DesktopAppInfo

class DesktopAppInfo(**properties: Any)

Superclasses: Object

Implemented Interfaces: AppInfo

GDesktopAppInfo is an implementation of AppInfo based on desktop files.

Note that <gio/gdesktopappinfo.h> belongs to the UNIX-specific GIO interfaces, thus you have to use the gio-unix-2.0.pc pkg-config file or the GioUnix-2.0 GIR namespace when using it.

Constructors

class DesktopAppInfo
classmethod new(desktop_id: str) → DesktopAppInfo | None

Creates a new DesktopAppInfo based on a desktop file id.

A desktop file id is the basename of the desktop file, including the .desktop extension. GIO is looking for a desktop file with this name in the applications subdirectories of the XDG data directories (i.e. the directories specified in the XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variables). GIO also supports the prefix-to-subdirectory mapping that is described in the Menu Spec (i.e. a desktop id of kde-foo.desktop will match /usr/share/applications/kde/foo.desktop).

Parameters:

desktop_id – the desktop file id

classmethod new_from_filename(filename: str) → DesktopAppInfo | None

Creates a new DesktopAppInfo.

Parameters:

filename – the path of a desktop file, in the GLib filename encoding

classmethod new_from_keyfile(key_file: KeyFile) → DesktopAppInfo | None

Creates a new DesktopAppInfo.

Added in version 2.18.

Parameters:

key_file – an opened KeyFile

Methods

class DesktopAppInfo
get_action_name(action_name: str) → str

Gets the user-visible display name of the “additional application action” specified by action_name.

This corresponds to the “Name” key within the keyfile group for the action.

Added in version 2.38.

Parameters:

action_name – the name of the action as from list_actions()

get_boolean(key: str) → bool

Looks up a boolean value in the keyfile backing info.

The key is looked up in the “Desktop Entry” group.

Added in version 2.36.

Parameters:

key – the key to look up

get_categories() → str | None

Gets the categories from the desktop file.

get_filename() → str | None

When info was created from a known filename, return it. In some situations such as the DesktopAppInfo returned from new_from_keyfile(), this function will return None.

Added in version 2.24.

get_generic_name() → str | None

Gets the generic name from the desktop file.

get_implementations(interface: str) → list[DesktopAppInfo]

Gets all applications that implement interface.

An application implements an interface if that interface is listed in the Implements= line of the desktop file of the application.

Added in version 2.42.

Parameters:

interface – the name of the interface

get_is_hidden() → bool

A desktop file is hidden if the Hidden key in it is set to True.

get_keywords() → list[str]

Gets the keywords from the desktop file.

Added in version 2.32.

get_locale_string(key: str) → str | None

Looks up a localized string value in the keyfile backing info translated to the current locale.

The key is looked up in the “Desktop Entry” group.

Added in version 2.56.

Parameters:

key – the key to look up

get_nodisplay() → bool

Gets the value of the NoDisplay key, which helps determine if the application info should be shown in menus. See %G_KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_NO_DISPLAY and should_show().

Added in version 2.30.

get_show_in(desktop_env: str | None = None) → bool

Checks if the application info should be shown in menus that list available applications for a specific name of the desktop, based on the OnlyShowIn and NotShowIn keys.

desktop_env should typically be given as None, in which case the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable is consulted. If you want to override the default mechanism then you may specify desktop_env, but this is not recommended.

Note that should_show() for info will include this check (with None for desktop_env) as well as additional checks.

Added in version 2.30.

Parameters:

desktop_env – a string specifying a desktop name

get_startup_wm_class() → str | None

Retrieves the StartupWMClass field from info. This represents the WM_CLASS property of the main window of the application, if launched through info.

Added in version 2.34.

get_string(key: str) → str | None

Looks up a string value in the keyfile backing info.

The key is looked up in the “Desktop Entry” group.

Added in version 2.36.

Parameters:

key – the key to look up

get_string_list(key: str) → list[str]

Looks up a string list value in the keyfile backing info.

The key is looked up in the “Desktop Entry” group.

Added in version 2.60.

Parameters:

key – the key to look up

has_key(key: str) → bool

Returns whether key exists in the “Desktop Entry” group of the keyfile backing info.

Added in version 2.36.

Parameters:

key – the key to look up

launch_action(action_name: str, launch_context: AppLaunchContext | None = None) → None

Activates the named application action.

You may only call this function on action names that were returned from list_actions().

Note that if the main entry of the desktop file indicates that the application supports startup notification, and launch_context is non-None, then startup notification will be used when activating the action (and as such, invocation of the action on the receiving side must signal the end of startup notification when it is completed). This is the expected behaviour of applications declaring additional actions, as per the desktop file specification.

As with launch() there is no way to detect failures that occur while using this function.

Added in version 2.38.

Parameters:
launch_uris_as_manager(uris: list[str], launch_context: AppLaunchContext | None, spawn_flags: SpawnFlags, user_setup: Callable[[...], None] | None = None, pid_callback: Callable[[...], None] | None = None, *pid_callback_data: Any) → bool

This function performs the equivalent of launch_uris(), but is intended primarily for operating system components that launch applications. Ordinary applications should use launch_uris().

If the application is launched via GSpawn, then spawn_flags, user_setup and user_setup_data are used for the call to spawn_async(). Additionally, pid_callback (with pid_callback_data) will be called to inform about the PID of the created process. See spawn_async_with_pipes() for information on certain parameter conditions that can enable an optimized posix_spawn() codepath to be used.

If application launching occurs via some other mechanism (eg: D-Bus activation) then spawn_flags, user_setup, user_setup_data, pid_callback and pid_callback_data are ignored.

Parameters:

  • uris – List of URIs

  • launch_context – a AppLaunchContext

  • spawn_flags – SpawnFlags, used for each process

  • user_setup – a SpawnChildSetupFunc, used once for each process.

  • pid_callback – Callback for child processes

  • pid_callback_data – User data for callback

launch_uris_as_manager_with_fds(uris: list[str], launch_context: AppLaunchContext | None, spawn_flags: SpawnFlags, user_setup: Callable[[...], None] | None, pid_callback: Callable[[...], None] | None, stdin_fd: int, stdout_fd: int, stderr_fd: int, *pid_callback_data: Any) → bool

Equivalent to launch_uris_as_manager() but allows you to pass in file descriptors for the stdin, stdout and stderr streams of the launched process.

If application launching occurs via some non-spawn mechanism (e.g. D-Bus activation) then stdin_fd, stdout_fd and stderr_fd are ignored.

Added in version 2.58.

Parameters:

  • uris – List of URIs

  • launch_context – a AppLaunchContext

  • spawn_flags – SpawnFlags, used for each process

  • user_setup – a SpawnChildSetupFunc, used once for each process.

  • pid_callback – Callback for child processes

  • stdin_fd – file descriptor to use for child’s stdin, or -1

  • stdout_fd – file descriptor to use for child’s stdout, or -1

  • stderr_fd – file descriptor to use for child’s stderr, or -1

  • pid_callback_data – User data for callback

list_actions() → list[str]

Returns the list of “additional application actions” supported on the desktop file, as per the desktop file specification.

As per the specification, this is the list of actions that are explicitly listed in the “Actions” key of the [Desktop Entry] group.

Added in version 2.38.

search(search_string: str) → list[Sequence[str]]

Searches desktop files for ones that match search_string.

The return value is an array of strvs. Each strv contains a list of applications that matched search_string with an equal score. The outer list is sorted by score so that the first strv contains the best-matching applications, and so on. The algorithm for determining matches is undefined and may change at any time.

None of the search results are subjected to the normal validation checks performed by new() (for example, checking that the executable referenced by a result exists), and so it is possible for new() to return None when passed an app ID returned by this function. It is expected that calling code will do this when subsequently creating a DesktopAppInfo for each result.

Parameters:

search_string – the search string to use

set_desktop_env(desktop_env: str) → None

Sets the name of the desktop that the application is running in. This is used by should_show() and get_show_in() to evaluate the OnlyShowIn and NotShowIn desktop entry fields.

Should be called only once; subsequent calls are ignored.

Deprecated since version 2.42: do not use this API. Since 2.42 the value of the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable will be used.

Parameters:

desktop_env – a string specifying what desktop this is

Properties

class DesktopAppInfo
props.filename: str

The origin filename of this DesktopAppInfo