desktop-file-install for all desktop files?

[Ville Skyttä]

On Fri, 2006-12-22 at 13:46 -0800, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano wrote:

> One (perhaps) very minor point about desktop files. Before packaging for
> fe I used to create the .desktop file with a cat << EOF statement in the
> spec file. Now I'm using a separate desktop file as suggested. The thing
> I can't (easily) do that I was doing before was to include the full path
> of the executable by using a %{_bindir}/name statement in the inline
> desktop file.

If that's what one wants, it's only a sed oneliner away, so it's not
exactly that hard either.

>  That ensures that the menu starts what you actually think
> you are starting and not whatever is first in your PATH that matches
> that name.

Mileages vary whether that's a feature or a bug.  I think feature: if
there's something in one's $PATH that is completely different from the
executable the .desktop file is intended for, that's a clash that is not
at all limited to menu entries and should be fixed anyway somewhere
else.  On the other hand, if one has the same thing installed somewhere
else so it is in $PATH before the /usr/bin one, chances are pretty good
that it's there for a reason [1], and I don't think it's unreasonable
for the menu entry to launch that too, just like what happens on the
console when it's not invoked with an explicit path.

[1] eg. different version, locally tweaked build, wrapper script that
    sets some desired command line options or environment variables, ...