1XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)         xdg-desktop-icon Manual        XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       xdg-desktop-icon - command line tool for (un)installing icons to the
7       desktop
8

SYNOPSIS

10       xdg-desktop-icon install [--novendor] FILE
11
12       xdg-desktop-icon uninstall FILE
13
14       xdg-desktop-icon {--help | --manual | --version}
15

DESCRIPTION

17       The xdg-desktop-icon program can be used to install an application
18       launcher or other file on the desktop of the current user.
19
20       An application launcher is represented by a *.desktop file. Desktop
21       files are defined by the freedesktop.org Desktop Entry Specification.
22       The most important aspects of *.desktop files are summarized below.
23

COMMANDS

25       install
26           Installs FILE to the desktop of the current user.  FILE can be a
27           *.desktop file or any other type of file.
28
29       uninstall
30           Removes FILE from the desktop of the current user.
31

OPTIONS

33       --novendor
34           Normally, xdg-desktop-icon checks to ensure that a *.desktop file
35           to be installed has a vendor prefix. This option can be used to
36           disable that check.
37
38           A vendor prefix consists of alpha characters ([a-zA-Z]) and is
39           terminated with a dash ("-"). Companies and organizations are
40           encouraged to use a word or phrase, preferably the organizations
41           name, for which they hold a trademark as their vendor prefix. The
42           purpose of the vendor prefix is to prevent name conflicts.
43
44       --help
45           Show command synopsis.
46
47       --manual
48           Show this manual page.
49
50       --version
51           Show the xdg-utils version information.
52

DESKTOP FILES

54       An application launcher can be added to the desktop by installing a
55       *.desktop file. A *.desktop file consists of a [Desktop Entry] header
56       followed by several Key=Value lines.
57
58       A *.desktop file can provide a name and description for an application
59       in several different languages. This is done by adding a language code
60       as used by LC_MESSAGES in square brackets behind the Key. This way one
61       can specify different values for the same Key depending on the
62       currently selected language.
63
64       The following keys are often used:
65
66       Type=Application
67           This is a mandatory field that indicates that the *.desktop file
68           describes an application launcher.
69
70       Name=Application Name
71           The name of the application. For example Mozilla
72
73       GenericName=Generic Name
74           A generic description of the application. For example Web Browser
75
76       Comment=Comment
77           Optional field to specify a tooltip for the application. For
78           example Visit websites on the Internet
79
80       Icon=Icon File
81           The icon to use for the application. This can either be an absolute
82           path to an image file or an icon-name. If an icon-name is provided
83           an image lookup by name is done in the user's current icon theme.
84           The xdg-icon-resource command can be used to install image files
85           into icon themes. The advantage of using an icon-name instead of an
86           absolute path is that with an icon-name the application icon can be
87           provided in several different sizes as well as in several
88           differently themed styles.
89
90       Exec=Command Line
91           The command line to start the application. If the application can
92           open files the %f placeholder should be specified. When a file is
93           dropped on the application launcher the %f is replaced with the
94           file path of the dropped file. If multiple files can be specified
95           on the command line the %F placeholder should be used instead of
96           %f. If the application is able to open URLs in addition to local
97           files then %u or %U can be used instead of %f or %F.
98
99       For a complete overview of the *.desktop file format please visit
100       http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec
101

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

103       xdg-desktop-icon honours the following environment variables:
104
105       XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL
106           Setting this environment variable to a non-zero numerical value
107           makes xdg-desktop-icon do more verbose reporting on stderr. Setting
108           a higher value increases the verbosity.
109

EXIT CODES

111       An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code
112       indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:
113
114       1
115           Error in command line syntax.
116
117       2
118           One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.
119
120       3
121           A required tool could not be found.
122
123       4
124           The action failed.
125
126       5
127           No permission to read one of the files passed on the command line.
128

SEE ALSO

130       xdg-icon-resource(1)
131

EXAMPLES

133       The company ShinyThings Inc. has developed an application named
134       "WebMirror" and would like to add a launcher for for on the desktop.
135       The company will use "shinythings" as its vendor id. In order to add
136       the application to the desktop there needs to be a .desktop file for
137       the application:
138
139           shinythings-webmirror.desktop:
140
141             [Desktop Entry]
142             Encoding=UTF-8
143             Type=Application
144
145             Exec=webmirror
146             Icon=shinythings-webmirror
147
148             Name=WebMirror
149             Name[nl]=WebSpiegel
150
151       Now the xdg-desktop-icon tool can be used to add the webmirror.desktop
152       file to the desktop:
153
154           xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-webmirror.desktop
155
156       To add a README file to the desktop as well, the following command can
157       be used:
158
159           xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-README
160
161

AUTHORS

163       Kevin Krammer
164           Author.
165
166       Jeremy White
167           Author.
168
170       Copyright © 2006
171
172
173
174xdg-utils 1.0                     07/29/2020               XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)
Impressum