XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)                                                                                          XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)



NAME
       xdg-desktop-icon - command line tool for (un)installing icons to the desktop

SYNOPSIS
       xdg-desktop-icon install [--novendor] FILE

       xdg-desktop-icon uninstall FILE

       xdg-desktop-icon {--help --manual --version}

DESCRIPTION
       The xdg-desktop-icon program can be used to install an application launcher or other file on the desktop of the current
       user.

       An application launcher is represented by a *.desktop file. Desktop files are defined by the freedesktop.org Desktop
       Entry Specification. The most important aspects of *.desktop files are summarized below.

COMMANDS
       install
              Installs FILE to the desktop of the current user.  FILE can be a *.desktop file or any other type of file.

       uninstall
              Removes FILE from the desktop of the current user.

OPTIONS
       --novendor
              Normally, xdg-desktop-icon checks to ensure that a *.desktop file to be installed has a vendor prefix. This option
              can be used to disable that check.

              A vendor prefix consists of alpha characters ([a-zA-Z]) and is terminated with a dash ("-"). Companies and
              organizations are encouraged to use a word or phrase, preferably the organizations name, for which they hold a
              trademark as their vendor prefix. The purpose of the vendor prefix is to prevent name conflicts.

       --help Show command synopsis.

       --manual
              Show this manualpage.

       --version
              Show the xdg-utils version information.

DESKTOP FILES
       An application launcher can be added to the desktop by installing a *.desktop file. A *.desktop file consists of a
       [Desktop Entry] header followed by several Key=Value lines.

       A *.desktop file can provide a name and description for an application in several different languages. This is done by
       adding a language code as used by LC_MESSAGES in square brackets behind the Key. This way one can specify different
       values for the same Key depending on the currently selected language.

       The following keys are often used:

       Value=1.0
              This is a mandatory field to indicate that the *.desktop file follows the 1.0 version of the specification.

       Type=Application
              This is a mandatory field that indicates that the *.desktop file describes an application launcher.

       Name=Application Name
              The name of the application. For example Mozilla

       GenericName=Generic Name
              A generic description of the application. For example Web Browser

       Comment=Comment
              Optional field to specify a tooltip for the application. For example Visit websites on the Internet

       Icon=Icon File
              The icon to use for the application. This can either be an absolute path to an image file or an icon-name. If an
              icon-name is provided an image lookup by name is done in the user's current icon theme. The xdg-icon-resource
              command can be used to install image files into icon themes. The advantage of using an icon-name instead of an
              absolute path is that with an icon-name the application icon can be provided in several different sizes as well as
              in several differently themed styles.

       Exec=Command Line
              The command line to start the application. If the application can open files the %f placeholder should be
              specified. When a file is dropped on the application launcher the %f is replaced with the file path of the dropped
              file. If multiple files can be specified on the command line the %F placeholder should be used instead of %f. If
              the application is able to open URLs in addition to local files then %u or %U can be used instead of %f or %F.

       For a complete oveview of the *.desktop file format please visit
       http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/desktop-entry-spec

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       xdg-desktop-icon honours the following environment variables:

       XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL
              Setting this environment variable to a non-zero numerical value makes xdg-desktop-icon do more verbose reporting
              on stderr. Setting a higher value increases the verbosity.

EXIT CODES
       An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be
       returned:

       1      Error in command line syntax.

       2      One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.

       3      A required tool could not be found.

       4      The action failed.

       5      No permission to read one of the files passed on the command line.

SEE ALSO
       xdg-icon-resource(1)

EXAMPLES
       The company ShinyThings Inc. has developed an application named "WebMirror" and would like to add a launcher for for on
       the desktop. The company will use "shinythings" as its vendor id. In order to add the application to the desktop there
       needs to be a .desktop file for the application:

       shinythings-webmirror.desktop:

         [Desktop Entry]
         Encoding=UTF-8
         Type=Application

         Exec=webmirror
         Icon=shinythings-webmirror

         Name=WebMirror
         Name[nl]=WebSpiegel


       Now the xdg-desktop-icon tool can be used to add the webmirror.desktop file to the desktop:

       xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-webmirror.desktop


       To add a README file to the desktop as well, the following command can be used:

       xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-README


AUTHOR
       Kevin Krammer, Jeremy White.
       <kevin.krammerATgmx.at>
       <jwhiteATcodeweavers.com>



xdg-utils 1.0                                              06/24/2007                                        XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)