Dependencies
- Ubuntu
- gedit
How to Create Desktop Launcher
1. Create icon image
Let’s make .icons directory at /home/<user-name> with following commands.
$ mkdir ~/.icons && xdg-open ~/.icons
If .icons folder opens, put the icon image in it like below.
2. Create .desktop file
The second step is to create .desktop file for your applications then edit it. It has to follow some predefined formats. But you don’t have to worry about it at all. I’ll show you the precedures step by step and even the examples.
First, let’s move to /usr/share/applications and make .desktop file with following commands.
$ cd /usr/share/applications && gedit <application-name>.desktop
Customize the code
Change
to your real application’s name.
Then gedit editor window will open and you have only to type the followings. If done, just save it.
- Sample .desktop file
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Sample Application Name
Comment=A sample application
Categories = Application Category
Exec=application
Icon=application.png
Terminal=false
- Line by line explanation
| Line | Description |
|---|---|
[Desktop Entry] | The first line of every desktop file and the section header to identify the block of key value pairs associated with the desktop. Necessary for the desktop to recognize the file correctly. |
Type=Application | Tells the desktop that this desktop file pertains to an application. Other valid values for this key are Link and Directory. |
Encoding=UTF-8 | Describes the encoding of the entries in this desktop file. |
Name=Sample Application Name | Names of your application for the main menu and any launchers. |
Comment=A sample application | Describes the application. Used as a tooltip. |
Categories=Application Category | Categories the application belongs to. |
Exec=application | The command that starts this application from a shell. It can have arguments. |
Icon=application.png | The icon name associated with this application. |
Terminal=false | Describes whether application should run in a terminal. |
- Exec variables
| Variable | Accepts |
|---|---|
%f | a single filename. |
%F | multiple filenames. |
%u | a single URL. |
%U | multiple URLs. |
%d | a single directory. Used in conjunction with %f to locate a file. |
%D | multiple directories. Used in conjunction with %F to locate files. |
%n | a single filename without a path. |
%N | multiple filenames without paths. |
%k | a URI or local filename of the location of the desktop file. |
%v | the name of the Device entry. |
- My example(e.g., QGroundControl)
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=QGroundControl
Icon=/home/daniel/.icons/qgroundcontrol.png
Exec=/home/daniel/files/qgroundcontrol/qgroundcontrol-start.sh %f
Comment=QGroundControl
Categories=Utility;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=qgroundcontrol
Tips for Desktop Entry Specification
See Desktop Entry Specification for official specifications for .desktop entries and that page also includes a link to Registered Categories.
3. Make .desktop executable
The third step is to make .desktop entry executable. The following command will do it.
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/<application-name>.desktop
All the steps complete. If the setting isn’t applied, reboot the system then check it out.