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Accepted
engr_john
Asked: 2019-07-09 00:57:34 +0800 CST

How do I clean up desktop containing shortcuts of Home directory?

  • 772

There are several sub-folders from Home directory which appear as shortcuts on the Desktop. If I remove them "Move to Trash" then they also remove from Home directory.

How to remove shortcuts only from Desktop ?

user---:~$ ls -l ~/ Desktop
ls: cannot access 'Desktop': No such file or directory
/Home/sivxx/user---/:
total 372
-rwx------  1 user--- -----    402 Sep  2  2013 desktop.ini
drwx------  3 user--- -----   4096 Jul  9 15:30 Downloads
-rw-------  1 user--- -----   3311 Nov 12  2018 key_file
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----    742 Nov 12  2018 key_file.pub
drwxr-xr-x  5 user--- -----   4096 Jul 11 14:49 Linux
drwx------  2 user--- -----   4096 Jul 20  2018 mail
drwx------  3 user--- -----   4096 Sep  2  2013 Music
drwx------  3 user--- -----   4096 Mar  5  2018 Pictures
drwx------  2 user--- -----   4096 Sep  2  2013 $RECYCLE.BIN
drwx------ 12 user--- -----   4096 Sep  2  2013 Settings
drwx------  3 user--- -----   4096 Sep  2  2013 Videos
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   1157 Jul  8 16:43 vivado_19045.backup.jou
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   2224 Jul  8 16:43 vivado_19045.backup.log
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----    904 Jul 10 12:20 vivado_22453.backup.jou
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   1604 Jul 10 12:20 vivado_22453.backup.log
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----    733 Jul 10 12:26 vivado_22944.backup.jou
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   1433 Jul 10 12:26 vivado_22944.backup.log
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----    733 Jul 10 12:40 vivado_24077.backup.jou
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   1433 Jul 10 12:40 vivado_24077.backup.log
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   1393 Jul  9 13:30 vivado_4099.backup.jou
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   2658 Jul  9 13:30 vivado_4099.backup.log
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----    732 Jul 11 14:45 vivado.jou
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   1507 Jul 11 14:53 vivado.log
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----  19358 Jul  8 16:16 vivado_pid14694.str
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- ----- 202004 Mar 16  2018 vivado_pid16512.str
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   7949 Jul  8 16:43 vivado_pid19045.str
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   5900 Jul 10 12:20 vivado_pid22453.str
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   4644 Jul 10 12:26 vivado_pid22944.str
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----   4720 Jul 10 12:42 vivado_pid24077.str
-rw-r--r--  1 user--- -----  11673 Jul  9 13:31 vivado_pid4099.str
drwxr-xr-x  7 user--- -----   4096 Jul 10 15:57 VivadoProjects
drwx------  3 user--- -----   4096 Jun  1  2018 WINDOWS

Here is the output of cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs:

enter image description here

home-directory files delete

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    They aren't shortcuts but they are the actual files. ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs is a file which contain details about the default user folders. It looks it was somehow messed up. Lets fix it up.

    1. Create the deleted folders.

      mkdir Desktop Templates Public Documents

    2. Fix ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs file

      • Open terminal and run

        gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

      • Append correct paths of folder in front of respective folder name so that it looks like

        XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

        and save the file using Ctrl+S.

    3. Now navigate to Desktop to see if it's empty (since the folders are created recently and no file was added to that).
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