xdg-desktop-menu — command line tool for (un)installing desktop menu items
xdg-desktop-menu
install [--noupdate
] [--vendor
] { vendor-id
--user
| --system
} { desktop-file
| menu-file
| directory-file
}
xdg-desktop-menu
uninstall [--noupdate
] [--vendor
] { vendor-id
--user
| --system
} { desktop-file
| menu-file
| directory-file
}
xdg-desktop-menu
forceupdate { --user
| --system
}
xdg-desktop-menu
{ --help
| --manual
| --version
}
The xdg-desktop-menu program can be used to install new items to the desktop's application menu.
The application menu works according to the XDG Desktop Menu Specification at http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/menu-spec
Install applications or submenus into the desktop menu system.
desktop-file
:
Installs the *.desktop file indicated by desktop-file
to the menu system. A desktop file represents a single application in the menu.
Desktop files are defined by the freedesktop.org Desktop Entry
Specification. The most important aspects of *.desktop
files are summarized below.
menu-file
:
Installs the *.menu file indicated by menu-file
to the menu system. A menu file describes the location and contents for
one or more new submenus. Each submenu must reference a *.directory file.
directory-file
:
Installs the *.directory file indicated by directory-file
to the menu system. A directory file provides the name and icon for a submenu.
--noupdate
option.
--noupdate
--vendor
vendor-id
vendor-id
as a prefix when installing desktop
and directory files.
--user
--system
--help
--manual
--version
An application item in the application menu is represented by a
*.desktop file. A *.desktop file consists of a
[Desktop Entry] header followed by several
Key
=Value
lines.
A *.desktop file can provide a name and description for an application
in several different languages. This is done by adding a language
code as used by LC_MESSAGES in square brackets behind the
Key
. This way one can specify different
values for the same Key
depending on the
currently selected language.
The following keys are often used:
Application Name
Generic Name
Comment
Icon File
Command Line
Categories
Mimetypes
For a complete oveview of the *.desktop file format please visit http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/desktop-entry-spec
An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:
1
2
3
4
The company ShinyThings Inc. has developed an application named "WebMirror" and would like to add it to the application menu. The company will use "shinythings" as its vendor id. In order to add the application to the menu there needs to be a .desktop file with a suitable Categories entry:
webmirror.desktop: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Type=Application Exec=webmirror Icon=webmirror Name=WebMirror Name[nl]=WebSpiegel Categories=Network;WebDevelopment;
Now the xdg-desktop-menu tool can be used to add the webmirror.desktop file to the desktop application menu:
xdg-desktop-menu install --system --vendor shinythings ./webmirror.desktop
Note that for the purpose of this example the menu items are available in two languages, English and Dutch. The language code for Dutch is nl.
In the next example the company ShinyThings Inc. wants to add its own submenu to the desktop application menu consisting of a "WebMirror" menu item and a "WebMirror Admin Tool" menu item.
First the company needs to create two .desktop files that describe the two menu items, this time no Categories item is needed:
webmirror.desktop: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Type=Application Exec=webmirror Icon=webmirror Name=WebMirror Name[nl]=WebSpiegel webmirror-admin.desktop: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Type=Application Exec=webmirror-admintool Icon=webmirror-admintool Name=WebMirror Admin Tool Name[nl]=WebSpiegel Administratie Tool
The files can be installed with:
xdg-desktop-menu install --system --noupdate --vendor shinythings ./webmirror.desktop xdg-desktop-menu install --system --noupdate --vendor shinythings ./webmirror-admin.desktop
Because multiple items are added the --noupdate
option has been used.
In addition a .directory file needs to be created to provide a title and icon for the sub-menu itself:
webmirror.directory: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Icon=webmirror-menu Name=WebMirror Name[nl]=WebSpiegel
This webmirror.directory file can be installed with:
xdg-desktop-menu install --system --noupdate --vendor shinythings ./webmirror.directory
The *.desktop and *.directory files reference icons with the names webmirror, webmirror-admin and webmirror-menu which should also be installed. In this example the icons are installed in two different sizes, once with a size of 22x22 pixels and once with a size of 64x64 pixels:
xdg-icon-resource install --system --size 22 ./wmicon-22.png webmirror.png xdg-icon-resource install --system --size 22 ./wmicon-menu-22.png webmirror-menu.png xdg-icon-resource install --system --size 22 ./wmicon-admin-22.png webmirror-admin.png xdg-icon-resource install --system --size 64 ./wmicon-64.png webmirror.png xdg-icon-resource install --system --size 64 ./wmicon-menu-64.png webmirror-menu.png xdg-icon-resource install --system --size 64 ./wmicon-admin-64.png webmirror-admin.png
The last step is to provide a .menu file that links it all togther:
webmirror.menu: <!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 0.8//EN" "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/menu-0.8.dtd"> <Menu> <Menu> <Name>WebMirror</Name> <Directory>shinythings-webmirror.directory</Directory> <Include> <Filename>shinythings-webmirror.desktop</Filename> <Filename>shinythings-webmirror-admin.desktop</Filename> </Include> </Menu> </Menu>
The webmirror.menu file can be installed with:
xdg-desktop-menu install --system --noupdate --vendor shinythings ./webmirror.menu
After installing multiple files with --noupdate
make sure
to force an update:
xdg-desktop-menu forceupdate --system