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ICEWM-MENU-FDO(1) User Commands ICEWM-MENU-FDO(1)
NAME
icewm-menu-fdo - menu generator for .desktop files
SYNOPSIS
icewm-menu-fdo [OPTIONS] [FILENAME]
DESCRIPTION
icewm-menu-fdo generates a menu for the IceWM window manager from XDG
menu descriptors (aka FreeDesktop.Org .desktop files). By including
this in the icewm-menu(1), the system applications become available in
the icewm start menu.
ARGUMENTS
[FILENAME]
The optional FILENAME argument is the location of a .desktop file.
When given, icewm-menu-fdo launches the application using the
"Exec" line from the desktop file.
OPTIONS
-g, --generic
Include the generic name in parentheses in the title of prog
entries.
--seps
Print a leading and a trailing separator.
--sep-before
Print a leading separator.
--sep-after
Print a trailing separator.
--no-sub-cats
Don't nest subcategories in submenus. The correctness of the
pigeonholing depends on correct application description which shall
always specify a main category. Incorrectly tagged descriptions
will be sorted into the "Other" menu.
-o, --output=FILE
Write the output to FILE.
-t, --terminal=NAME
Use NAME to start a terminal emulator that supports the '-e'
option.
-s, --no-lone-app
Attempt to detect a single application with no other content in
lower submenus and move this one to the parent submenu. This also
detects menus with just one submenu inside, attempting to move it's
application items to the parent menu where possible.
-S, --no-lone-hint
Decorate app entries moved by the -s option with a hint about the
original menu where it would be displayed otherwise. Implies -s.
-d TIMEOUT, --deadline-apps=TIMEOUT
Specifies a certain timeout value in milliseconds, so that the
reading of *.desktop files (for applications) is aborted by that
time (or soon after). This can help to avoid extended blocking of
the caller. Also see -D for the subsequent operation.
-D TIMEOUT, --deadline-all=TIMEOUT
Specifies a total timeout in milliseconds after which the
application has to terminate, regardless of the final menu
construction and decoration reading (applied after *.desktop file
reading) was finished or not. This would cause a printing of menu
contents which were calculated so far, therefore the timeout should
be set a certain time before the actual hard deadline by which the
program should be terminated. The output may lack translations and
icons.
-l LANGUAGE, --lang=LANGUAGE
Instead of the environment variable "LANG" use LANGUAGE for the
locale.
-L MAX, --limit-max-len=MAX
Cut the calculated program titles (after translation and adding
hints, see "-C" and "-g") at "MAX" characters, followed by an
ellipsis. This can help to restrict the width of the menus in cases
where some entry length might get out of hand.
--flat
Display apps from all categories in one level with the title
containing the category information as prefix.
-F sep, --flat-sep=sep
When used with "--flat", the specified character sequence is used
as separator between the section titles.
-m filter, --match=filter
Specifies a filter to show only apps that contain this as substring
within their title.
-M filter, --imatch=filter
Like "--match" but applied with any letter case. Might deliver
incorrect results with some locale settings.
--match-sec
Apply the filter from "--match" or "--imatch" to both, apps and
section titles.
--match-osec
Apply the filter from "--match" or "--imatch" to only to section
titles.
-h, --help
Print a brief usage statement to stdout and exit.
-V, --version
Print the program version to stdout and exit.
-C, --copying
Print copying permissions to stdout for the program and exit.
USAGE
This utility is not normally used directly. It is used as the
executable in a menuprog entry in a icewm-menu(5).
EXAMPLES
The following line in a icewm-menu(5) file will dynamically generate a
comprehensive set of menus for easy access to .desktop files, added in
a submenu called "Desktop Apps".
menuprog "Desktop Apps" folder icewm-menu-fdo
It can also be embedded directly into the loading menu like in the
following example. There could be a separator line added before or
after (or both) in case where the program could generate useful
content.
includeprog icewm-menu-fdo --seps
ENVIRONMENT
XDG_DATA_HOME or XDG_DATA_DIRS are considered as suggested by XDG Base
Directory Specification.
TERMINAL may define a terminal emulator that supports the '-e' option.
The option is ignored if the specified command could not be found and a
default is used instead.
CONFORMING TO
icewm-menu-fdo complies roughly to the XDG .desktop file and menu
specification, see "Desktop Entry Specification" (Date: 2020-04-27,
Version: Version 1.5) and "Desktop Menu Specification" (Date: 20 August
2016, Version: Version 1.1).
CAVEATS
The icewm-menu-fdo program is only built when the icewm(1) package is
configured with the --enable-menus-fdo option and only works with
--enable-i18n option.
Integration of XDG menu files is somewhat of varying quality, heavily
depending on the correctness of metadata like translations and sections
(menu category) hints.
SEE ALSO
Base Directory Specification, Desktop Entry Specification, Desktop Menu
Specification, icewm(1), icewm-menu(5), icewm-preferences(5),
icewm-programs(5).
BUGS
Please report bugs at <https://github.com/bbidulock/icewm/issues>.
AUTHOR
Eduard Bloch <mailto:edi@gmx.de>.
See --copying for full copyright notice and copying permissions.
LICENSE
IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. See
the COPYING file in the distribution or use the --copying flag to
display copying permissions.
icewm 3.9.0 2025-08-31 ICEWM-MENU-FDO(1)
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