The desktop menu entries are stored in .desktop files. This section includes only some general information about such files. Refer to http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec for more details.

The .desktop files are plain text files where information is sorted into groups. A group starts with the line:

[group_name]

All the following lines belong to the same group until another group is started or until the end of file.

The information is defined by {key,value} pairs the following way:

key=value

This example is taken from the file /usr/share/applications/xboard.desktop and defines a desktop menu entry for the game xboard:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Xboard
GenericName=Chess Game
Type=Application
Exec=xboard
Icon=xboard
Categories=Game;BoardGame
X-SuSE-translate=true

This section defines the exact format of .desktop files on SUSE Linux. The files follow the desktop entry specification, which is available at http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec, extended by desktop menu specification, which is available at http://freedesktop.org/Standards/menu-spec. This section mentions only the most important or SUSE-specific information. Refer the official specification for more details.

The .desktop files use the suffix .desktop. They are encoded in UTF-8 and provide the following information in the group:

[Desktop Entry]

These keys are required:

These keys are optional:

This example is taken from /usr/share/applications/xemacs.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=X Emacs
GenericName=Text Editor
GenericName[cs]=Textový editor
GenericName[de]=Texteditor
GenericName[fr]=Éditeur de texte
GenericName[it]=Editor di testi
MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;\
text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;\
text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;\
text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;
Exec=xemacs %f
Icon=emacs
Type=Application
Terminal=0
X-KDE-StartupNotify=true
X-KDE-WMClass=emacs
X-KDE-AuthorizeAction=shell_access
Categories=TextEditor
X-SuSE-translate=true

The desktop menu specification allows searching several directories for .desktop files. These are searched on SUSE Linux:

This means that the GNOME and KDE applications can install .desktop files into the usual locations. The menu entries are then automatically used also in all other supported window managers. However, this could be avoided if the desktop file includes OnlyShowIn=GNOME; or OnlyShowIn=KDE;. This also means the .desktop files installed by GNOME and KDE applications must follow the common rules defined in the previous section.

The macro %suse_update_desktop_file should be called for each installed .desktop file. It updates translations and makes some sanity checks. It can be used to change the category. It can even be used to install the .desktop files or to create a new one from scratch. This macro requires that the package update_desktop_files be installed. See Section 3.33, “%suse_update_desktop_file” for more details.

Packages with GNOME and KDE applications usually provides their own .desktop files, which are installed with make install. Then it is enough to call the macro %suse_update_desktop_file on it and mention the file in the %files section. This example is taken from the package kdclock:

# neededforbuild  kde3-devel-packages

BuildRequires: ... update-desktop-files ...
[...]

%install
[...]
%suse_update_desktop_file  %name Utility TimeUtility

%files
[...]
/opt/kde3/share/applnk/Utilities/kdclock.desktop

Other packages usually do not provide a .desktop file by default. A simple one can be created from scratch with the macro %suse_update_desktop_file itself. A more complicated .desktop file is usually added as an extra source. Then it is installed, checked, and updated by the macro %suse_update_desktop_file in the %install section. Finally, it is mentioned in the %files sections. This example is taken from the package xboard (even the missing icon is installed from an extra source):

# neededforbuild  ... update-desktop-files ...

BuildRequires: ... update-desktop-files ...
[...]
Source1:      %name.desktop
Source2:      %name.png
[...]

%install
[...]
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/share/pixmaps/
install -m 644 $RPM_SOURCE_DIR/%name.png \
               $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/share/pixmaps
%suse_update_desktop_file -i %name Game BoardGame

%files
[...]
/usr/share/applications/%name.desktop
/usr/share/pixmaps/%name.png

The %suse_update_desktop_file macro searches the directories $RPM_SOURCE_DIR and /usr/share/update-desktop-files/templates for the desktop file source. The example above shows the usual solution where the .desktop file already has the same name as the package source and is found in the $RPM_SOURCE_DIR directory then.

See Section 3.33, “%suse_update_desktop_file” for more examples.

This section provides a list of categories used on SUSE Linux. They are needed to sort desktop menu entries into submenus. The list is based on the desktop menu specification, see http://freedesktop.org/Standards/menu-spec. In addition, there are also some SUSE-specific categories that are not currently part of the specification.

The SUSE-specific categories must be prefixed by "X-SuSE-". However, the prefix is not mentioned in the lists below because the situation is evolving and the categories are becoming part of the specification. The %suse_update_desktop_file macro adds the prefix where needed.

Some of the categories were renamed in the past. The obsolete names are mentioned in the lists below. They are automatically renamed by the %suse_update_desktop_file macro.