NAME¶

Linux::DesktopFiles - Fast parsing of the Linux desktop files.

SYNOPSIS¶

  use Linux::DesktopFiles;
  my $obj = Linux::DesktopFiles->new( terminalize => 1 );
  print join("\n", $obj->get_desktop_files);
  my $hash_ref = $obj->parse_desktop_files;

DESCRIPTION¶

The "Linux::DesktopFiles", a very fast and simple way to parse the Linux desktop files.

CONSTRUCTOR METHODS¶

The following constructor methods are available:

$obj = Linux::DesktopFiles->new( %options )

This method constructs a new "Linux::DesktopFiles" object and returns it. Key/value pair arguments may be provided to set up the initial state.

By default,

    Linux::DesktopFiles->new();
    

is equivalent with:

    Linux::DesktopFiles->new(
        terminal               => $ENV{TERM},
        terminalize            => 0,
        terminalization_format => "%s -e '%s'",
        skip_entry       => [],
        skip_filename_re => [],
        substitutions    => [],
        desktop_files_paths => ['/usr/local/share/applications',
                                '/usr/share/applications'],
        keys_to_keep        => ["Name", "Exec", "Icon"],
        categories          => [qw( Utility
                                    Development
                                    Education
                                    Game
                                    Graphics
                                    AudioVideo
                                    Network
                                    Office
                                    Settings
                                    System
                               )],
        case_insensitive_cats   => 0,
        keep_unknown_categories => 0,
        unknown_category_key    => 'Other',
      );
    

SUBROUTINES/METHODS¶

$obj->get_desktop_files()

Returns a list with the absolute paths to all desktop files from desktop_files_paths.

In scalar context, returns an ARRAY reference.

$obj->parse(\%hash, @desktop_files)

Parse a list of desktop files into a HASH ref, where the keys of the HASH are the categories from desktop files and the values are ARRAY references containing information about each entry, as returned by parse_desktop_file().

$obj->parse_desktop_file($desktop_file)

Parse a given desktop file and return a key-value list as a result.

Example:

    my %info = $obj->parse_desktop_file($desktop_file);
    

where %info might look something like this:

    my %info = (
        Name       => "...",
        Exec       => "...",
        Icon       => "...",
        Categories => ["...", "...", "..."],
    );
    

When keep_unknown_categories is true and a given entry does not belong to any category, "parse_desktop_file" will set Categories to ["unknown_category_key"].

Returns a HASH reference in scalar contenxt.

When a given file cannot be parsed or its specified as Hidden or NoDisplay, an empty list is returned (undef in scalar context).

$obj->parse_desktop_files()

It returns a HASH reference categorized on category names, with ARRAY references as values, each ARRAY containing a HASH reference with the keys specified in the keys_to_keep option, and values from the desktop files.

The returned HASH reference may look something like this:

        {
          Utility => [ {Exec => "...", Name => "..."}, {Exec => "...", Name => "..."} ],
          Network => [ {Exec => "...", Name => "..."}, {Exec => "...", Name => "..."} ],
        }
    

This function is equivalent with:

    $obj->parse(\%hash, $obj->get_desktop_files);
    

In list contenxt, it returns a key-value list, while, in scalar context, it returns a HASH reference.

REPOSITORY¶

<https://github.com/trizen/Linux-DesktopFiles>

AUTHOR¶

Daniel "Trizen" Șuteu, <trizenx@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶

Copyright (C) 2012-2017

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.14.2 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

SEE ALSO¶

File::DesktopEntry and X11::FreeDesktop::DesktopEntry