NAME¶
i3-dmenu-desktop - run .desktop files with dmenu
SYNOPSIS¶
i3-dmenu-desktop [--dmenu='dmenu -i'] [--entry-type=name]
DESCRIPTION¶
i3-dmenu-desktop is a script which extracts the (localized) name from
application .desktop files, offers the user a choice via
dmenu(1) and
then starts the chosen application via i3 (for startup notification support).
The advantage of using .desktop files instead of
dmenu_run(1) is that
dmenu_run offers
all binaries in your $PATH, including non-interactive
utilities like "sed". Also, .desktop files contain a proper name,
information about whether the application runs in a terminal and whether it
supports startup notifications.
The .desktop files are searched in $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications (by default
$HOME/.local/share/applications) and in the "applications"
subdirectory of each entry of $XDG_DATA_DIRS (by default
/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/).
Files with the same name in $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications take precedence over
files in $XDG_DATA_DIRS, so that you can overwrite parts of the system-wide
.desktop files by copying them to your local directory and making changes.
i3-dmenu-desktop displays the "Name" value in the localized version
depending on LC_MESSAGES as specified in the Desktop Entry Specification.
You can pass a filename or URL (%f/%F and %u/%U field codes in the .desktop file
respectively) by appending it to the name of the application. E.g., if you
want to launch "GNU Emacs 24" with the patch /tmp/foobar.txt, you
would type "emacs", press TAB, type " /tmp/foobar.txt" and
press ENTER.
.desktop files with Terminal=true are started using
i3-sensible-terminal(1).
.desktop files with NoDisplay=true or Hidden=true are skipped.
UTF-8 is supported, of course, but dmenu does not support displaying all glyphs.
E.g., xfce4-terminal.desktop's Name[fi]=Pääte will be displayed just
fine, but not its
Name[ru]=Терминал.
OPTIONS¶
- --dmenu=command
- Execute command instead of 'dmenu -i'. This option can be
used to pass custom parameters to dmenu, or to make i3-dmenu-desktop start
a custom (patched?) version of dmenu.
- --entry-type=type
- Display the (localized) "Name" (type = name), the
command (type = command) or the (*.desktop) filename (type = filename) in
dmenu. This option can be specified multiple times.
Examples are "GNU Image Manipulation Program" (type = name),
"gimp" (type = command), and "libreoffice-writer"
(type = filename).
VERSION¶
Version 1.5
AUTHOR¶
Michael Stapelberg, "<michael at i3wm.org>"
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright 2012 Michael Stapelberg.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the BSD license.