User Commands XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)
NAME
xdg-desktop-icon - command line tool for (un)installing
icons to the desktop
SYNOPSIS
xdg-desktop-icon install [--novendor] FILE
xdg-desktop-icon uninstall FILE
xdg-desktop-icon {--help --manual --version}
DESCRIPTION
The xdg-desktop-icon program can be used to install an
application launcher or other file on the desktop of the
current user.
An application launcher is represented by a *.desktop file.
Desktop files are defined by the freedesktop.org Desktop
Entry Specification. The most important aspects of *.desktop
files are summarized below.
COMMANDS
install
Installs FILE to the desktop of the current user. FILE
can be a *.desktop file or any other type of file.
uninstall
Removes FILE from the desktop of the current user.
OPTIONS
--novendor
Normally, xdg-desktop-icon checks to ensure that a
*.desktop file to be installed has a vendor prefix.
This option can be used to disable that check.
A vendor prefix consists of alpha characters ([a-zA-Z])
and is terminated with a dash ("-"). Companies and
organizations are encouraged to use a word or phrase,
preferably the organizations name, for which they hold
a trademark as their vendor prefix. The purpose of the
vendor prefix is to prevent name conflicts.
--help
Show command synopsis.
--manual
Show this manualpage.
--version
Show the xdg-utils version information.
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DESKTOP FILES
An application launcher can be added to the desktop by
installing 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:
Value=1.0
This is a mandatory field to indicate that the
*.desktop file follows the 1.0 version of the
specification.
Type=Application
This is a mandatory field that indicates that the
*.desktop file describes an application launcher.
Name=Application Name
The name of the application. For example Mozilla
GenericName=Generic Name
A generic description of the application. For example
Web Browser
Comment=Comment
Optional field to specify a tooltip for the
application. For example Visit websites on the Internet
Icon=Icon File
The icon to use for the application. This can either be
an absolute path to an image file or an icon-name. If
an icon-name is provided an image lookup by name is
done in the user's current icon theme. The
xdg-icon-resource command can be used to install image
files into icon themes. The advantage of using an
icon-name instead of an absolute path is that with an
icon-name the application icon can be provided in
several different sizes as well as in several
differently themed styles.
Exec=Command Line
The command line to start the application. If the
application can open files the %f placeholder should be
specified. When a file is dropped on the application
launcher the %f is replaced with the file path of the
dropped file. If multiple files can be specified on the
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command line the %F placeholder should be used instead
of %f. If the application is able to open URLs in
addition to local files then %u or %U can be used
instead of %f or %F.
For a complete oveview of the *.desktop file format please
visit
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/desktop-entry-spec
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
xdg-desktop-icon honours the following environment
variables:
XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL
Setting this environment variable to a non-zero
numerical value makes xdg-desktop-icon do more verbose
reporting on stderr. Setting a higher value increases
the verbosity.
EXIT CODES
An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit
code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be
returned:
1 Error in command line syntax.
2 One of the files passed on the command line did not
exist.
3 A required tool could not be found.
4 The action failed.
5 No permission to read one of the files passed on the
command line.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWxdg-utils |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface stability | Uncommitted |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
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User Commands XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)
xdg-icon-resource(1)
EXAMPLES
The company ShinyThings Inc. has developed an application
named "WebMirror" and would like to add a launcher for for
on the desktop. The company will use "shinythings" as its
vendor id. In order to add the application to the desktop
there needs to be a .desktop file for the application:
shinythings-webmirror.desktop:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=webmirror
Icon=shinythings-webmirror
Name=WebMirror
Name[nl]=WebSpiegel
Now the xdg-desktop-icon tool can be used to add the
webmirror.desktop file to the desktop:
xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-webmirror.desktop
To add a README file to the desktop as well, the following
command can be used:
xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-README
AUTHOR
Kevin Krammer, Jeremy White.
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