Don't show "Encrypt..." or "Sign" in context menus by default

Bug #393645 reported by David Siegel
12
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
One Hundred Papercuts
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
seahorse-plugins
New
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

When I right-click on certain files in Nautilus (e.g. pdfs), I get "Encrypt..." and "Sign" options in the context menu. These seem like very advanced things to do with a file. Shouldn't these options be enabled with a non-main Nautilus plugin, just like the "Open Terminal here" option?

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
milestone: none → round-9
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Martin Albisetti (beuno) wrote :

I think this should be dropped as well. The feature doesn't work for me, and the amount of options is intimidating. Maybe allow to enable them from a settings menu?

Revision history for this message
David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount) wrote : Re: [Bug 393645] Re: Don't show "Encrypt..." or "Sign" in context menus by default

Martin is correct, these items don't seem to work by default.

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

I'm unable to reproduce this in Karmic Default install.

But if things are to be simplified, Moving the "Encrypt" , "SIgn" , "Send to" a submenu Labeled "Extra/More/Advanced Options" , would be easier.

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

Shortcut menus, aka context menus, are for quick access by advanced users to the most common operations on the selected object. The more items a context menu has, the less likely you will remember which items are available, and the less likely the menu will open in the down-and-right direction you expect, making them slower to use. And context menus should not contain submenus, for the same reasons squared.

Encrypt and Sign are not common operations, so while they should be present in the main menus (which they are), they should not be present in the context menu.

If there is a situation where the commands don't actually work, that should be reported as a separate bug. (They work for me, but my system is heavily customized.)

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

Maybe I wasnt clear previously : the options encyrpt and sign dont exist in the default install .

Revision history for this message
David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Great, it does appear to be fixed. Will keep an eye on this though.

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: Incomplete → Fix Committed
milestone: round-9 → round-2
Revision history for this message
Kurt von Finck (mneptok) wrote :

Personally, I find these options in the context menu to be most valuable, and use them frequently. I'd like to see them enabled only when ~/.gpg is present. This allows non-GPG savvy users to be ignorant of the functionality, while those that have actually created GPG keypairs to have easy access to the useful shortcuts.

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

@Kurt von Finck:
You are right, that would be a correct method to implement this.

But, I'm not able to find the options to Encrypt/Sign *anywhere* in Karmic,even after adding pgp keys
I'm beginning to believe that this is more of a bug, where those 2 context menu items are not displayed at all.
Or could someone enlighten me, as to where is should look for these options in Karmic?

Revision history for this message
Chris Jones (cmsj) wrote :

mac_v's point is, I think, the most saliant here. It's one thing to remove the context menu items because they are confusing to new users, but the net result is that you've *entirely* removed any ability to sign/encrypt files graphically. We use this feature for non-technical users to sign SSH keys for access to SFTP servers - forcing them to use a terminal will be a significant usability regression in an already confusing process.

It would seem like the presence of valid GPG private keys would be sufficient to unhide these items (and that's a subtly different predicate to Kurt's "when ~/.gpg is present"), but if they are to remain hidden then there should be options somewhere else, perhaps in the Properties of a file (although that feels like an unnatural fit). Is there a simple tool for encrypting/signing files which could be installed by default and appear in the Open With submenu?

Revision history for this message
Chris Jones (cmsj) wrote :

I should have held off for a moment on posting my comment. I'm investigating this on a Karmic install and AFAICS the menu options are provided by a nautilus plugin in the seahorse-plugins package which is in Universe. Is that as a result of this bug, or does it invalidate it?

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

@Chris Jones:
You are right, the seahorse plugin add the context menu items.
The Seahorse Plugins were part of the *Main Repo in Jaunty* .

But they have been *moved to the Universe in Karmic* .

Not sure if it is still a papercut.

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

Chris, by "they should be present in the main menus (which they are)", I was referring to the "Edit" > "Encrypt" and "Edit" > "Sign..." menu items. If those aren't present for you after you install the plug-in, report a bug about the plug-in.

Revision history for this message
Rich Jones (richwjones) wrote :

They aren't there by default?! This is a really horrible decision! This is taking away some of Ubuntu's best functionality, a feature I use everyday, for a problem which doesn't actually exist! Has anybody ever actually reported this? Or just this bug report because somebody think it "looks advanced"? This is crippling, please don't do it!

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

@Rich Jones: Pls read the comments, especially comment #4,
Could you explain why it is essential to have them for all the users, who do not use them Daily?

The menu items *will be present* once you install the seahorse-plugin. So users who use this feature frequently still have this option.

Revision history for this message
David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

What is the confusion here? The encrypt and sign menu entries are used by less than 1% of users, and furthermore they do not work unless configured, so they have been removed from context menus by default. Users who want to be able to right-click on files to sign or encrypt them simply do:

# apt-get install seahorse-plugins

And the sign and encrypt actions will be added to right-click menus. Why is this controversial?

Revision history for this message
Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse) wrote :

> The encrypt and sign menu entries are used by less than 1% of users

Really? How did you measure that? I'm not saying that it is incorrect, but all the Ubuntu users that I know do use it regularly. I accept that "One Hundred Paper Cuts" is for non-advanced users, but Ubuntu does still have quite a technical user-base.

> simply do:
> # apt-get install seahorse-plugins

A lot of the paper cuts could be solved by typing something into a terminal, but that doesn't make them any less of an issue. Presumably people could have typed:
apt-get remove seahorse-plugins
to "fix" this before.

I use this option a lot. I think that comment 7 is by far the best approach - whatever statistics you make up, a good number of people who have a ~/.gnupg folder are likely to want these options.

I understand that this has now been "fixed". Which approach was taken?

Revision history for this message
David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Aaron, in Karmic, the seahorse-plugins package is no longer installed by default so "Encrypt" and "Sign" are not shown in the menu.

You are right about using apt to remove seahorse-plugins, although users who would benefit from the removal of those entries are less likely to know the package name (and about apt, or using a terminal, or using sudo) than users who are familiar with those features and want them.

Revision history for this message
D3xter (andreas-sinz) wrote :

A new Meta-Package (with a meaningful name) in "Add/Remove" would be nice, so new Users who wants to encrypt their Files can easily install it.

Vish (vish)
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Davide Riboli (davideriboli) wrote :

Landed here googling why "Encrypt" and "Sign" are not shown in the menu.

My two cents about: "The encrypt and sign menu entries are used by less than 1% of users" and similar.

It's a bad idea and I think it's against the "Ubuntu deep meaning".

Privacy is really important but nobody cares. Who doesn't know "Encrypt" and "Sign" could discover the meaning of them just because they are there.

If this is absolutely done, I quote D3xter: meta-package in "Add/Remove" would be nice.

Revision history for this message
Rich Jones (richwjones) wrote :

Where did that 1% number come from?

Revision history for this message
Davide Riboli (davideriboli) wrote :

@ Rich Jones: was in comment #15, but don't know exactly why.

By my side, I totally agree with Aaron Whitehouse.

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