07, Eric Marceau via linux wrote:
As I said in my earlier e-mail, I think the filename sort logic is skewed.
|<<< behaviour reflects sub-string cutoff for number sort
logic
|
200410 PeterFrohn95thBirthday02withFamily.jpg
19460904PeterFrohnwedding01.jpg
19460904 PeterFrohnwedding02.jpg
19460904 PeterFrohnwedding03.jpg
19460904 PeterFrohnwedding04.jpg
19460926 AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters01.jpg
19460926 AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters02.jpg
19460926 AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters03.jpg
19460926 AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters.jpg
200410 < 19460904
🙁
On 2025-06-29 21:00, Nash JC - NCF via linux wrote:
Indeed. Worth a watch.
However, I've still no idea why the files
19460904PeterFrohnwedding01.jpg
19460904PeterFrohnwedding02.jpg
19460904PeterFrohnwedding03.jpg
19460904PeterFrohnwedding04.jpg
19460926AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters01.jpg
19460926AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters02.jpg
19460926AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters03.jpg
19460926AlphonseFrohnmarriesReneev.Seters.jpg
sort after 200410PeterFrohn95thBirthday02withFamily.jpg
in a number of file managers. I'm guessing something like Beattie is presenting.
Erics suggestion that the preferences might be adjustable doesn't seem to offer
any help. I'm of the opinion that the presentation order counts as a bug unless
someone can offer a clear reason (and presumably a workaround). Fortunately,
Double Commander does a nice job!
Cheers, JN
On 2025-06-29 18:18, Dianne Skoll via linux wrote:
On Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:41:36 -0400
Nash JC - NCF via linux <[email protected]> wrote:
yyyymmdd files seem to be at end in many file managers
Sorting is not as easy as it might seem, nor is plain text. This video
by Dylan Beattie is long, but IMO worth watching...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5uJ7Nlvvo
Regards,
Dianne.
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