Desktop file format

(→Chinook)
(→Maemo 5 - Fremantle)
Line 7: Line 7:
  [Desktop Entry]
  [Desktop Entry]
  Encoding=UTF-8
  Encoding=UTF-8
-
  Version=0.1
+
  Version=1.0                       ''version of .desktop file specification, should be 1.0''
  Type=Application
  Type=Application
-
  Terminal=true                      ''true = opens xterm window where the application is run''
+
  Terminal=true                      ''true: runs application inside of xterm window''
-
  Name=topx                          ''the name that appears to menu''
+
  Name=topx                          ''the name that appears in the menu''
  Exec=/usr/bin/osso-xterm top      ''the command that is executed when icon is clicked''
  Exec=/usr/bin/osso-xterm top      ''the command that is executed when icon is clicked''
-
  Icon=                              ''Icon for shortcut''   
+
  Icon=                              ''Icon for shortcut, without path and extension''   
  #X-Window-Icon=timerwidget
  #X-Window-Icon=timerwidget
  X-Window-Icon=     
  X-Window-Icon=     

Revision as of 09:50, 6 February 2010

Maemo 5 - Fremantle

.desktop files are read from directory: 

/usr/share/applications/hildon/

Example .desktop file for opening top in terminal: 

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0                        version of .desktop file specification, should be 1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=true                      true: runs application inside of xterm window
Name=topx                          the name that appears in the menu
Exec=/usr/bin/osso-xterm top       the command that is executed when icon is clicked
Icon=                              Icon for shortcut, without path and extension  
#X-Window-Icon=timerwidget
X-Window-Icon=     
X-HildonDesk-ShowInToolbar=true    Show app in toolbar
X-Osso-Type=application/x-executable

OS 2008 - Chinook

Format of Maemo .desktop files

Below are the fields supported in hildon-desktop:

Type
Should be application
Icon
Name
Categories
not used on maemo, but used in Ubuntu mobile
Comment
now unused, was used as second line of text in the startup menu in Bora
Exec
NoDisplay
set to true to hide the entry in the menu
StartupNotify
set to false to disable the startup notification banner
StartupWMClass
used to override the expected window class name, default to the binary name

Some Maemo-specific extensions:

X-Text-Domain
set the L10n domain from which the application name is translated (with dgettext)
X-Osso-Service
a DBus service name - if specified hildon desktop will try to call the top_application method on this service rather than execute what is listed in the Exec field).

(Credits to Johan Billen)

BTW: If your application needs the browser to do special URL handling, the desktop file needs to be extended accordingly.

Retrieved from "http://bugs.maemo.org/Desktop_file_format"