Restoring open tabs between xed sessions

[Amandaville]

Is there any way to restore open tabs between xed sessions? I keep 8 to 10 documents open in tabs for reference and updates through the day, and I have to reopen each of them on every restart. An option or a plugin to do this would be extremely useful.

[stefanoful]

HI,
I would also like to keep the files open, even those NOT SAVED ...

[jpcusumano]

Agreed. Remembering tabs is the only major thing missing from xed right now, at least given how I use it, which is mostly for sysadmin stuff. It's nice having the most commonly needed system files pop up by default every time I start geany. Something similar under xed would be awesome. I'm using version 1.8.2 under Mint 19.

Version 1.8.3 on Mint 19 here.

I concur. I'm migrating from Notepad++ on Windows and TextEdit on Mac OS and, both of which have this feature. While I'm still looking around at various text editor options, I'm pretty fond of the straightforwardness of xed thus far. The ability to reopen my files at application start would be great and move xed more into my regular rotation.

[FatBirdie]

How is this coming along?

[smokielad]

I need this so much :-)

[FredGandt]

I was also frustrated to find that my opened files were not remembered by xed, and found myself here as I searched for an answer. I look forward to xed having this functionality as standard, but in the meantime, I thought a not horrible workaround might prove helpful to others finding their way here as I did.

1. Create a .sh file ("edit.sh" for example) in the directory containing the files you wish to remember as a session. You can put the .sh file somewhere else, but it's simpler this way IMO
2. Open the file in a text editor e.g. xed
3. Add #!/bin/bash on the first line
4. Add xed path/to/file.ext another/path/to/file2.ext file3.ext etc. on the next line
5. Save the .sh file
6. Check the file's properties>permissions>allow-executing-file-as-program
7. Double click the .sh file and choose "Run"

The space separated named files (appropriate encoding required for file names) will be opened in xed, in the tabbed order listed in the command; for example:

xed index.php styles.css functions.js utils/more-functions.js will open xed with 4 tabs containing "index.php", "styles.css" and "functions.js" from the directory containing the .sh file, and "more-functions.js" from the "utils" subdirectory, in that order.

A slightly more sophisticated solution that works when run as or from a symlink:

Should still be placed in the directory containing the files to open. Easier to edit.

#!/bin/bash

# List files, with relative paths, to open
files_to_open=(
	file1.php
	file2.js
	subdir/file.php
	sub/subdir/file.js
)

# Establish the real path to this script (in case its run from a symlink)
my_real_path=$( realpath $0 )

# Establish the real home of this script (in case its run from a symlink)
my_real_home=$( dirname $my_real_path )

# Create an array to populate with the files_to_open with their absolute path prepended
# and populate it with this file (so the file that opened the others is also opened)
files_with_paths=( $my_real_path )

# For each file to open, prepend the absolute path to it and add it to files_with_paths
for f in ${files_to_open[@]}; do
	files_with_paths+=( ${my_real_home}/$f )
done

# Command xed to open the files
xed ${files_with_paths[@]}

[Fromax]

Could this be done with a plugin?

[dhrn]

any update on this guys?

Thanks

[icarter09]

@dhrn I kinda got sidetrack with life and other Mint things, but focused back now on getting this functionality implemented.

[dmitry]

Dozen of times I lost information from xed, because xed killed for some reason or power cutoff (I don't have ground power at the moment in the house I live; so UPS doesn't help in such situations).

[FredGandt]

@dmitry The loss of changes made to files, due to power cut or crashes, is not the subject of this issue, which is about xed remembering which files were open when we closed xed, so the next time we open it, those files are automatically opened where we left off. I think it would significantly confused this issue, if we begin adding requirements for auto-saves and crash (for whatever reason) rescue, and you might be better served to either find a more suitable current issue, or create one.

[MMalakhov]

So it's been 2 years, and there is no such basic feature like restore the last session. Amazing support!

[Amandaville]

I gave up on waiting and moved on to Featherpad when I switched to xfce, and I couldn't be happier. Featherpad always reopens with the same documents that we're open last time.