How to change context menu in "linux"
I want code to right click context menu on a file and if it is a .mp4, then convert that to a .mp3 of the same name
also include an option to play faster by +25 +33 +50 or slower by -25 -33 -50 (in a sub menu)
I understand this is different depending on your system, so answer how to do it for the people who use the same system as you
Step 1) Install a file manager...
Are you using GNOME or KDE? I know those can definitely utilize shell scripts from the right click menu. I'd recommend grabbing FFMPEG (probably already have it) and SOX. You are going to need to create a pretty basic shell script that extract the audio as a wav using FFMPEG, changing the speed with SOX (you can use FFMPEG but I find the audio warping dog shit), then FFMPEG to convert to mp3. For both GNOME and KDE the context menu shortcuts typically only pass the path to file you have selected as an argument. So you'll need to create a script for each speed. Honestly, it's not gonna be easy. You might find something in the Dolphin (kde filemanager) settings that will enable some basic context menu scripts for converting video to mp3. If this is too intimidating then I would check github for an FFMPEG wrapper. It's the a/v swiss army knife in linux.
some desktop environments and window managers have built in functionality to do this through something like config files or a gui config.
the intentionally "simplified" or "streamlined" alternatives (ie gnome) requires more involvement and runs at a gradient between simple kde like config file at one extreme end, to full on source modification at the other extreme end.
if something like this was a common thing for me; i would go with an environment that makes the bells and whistles available to you as the default option, like kde.
Even if a file manager doesn't have this feature, you can probably get around that by adding a new .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications that accepts specific MIME type and runs a script on "opened" files.
that's the beautiful thing about linux; so many way to accomplish a goal and it you can do it at any experience level.
the best part is that all of it is free and your solution is easily shareable through things like social media and source code repositories where people with more experience can improve upon your idea further. if your idea is REALLY good, it will become mainstream.
I've often said the perfect GNOME utility applet is a blank window titled "Gnothing" with a button in the top bar that says "never mind", while the ideal KDE utility applet is the instrument panel of an Apollo CSM crashed at an oblique angle into the Chernobyl control room labeled "text viewer." And Cinnamon usually sits somewhere between those two extremes.
Which file browser are you using?
In the Cinnamon desktop, there's a directory in ~/.local/share/nemo/actions. Navigate to this directory in Nemo file manager and a message will appear across the top, it has a built-in tutorial as to how to do this. You create a short config file with a .nemo_action that defines what an action does, what context it appears in, what text it displays, what icon it displays etc. and the command to run when chosen.
It's been about a year since I've messed with this, but IIRC if it's set up to fire with one or more files selected, it will pass the file names to the command as arguments. You can configure it to run on exactly one, one or many, or specifically plural files. A thing I did a lot was allow it to take multiple files and then iterate across the variables in a for loop, so say I used pandoc to convert .docx files to .pdf, I could highlight 50 of them, click one option and it would churn through all of them.
I'm not going to build the script for you, but the first approach that occurs to me would be to write a shell script that calls ffmpeg to do the conversion, get that to where it works when you invoke it from the terminal, then write a .nemo_action file to fire it from the GUI.
As for the playback speeds...I'm not sure how to get that done. If you mean "take this .mp4 and make an .mp3 out of its audio that is 25% faster" I think what would happen there is you'd write a little GUI pop-up window, I would do it in Python with either a GTK or QT module, that would open up to ask parameters before passing that back to the main script to do the work.
Wow thanks I will try this cinnamon destop
Good luck! Hope it does what you want it to!
You got me curious, so I looked it up.
This isn't a "let me google that for you", it's an "I'm joining you on this journey".
https://develop.kde.org/docs/apps/dolphin/service-menus/
(KDE)
Looks like you drop a .desktop file into ~/.local/share/kio/servicemenus.
Name the file extensions, write your Exec= line, fill in a couple other details like what icon to use and what it should be called in the right-click menu, save it, and you're done.
I imagine it's similar in xfce.
Looks like Thunar has a "Custom Actions" feature under the Edit menu where you can get the same result.
Can I just say something? I personally view (almost) anything that involves editing configuration files by hand as an opportunity for the Linux community to implement a GUI.
You're absolutely right, I'm surprised that xfce (or Thunar anyway) has a GUI for it and KDE doesn't.
KDE might and I just didn't find it in the search results.
Pull request time!
Editing a config file takes a few seconds. Implementing a GUI takes hours of unpaid labor, and depending on the case the UX in the end might be almost identical.
Thanks for volunteering yourself and your own time to this endeavor.