1XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)                                        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
35              file to be installed has a vendor prefix. This option can be
36              used to 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.
42              The purpose of the vendor prefix is to prevent name conflicts.
43
44       --help Show command synopsis.
45
46       --manual
47              Show this manualpage.
48
49       --version
50              Show the xdg-utils version information.
51

DESKTOP FILES

53       An application launcher can be added to the desktop by installing a
54       *.desktop file. A *.desktop file consists of a [Desktop Entry] header
55       followed by several Key=Value lines.
56
57       A *.desktop file can provide a name and description for an application
58       in several different languages. This is done by adding a language code
59       as used by LC_MESSAGES in square brackets behind the Key. This way one
60       can specify different values for the same Key depending on the
61       currently selected language.
62
63       The following keys are often used:
64
65       Value=1.0
66              This is a mandatory field to indicate that the *.desktop file
67              follows the 1.0 version of the specification.
68
69       Type=Application
70              This is a mandatory field that indicates that the *.desktop file
71              describes an application launcher.
72
73       Name=Application Name
74              The name of the application. For example Mozilla
75
76       GenericName=Generic Name
77              A generic description of the application. For example Web
78              Browser
79
80       Comment=Comment
81              Optional field to specify a tooltip for the application. For
82              example Visit websites on the Internet
83
84       Icon=Icon File
85              The icon to use for the application. This can either be an
86              absolute path to an image file or an icon-name. If an icon-name
87              is provided an image lookup by name is done in the user's
88              current icon theme. The xdg-icon-resource command can be used to
89              install image files into icon themes. The advantage of using an
90              icon-name instead of an absolute path is that with an icon-name
91              the application icon can be provided in several different sizes
92              as well as in several differently themed styles.
93
94       Exec=Command Line
95              The command line to start the application. If the application
96              can open files the %f placeholder should be specified. When a
97              file is dropped on the application launcher the %f is replaced
98              with the file path of the dropped file. If multiple files can be
99              specified on the command line the %F placeholder should be used
100              instead of %f. If the application is able to open URLs in
101              addition to local files then %u or %U can be used instead of %f
102              or %F.
103
104       For a complete oveview of the *.desktop file format please visit
105       http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/desktop-entry-spec
106

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

108       xdg-desktop-icon honours the following environment variables:
109
110       XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL
111              Setting this environment variable to a non-zero numerical value
112              makes xdg-desktop-icon do more verbose reporting on stderr.
113              Setting a higher value increases the verbosity.
114

EXIT CODES

116       An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code
117       indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:
118
119       1      Error in command line syntax.
120
121       2      One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.
122
123       3      A required tool could not be found.
124
125       4      The action failed.
126
127       5      No permission to read one of the files passed on the command
128              line.
129

SEE ALSO

131       xdg-icon-resource(1)
132

EXAMPLES

134       The company ShinyThings Inc. has developed an application named
135       "WebMirror" and would like to add a launcher for for on the desktop.
136       The company will use "shinythings" as its vendor id. In order to add
137       the application to the desktop there needs to be a .desktop file for
138       the application:
139
140       shinythings-webmirror.desktop:
141
142         [Desktop Entry]
143         Encoding=UTF-8
144         Type=Application
145
146         Exec=webmirror
147         Icon=shinythings-webmirror
148
149         Name=WebMirror
150         Name[nl]=WebSpiegel
151
152
153       Now the xdg-desktop-icon tool can be used to add the webmirror.desktop
154       file to the desktop:
155
156       xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-webmirror.desktop
157
158
159       To add a README file to the desktop as well, the following command can
160       be used:
161
162       xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-README
163
164

AUTHOR

166       Kevin Krammer, Jeremy White.
167       <kevin.krammer@gmx.at>
168       <jwhite@codeweavers.com>
169
170
171
172xdg-utils 1.0                     06/24/2007               XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)
Impressum