1fvwm-menu-desktop(1) Fvwm Modules fvwm-menu-desktop(1)
2
6 fvwm-menu-desktop - Reads XDG menu files and creates Fvwm menus
7
10 fvwm-menu-desktop [ --help|-h ] [ --version ] [ --install-prefix DIR ]
11 [ --desktop NAME ] [ --menu-type NAME ] [ --theme NAME ] [ --with-ti‐
12 tles|-w ] [ --without-titles ] [ --enable-mini-icons ] [ --size|-s NUM
13 ] [ --mini-icon-dir DIR ] [ --app-icon NAME ] [ --dir-icon NAME ] [
14 --title|-t NAME ] [ --insert-in-menu NAME ] [ --get-menus all|desktop ]
15 [ --set-menus menu_paths ] [ --all-menus ] [ --include-items NAME ] [
16 --regen-cmd CMD ] [ --term-cmd CMD ] [ --dynamic ] [ --menu-error|-e ]
17 [ --verbose|-v ]
18
22 This is a python script which parses XDG menus definitions to build
23 corresponding fvwm menus. This script depends on python-xdg to run.
24
28 Main Options
29 --help Show the help and exit.
32 --version
35 Show the version and exit.
36 --get-menus all|desktop
39 Prints a space separated list of full menu paths found on the
40 system. all will print all menus found on the system except
41 empty ones. desktop will print the menu(s) that would be gener‐
42 ated by the script.
43 No menu generation is done.
45 --desktop NAME
48 Optional parameter to set the NAME of the desktop XDG .menu
49 file(s) to use. This option will override any default menus set
50 via FvwmForm-XDGMenu-Config and cause the script to find menus
51 in which NAME is a part of the file name. Possible names are:
52 gnome, kde, xfce, lxde, debian, etc.
53 This option can be used in conjunction with --menu-type to con‐
55 trol which .menu file(s) are used.
56 --menu-type NAME
59 Optional parameter to set the NAME of the XDG menu type to use.
60 This option will override any default menus set via FvwmForm-
61 XDGMenu-Config and cause the script to find menus in which NAME
62 is a part of the file name. Possible NAME types could be: ap‐
63 plications, settings, preferences, etc.
64 When used in conjunction with --desktop, only menus whose file
66 name matches '*destkop*menutype*' are found. If no menus are
67 found, the script exits with an error.
68 --all-menus
71 This option will build all menus found on the system. If used in
72 conjunction with --desktop or --menu-type this will build all
73 menus matching those settings.
74 --install-prefix DIR
77 Optional parameter to override the standard locations for XDG
78 menu definitions. Tells fvwm-menu-desktop to look in DIR for
79 .menu files instead of the standard locations /etc/xdg/menus
80 (and $HOME/.config/menus if it exists).
81 --with-titles|-w
84 If this option is set menus are generated with titles. This is
85 the default. This option can be used to override the FvwmForm-
86 XDGMenu-Config default setting.
87 --without-titles
90 If this option is set menus are generated without titles. The
91 default is to generate with titles.
92 --title|-t NAME
95 Option to define the menu title NAME of the top menu used by
96 Fvwm's Menu or Popup commands. Default is "XDGMenu".
97 --include-items NAME
100 This option controls if the additional menu items 'Regenerate'
101 and 'Configure' are included in the top level menu. NAME can be
102 one of regenerate, config, both, or none. The default is both.
103 --regen-cmd CMD
106 This option sets the fvwm command CMD that is run when the menu
107 item 'Regenerate' is selected. The default is "PipeRead `fvwm-
108 menu-desktop`".
109 --term-cmd CMD
112 This option sets the terminal emulator command CMD that is used
113 to to run terminal applications in. CMD needs to end with an ex‐
114 ecute option, such as xterm's -e option, which will run the com‐
115 mand that is appended to CMD. The default is "xterm -e".
116 --dynamic
119 This option is to be used with creating dynamic menus using Dy‐
120 namicPopUpAction and DynamicPopDownAction. This adds a 'recre‐
121 ate' to the DestroyMenu command on the top level menu so those
122 actions are not Destroyed when the menu is regenerated.
123 --insert-in-menu NAME
126 Option to insert generated menu(s) IN a menu NAME (its top ti‐
127 tle). This option makes it so the top level menu is not De‐
128 stroyed and the items are added to the end.
129 Note menus regenerated with this option will append the menu
131 items at the end of the existing menu. Each time the menu is re‐
132 generated new menu items appear giving a growing menu of dupli‐
133 cate items. You have to regenerate the whole menu via a func‐
134 tion or restart fvwm. See EXAMPLES below for some solutions.
135 --set-menus menu_paths
138 Generates all menus listed in a space separated list of full
139 menu paths. This option overrides any defaults and --desk‐
140 top|--menu-type settings.
141 --menu-error |-t
144 If this option is present and python-xdg is not found, the
145 script will print the error in the generated menu. Used in the
146 default-config.
147 --verbose
150 Enables additional information printouts on STDERR.
151 Icons Options
154 By default, fvwm-menu-desktop builds menus without mini-icons.
156 To enable mini-icons use the following options.
157 If ImageMagick is installed on the system, the script will re‐
159 size and copy the icons to $FVWM_USERDIR/.icons. This can take
160 awhile. You should be prepared to wait the first time you gener‐
161 ate the icons. Once the icons have been generated the script
162 should run faster. If it is still to slow using icons, see EXAM‐
163 PLES for ways to limit how often the menu is generated to speed
164 things up.
165 --enable-mini-icons
168 This option enables mini-icons in the menus. If set, 24x24 mini-
169 icons are used. If the specified icon isn't that size it will be
170 converted if ImageMagick is installed and saved in
171 $HOME/.fvwm/icons or to the directory specified with
172 --mini-icon-dir option. Otherwise no icon appears in the menu
173 for that entry. With most distributions, all the menu entries
174 will have mini-icons appropriate to the application.
175 --theme NAME
178 Defines the used icon theme. Default is gnome but all others
179 found in /usr/share/icons could be used except the hicolor theme
180 because it's the default fallback theme if no icon is found.
181 --size|-s NUM
184 If --enable-mini-icons is used the size of the icons can changed
185 with this parameter. Default is 24.
186 --mini-icon-dir DIR
189 When the right size mini-icon isn't available, fvwm-menu-desktop
190 creates icons with the right size in $HOME/.fvwm/icons. If you
191 don't want to use the default directory, $HOME/.fvwm/icons, use
192 this option to specify a different folder.
193 --app-icon NAME
196 Sets the default application icon if no others are found. De‐
197 fault is 'gnome-applications'.
198 --dir-icon NAME
201 Sets the default directory icon if no others are found. Default
202 is 'gnome-fs-directory'.
203
206 fvwm-menu-desktop outputs XDG .menu files in the syntax of fvwm menus.
207 When fvwm-menu-desktop is run with no options, it will load defaults
208 from the FvwmForm-XDGMenu-Config file (see below) then search your sys‐
209 tem for suitable menu file(s). To see which menus are available on your
210 system run:
211 fvwm-menu-desktop --get-menus all
213 If no menus are found you may not have any installed on your system. By
215 default menus are stored as *.menu files in /etc/xdg/menus, $HOME/.con‐
216 fig/menus or the location set in $XDG_MENU_PREFIX. You can use --in‐
217 stall-prefix to specify another location search for menus.
218 Though a combination of command line options and the FvwmForm-XDGMenu-
220 Config settings, fvwm-menu-desktop can generate any combination of the
221 menus found. To get a list of what menu(s) would be generated use the
222 --get-menus desktop option. The following will list all menus generated
223 if fvwm-menu-desktop was run with no options.
224 fvwm-menu-desktop --get-menus desktop
226 fvwm-menu-desktop determines which menu(s) to generate as follows
228 If no config file is found, all menus will be weighted and the
230 script will generate the best (highest weight) menu found.
231 If a config file is found (and override options are not used)
233 the script will generate all menus selected in FvwmForm-XDGMenu-
234 Config.
235 --desktop, --menu-type, --set-menus and --all-menus will over‐
237 ride any menus selected in FvwmForm-XDGMenu-Config.
238 --desktop and --menu-type will only include menus whose name
240 matches '*desktop*menutype*'. If used with --all-menus, all
241 matching menus are generated. If used without --all-menus, only
242 the highest weighted menu is generated.
243 --set-menus generates menus from the list of full path menu file
245 names.
246 --all-menus by itself will generate all menus found.
248 By default fvwm-menu-desktop will generate a menu whose top level name
250 is "XDGMenu". To tell fvwm to read the output of fvwm-menu-desktop to
251 create the menu XDGMenu add the following to your fvwm config file:
252 PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop'
254 Warning: Depending on the options used this command may be slow and
256 fvwm will pause until this command is complete. See EXAMPLES below for
257 more details and possible workarounds.
258 Once the menu is generated you can open the menu by using the command
260 "Menu XDGMenu". You can also include this in the MenuFvwmRoot menu by:
261 AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "XDG Menu" Popup XDGMenu
263 fvwm-menu-desktop can be configured though both command line options
265 and a FvwmForm GUI to customize the menu(s) that get generated.
266
269 FvwmForm-XDGMenu-Config is a FvwmForm interface that can be used to
270 configure the defaults for fvwm-menu-desktop. You can access this from
271 the "Configure" item in the top level menu that is generated or run the
272 following from within FvwmConsole
273 Module FvwmPerl -l fvwm-menu-desktop-config.fpl
275 This form can be used to select which menu(s) get generated by default
277 along with setting many (but not all) of the available options. When
278 you click "Save Settings" the form will write a config file located at
279 $FVWM_USERDIR/.FvwmForm-XDGMenu-Config that fvwm-menu-desktop will
280 parse for defaults when run.
281 See the help inside of FvwmForm-XDGMenu-Config for more information.
283
287 There are many ways to setup when fvwm runs fvwm-menu-desktop to gener‐
288 ate the menu. One method is to just generate the menu when fvwm loads
289 and then use the GUI config tool to change any options. To do this you
290 only need to add the following to the fvwm config file:
291 AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "XDG Menu" Popup XDGMenu
293 PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop'
294 The menu is created once when fvwm loads. Since menu creation can some‐
296 times be slow, this could cause fvwm to take longer to load than one
297 wants.
298 The menu is only generated when fvwm starts. If software is installed
300 or removed you will have to select the 'Regenerate' option to rebuild
301 the menu.
302 One way to speed things up is to save the menu in a file and only gen‐
304 erate the menu when 'Regenerate' is selected. To do this use --regen-
305 cmd to call a custom function and write the menu to a file using a com‐
306 mand like
307 fvwm-menu-desktop --regen-cmd XDGRegen > $FVWM_USERDIR/.XDGMenu
309 Then add the following to the fvwm config file to define the function
311 XDGRegen. The second to last line will generate the menu if the menu
312 file doesn't exist when fvwm starts.
313 DestroyFunc XDGRegen
315 AddToFunc XDGRegen
316 + I PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --regen-cmd XDGRegen > \
317 $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.XDGMenu; echo "Nop"'
318 + I Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.XDGMenu
319 Test (!f $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.XDGMenu) XDGRegen
321 Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.XDGMenu
322 Besides creating a top level menu, fvwm-menu-desktop can insert the
324 menu into an existing menu using the --insert-in-menu option. For exam‐
325 ple one could create the menu MenuFvwmRoot and include the XDG items at
326 the end.
327 DestroyMenu MenuFvwmRoot
329 AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "Fvwm" Title
330 + "Item1" Action1
331 ...
332 + "ItemN" ActionN
333 + "" Nop
334 PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --insert-in-menu MenuFvwmRoot'
335 In this case the menu items are inserted at the end of the MenuFvwmRoot
337 menu. If no items are in the menu, this menu becomes MenuFvwmRoot. The
338 problem here is, that you have to restart fvwm or rebuild the whole
339 menu to Regenerate it because menu items cannot be removed. To do this
340 you could use a function like
341 DestroyFunc XDGRegen
343 AddToFunc XDGRegen
344 + I DestroyMenu MenuFvwmRoot
345 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "Fvwm" Title
346 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "Item1" Action1
347 ...
348 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "ItemN" ActionN
349 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "" Nop
350 + I PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --insert-in-menu MenuFvwmRoot \
351 --regen-cmd XDGRegen'
352 Fvwm can also create menus dynamically by using DynamicPopUpAction
354 and/or DynamicPopDownAction. These commands when used with a Menu will
355 run a Function when the menu is opened. For example one could create
356 the menu XDGMenu when it is opened using
357 AddToMenu XDGMenu "XDGMenu" Title
359 + DynamicPopUpAction PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop'
360 This will create the menu when it is opened. One issue here is it will
362 only create the menu the first time it is opened, and you still have to
363 Regenerate the menu to see any changes. To create the menu each time it
364 is open used the --dynamic option
365 AddToMenu XDGMenu "XDGMenu" Title
367 + DynamicPopUpAction PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop \
368 --dynamic --include-items config'
369 + DynamicPopDownAction DestroyMenu recreate XDGMenu
370 This will now Destroy the menu when it closed so it can be rebuilt the
372 next time it is opened. The recreate flag doesn't completely destroy
373 the menu keeping the DynamicPopUpAction and DynamicPopDownAction ac‐
374 tions. The --dynamic flag includes the recreate option in the gener‐
375 ated menus.
376 To insert a menu into MenuFvwmRoot and still be dynamic you need to use
378 a function that generates the whole menu. For example
379 DestroyFunc GenRootMenu
381 AddToFunc GenRootMenu
382 + I DestroyMenu recreate MenuFvwmRoot
383 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "Fvwm" Title
384 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "Item1" Action1
385 ...
386 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "ItemN" ActionN
387 + I AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "" Nop
388 + PipeRead `fvwm-menu-desktop --insert-in-menu MenuFvwmRoot \
389 --include-items config`
390 AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot "Fvwm" Title
392 + DynamicPopUpAction GenRootMenu
393 + DynamicPopDownAction DestroyMenu recreate MenuFvwmRoot
394
397 The whole process of creating menus from files is slow. Otherwise re‐
398 port bugs to the fvwm-workers mailing list <fvwm-workers@fvwm.org>.
399
403 This script is based on fvwm-xdg-menu.py written by Piotr Zielinski
404 (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pz215/) who assigned Licence: GPL 2 Date:
405 03.12.2005.
406 The script was reworked to replace the existing fvwm-menu-desktop perl
408 script by the fvwm-workers.
409
413 The script is distributed by the same terms as fvwm itself. See GNU
414 General Public License for details.
4153rd Berkeley Distribution 19 October 2022 (2.7.0) fvwm-menu-desktop(1)