XDG-DESKTOP-SEARCH(1) - Search for .desktop files

SYNOPSIS

xdg-desktop-search [ OPTIONS ] SEARCH ...

DESCRIPTION

xdg-desktop-search locates files with names that end in .desktop in sub-directories of name "applications" of a collection of directories refered to as "XDG data directories". It the searches the lines of such desktop files for "directives", meaning key-value-assignments such as Exec=/some/program where the assigned value matches one of the search string given as commandline arguments SEARCH.

xdg-desktop-search prints a list of files that match the given search criteria, it optionally prints selected directives from the file.

xdg-desktop-search returns successfully if the search rendered one or more results and unsuccessfully otherwise.

The path of XDG directories searched can be modified by altering the environment variable XDG_DATA_DIRS.

ARGUMENTS

• SEARCH: Search .desktop files with search directives containing this string. The searched directives are "Name" and "Exec" by default but can be overridden using the -s option (see below).

OPTIONS

• -h, --help: Print this message and exit.

• -v, --verbose: Print directives in found .desktop files.

• -d STRING, --show-directive STRING: Instead of printing all directives when searching in verbose mode, print only the directive given by STRING (e.g. "Name"). Option can be repeated to print multiple directives.

• -s STRING, --search-directive STRING: Instead of searching directives "Name" and "Exec" for strings containing SEARCH, search the given directive instead (e.g. "Comment"). Option can be repeated to search in multiple directives.

RETURN VALUES

The command returns 0 if .desktop files were found that match the specified criteria, 1 on usage error and 2 if no matching .desktop files were found.

EXAMPLE

Search for the string "firefox" in all .desktop files found in the path specified by XDG_DATA_DIRS. To match, the string "firefox" must be contained in either the "Exec" or the "Comment" directive. List the matching files, also show the "Exec" and "TryExec" directives in each found file.

xdg-desktop-search -s Exec -s Comment -v -d Exec -d TryExec firefox

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2024 Tilman Kranz t.kranz@tk-sls.de

LICENSE

xdg-desktop-search is distributed under the terms and conditions of the MIT license https://opensource.org/license/mit.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.