Question
What steps can be taken to clear Inkscape's recent file history (clearing File > Open Recent) ?

Problem
Inkscape is displaying a list of files under File > Open Recent. When any file is selected an incorrect file appears in Inkscape. Normally software packages include a "Clear History" option. But it seems this release does not. Inkscape's Preferences did not reveal how to clear this list or how to modify the default number of files.

Information
Inkscape version: 0.48.2 r9819
Operating System: GNU/Linux Ubuntu 11.10 Unity desktop

Any further information available upon demand.

There should be a file called .recently-used.xbel in your home directory. Deleting this should clear Inkscape's recent history, but may also clear the recent history for some other applications, such as GIMP. It's an XML file, so if you know what you're doing you can selectively delete the Inkscape parts.

sas wrote:There should be a file called .recently-used.xbel in your home directory. Deleting this should clear Inkscape's recent history, but may also clear the recent history for some other applications, such as GIMP. It's an XML file, so if you know what you're doing you can selectively delete the Inkscape parts.

Thanks, sas. A bit of rummaging turned up a file called

~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel

It does in fact contain a great deal of references. So, for the time being, it is renamed recently-used.xbel.irritating pending Inkscape's loading of several different files in order to determine if it can load correctly from its past history.

Update forthcoming.

UPDATE:

Something appears to be broken with my edition of Inkscape. After opening several SVG files, closing them and attempting to open anything after the first entry in the "recent" list, Inkscape simply opens the first entry regardless what is selected.

It might be fixed by deleting Inkscape's settings folder in the home directory. The only problem is: there's no obvious .Inkscape directory to be found.

Attempted Solution
Uninstalled Inkscape along with configuration files (according to Synaptic Package Manager).

Status
Failed. Inkscape was re-installed with the same problem.

It's not a major issue. While the recent history list is convenient, the file locations are known. Thanks for the assistance.

BobSongs wrote:Something appears to be broken with my edition of Inkscape. After opening several SVG files, closing them and attempting to open anything after the first entry in the "recent" list, Inkscape simply opens the first entry regardless what is selected.

This is not an Inkscape bug - it's a known and fairly widespread conflict between 'GtkRecentChooserMenu' and the AppMenu used e.g. by Unity under Ubuntu:
Bug #752674 in Application Menu Indicator: “GtkRecentChooserMenu always selects first entry”

BobSongs wrote:It might be fixed by deleting Inkscape's settings folder in the home directory. The only problem is: there's no obvious .Inkscape directory to be found.

Since the release of Inkscape 0.47, the user preferences are stored in '~/.config/inkscape' (before, it used to be ~/.inkscape).

BobSongs wrote:Question
What steps can be taken to clear Inkscape's recent file history (clearing File > Open Recent) ?

If the borken 'Open Recent' menu under Ubuntu Unity is irritating, you can disable it by setting

• File > Inkscape Preferences > Interface > Maximum documents in Open Recent'

to zero.

You'll also notice a button to clear the list. It will not delete the 'recently-used.xbel' file itself - which is shared among many GTK+ applications: AFAICT this 'Clear' button only affects the menu in Inkscape, but not the 'Recently used' list in the file dialog (under Places). This list of recently used files in the file dialog is reported to be still functional, even under Unity.


Alternatively, you could switch to the Gnome desktop

Ahhh, ~suv, I was hoping you'd come along. Thanks, your insight is most refreshing. I believe I will give Gnome3 a run to see if it solves the issue.

Thanks for the response. Your up-to-date knowledge of such issues is invaluable.

=)