Automatically unzip a file using "inoticoming" in Ubuntu

Submitted by sysop on Sun, 05/21/2023 - 22:42

To automatically unzip a file as soon as it is downloaded on Ubuntu, you can use the inoticoming tool, which allows you to monitor a specific folder for incoming files and perform actions on them. Here's a step-by-step guide to setting it up:

  1. Install inoticoming: Open a terminal on your Ubuntu machine. Run the following command to install inoticoming:
    sudo apt-get install inoticoming
  2. Create a Folder for Incoming Files: Decide on a folder where the downloaded files will be placed. For example, let's use ~/Downloads/incoming as the incoming folder. Create the folder by running the following command:

    mkdir -p ~/Downloads/incoming
  3. Write an Unzip Script: Create a script that will handle the unzipping of the downloaded files. For this example, let's assume you want to unzip ZIP files.
    Open a text editor and create a new file. For instance, you can use the following command:

    nano ~/unzip_script.sh
  4. In the text editor, add the following content to the script:
    #!/bin/bash
    cd ~/Downloads/incoming
    unzip "$1"

    Save and exit the text editor (Ctrl + X, followed by Y and Enter).

  5. Set up inoticoming: Open a terminal and run the following command to start monitoring the incoming folder and execute the script whenever a new file is detected:

    inoticoming ~/Downloads/incoming ~/unzip_script.sh {}

    That's it! Now, whenever a new ZIP file is downloaded and placed in the ~/Downloads/incoming folder, the unzip_script.sh script will be triggered, and the file will be automatically extracted. You can modify the script to handle other archive formats or perform additional actions as needed.