Automatically builds a GNOME Files (Nautilus) RPM with type-ahead functionality for Fedora Linux.

✨ The resulting RPM is available for download under Releases for Fedora 39/40 (Workstation/Silverblue).

The default behavior on Nautilus nowadays is to type to search, i.e., to start a search when typing a character. This package simply applies a pre-existing patch developed by the community to restore the type-ahead functionality, i.e., browsing/navigating on key press, the default behavior on many file managers.

The new functionality may be toggled on the Preferences window (Search on type ahead):

To install the package on Fedora Workstation, use the following command:

dnf swap nautilus ./nautilus-typeahead-*.rpm

This will replace one package with the other and avoid file conflicts.

To layer the package on Silverblue, use the following command:

rpm-ostree install --force-replacefiles ./nautilus-typeahead-*.rpm

The installed version will be replaced and type-ahead functionality will be enabled. Restart your machine in order to boot into the updated deployment.

Simply run the script to install prerequisites with dnf and build Nautilus:

bash build-nautilus-typeahead-rpm.sh

Note: on Silverblue, run the command above inside a toolbox to avoid the need to layer the required dependencies on your base system.

A new file nautilus-typeahead-*.rpm will be created by the end of the process.

After building the RPM file, you may remove any installed dependencies with:

dnf history undo $(dnf history list --reverse | tail -n1 | cut -f1 -d\|)

The command above will undo the changes made on the last dnf execution.

• ❓ For more information on the issue, please check the corresponding ticket (one of many) on GitLab.

• ❤️ Thanks to all contributors responsible for developing and maintaining the type-ahead patch to restore this functionality to Nautilus!

• Contributor (original patch code): Jan de Groot [email protected]
• Contributor (original package maintainer): Ian Hernández [email protected]
• Contributor (updated Xavier's patch for 43.2): Bryan Lai [email protected]
• Contributor (updated Xavier's patch for 44.1): DragoonAethis [email protected]
• Contributor (fix for backspace going to parent folder): Jeremy Bicha [email protected]
• Contributor (current patch code): Xavier Claessens [email protected]
• AUR maintainer: Albert Vaca Cintora [email protected]
• PPA maintainer: Lubomir Brindza [email protected]