Question

11

How to create option to insert time stamp?

rated 0 times [ 11] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 3575 / 1 Year ago, thu, february 16, 2023, 9:58:14

While editing text documents I need to put time stamps frequently. I thought of automating it in 2 different ways. None of these seem to be working.

Using nautilus-actions

I set up a new right-context action which runs the command date|xclip

enter image description here

This right-context doesn't show up when I right click in other applications (such as terminal, or browser). Moreover when it appears, and I click on it, it doesn't do anything.

Using keyboard shortcut

I setup a new keyboard shortcut which is supposed to execute date command but doesn't.

enter image description here

Any pointers?

Thanks.

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ingwhin

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answered 1 Year ago azaaburge · Accepted Answer

GNOME keyboard shortcuts should work.

Here's why what you tried didn't work: Your keyboard shortcut runs the date command, but does nothing with the output (which just gets discarded). You should pipe it to xclip, as date | xclip to copy it to the X selection (not clipboard). Then you can paste it into your document by middle-clicking. If you want to be able to use Ctrl-V, instead use date | xclip -selection c to copy it to the actual clipboard.

Another alternative is to use xdotool to type the date directly into your document. Assign to your shortcut

xdotool type "$(date)"

Then, when you press the shortcut key, it will calculate the current date and type the characters it into your document.

For ISO 8601 format, use xdotool type "$(date --rfc-3339=s)".

If it doesn't work: Because these are shell commands (as opposed to executables), you might have to pass the command to bash when specifying them in your shortcut. Your command would then be:

bash -c 'xdotool type "$(date --rfc-3339=s)"'