NAME
desktop-file-install, desktop-file-edit - Installation and edition of desktop files SYNOPSIS
desktop-file-install [dir=DIR] [-m MODE|mode=MODE] [vendor=VEN‐
DOR] [delete-original] [rebuild-mime-info-cache] [EDITOPTION]... FILE...
desktop-file-edit [EDITOPTION]... FILE DESCRIPTION
The desktop-file-install program is a tool to install, and optionally
edit, desktop files. The desktop-file-edit program is a tool to edit a desktop file. They are mostly useful for developers and packagers. Various options are available to edit the desktop files. The edit options can be specified more than once and will be processed in the same order as the options passed to the program.
desktop-file-install and desktop-file-edit will always try to validate the resulting desktop file. A failure to validate might lead to the abortion of the installation of the desktop files. The list of registered categories and desktop environments is defined in the Menu specification: http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifica‐
tions/menu-spec. OPTIONS The following options are supported: dir=DIR Install desktop files to the DIR directory.
-m, mode=MODE Set the permissions of the destination files to MODE. vendor=VENDOR Add a vendor prefix to the desktop files. If a file already has this prefix, nothing happens; else, the file will be named VEN‐
DOR-FILE. For example: if VENDOR is freedesktop.org and FILE is
specification.desktop, the result file will be freedesktop.org- specification.desktop.
delete-original Delete the source desktop files, leaving only the target files. Effectively "renames" the desktop files.
rebuild-mime-info-cache Rebuild the MIME types application database after installing the
desktop files. See update-desktop-database(1) for information about this database. EDIT OPTIONS The following edit options are supported:
set-key=KEY
Set the KEY key to the value passed to the next set-value
option. A matching set-value option is mandatory.
set-value=VALUE
Set the key specified with the previous set-key option to
VALUE. A matching set-key option is mandatory.
set-name=NAME Set the name (key Name) to NAME. If a name was already set, it will be overridden. Localizations of the old name will be removed.
copy-name-to-generic-name Copy the value of the Name key to the GenericName key. Note that a desktop file requires a Name key to be valid, so this option will always have an effect.
set-generic-name=GENERIC-NAME
Set the generic name (key GenericName) to GENERIC-NAME. If a generic name was already set, it will be overridden. Localiza‐ tions of the old generic name will be removed.
copy-generic-name-to-name Copy the value of the GenericName key to the Name key, if the GenericName key is present.
set-comment=COMMENT Set the comment (key Comment) to COMMENT. If a comment was already set, it will be overridden. Localizations of the old comment will be removed.
set-icon=ICON Set the icon (key Icon) to ICON. If an icon was already set, it will be overridden. Localizations of the old icon will be removed.
add-category=CATEGORY Add CATEGORY to the list of categories (key Categories). If CAT‐
EGORY was already present in the list, this operation is a no-
op. A non-registered category should be prefixed with X-.
remove-category=CATEGORY Remove CATEGORY from the list of categories (key Categories). If
CATEGORY was not present in the list, this operation is a no-op.
add-mime-type=MIME-TYPE
Add MIME-TYPE to the list of MIME types (key MimeType). If MIME-
TYPE was already present in the list, this operation is a no-op.
remove-mime-type=MIME-TYPE
Remove MIME-TYPE from the list of MIME types (key MimeType). If
MIME-TYPE was not present in the list, this operation is a no- op.
add-only-show-in=ENVIRONMENT Add ENVIRONMENT to the list of desktop environments where the desktop files should be displayed (key OnlyShowIn). If ENVIRON‐
MENT was already present in the list, this operation is a no-op.
A non-registered desktop environment should be prefixed with X-. Note that an empty OnlyShowIn key in a desktop file means that the desktop file will be displayed in all environments.
remove-only-show-in=ENVIRONMENT Remove ENVIRONMENT from the list of desktop environments where the desktop files should be displayed (key OnlyShowIn). If ENVI‐
RONMENT was not present in the list, this operation is a no-op.
add-not-show-in=ENVIRONMENT Add ENVIRONMENT to the list of desktop environments where the desktop files should not be displayed (key NotShowIn). If ENVI‐
RONMENT was already present in the list, this operation is a no-
op. A non-registered desktop environment should be prefixed with
X-. Note that an empty NotShowIn key in a desktop file means that the desktop file will be displayed in all environments.
remove-not-show-in=ENVIRONMENT Remove ENVIRONMENT from the list of desktop environments where the desktop files should not be displayed (key NotShowIn). If
ENVIRONMENT was not present in the list, this operation is a no- op.
remove-key=KEY Remove the KEY key from the desktop files, if present. ENVIRONMENT
Some environment variables change the behavior of desktop-file-install: DESKTOPFILEVENDOR This variable can be used as an alternative to the vendor option. If the vendor option is used, this environment vari‐ able will be ignored. DESKTOPFILEINSTALLDIR This variable can be used as an alternative to the dir option. If the dir option is used, this environment variable will be ignored. RPMBUILDROOT This variable is set when building RPM packages. If the dir option and the DESKTOPFILEINSTALLDIR environment variable are not used, it will automatically be prepended to the default install directory to install the desktop files appropriately when building packages. BUGS
If you find bugs in the desktop-file-install program, please report these on https://bugs.freedesktop.org. SEE ALSO
desktop-file-validate(1) update-desktop-database(1)
FREEDESKTOP.ORG DESKTOP-FILE-INSTALL(1)