Desktop Entries

XDG Desktop Entry Specification

class xdg.DesktopEntry.DesktopEntry(filename=None)

Class to parse and validate Desktop Entries

__init__(filename=None)

Create a new DesktopEntry.

If filename exists, it will be parsed as a desktop entry file. If not, or if filename is None, a blank DesktopEntry is created.

new(filename)

Make this instance into a new, blank desktop entry.

If filename has a .desktop extension, Type is set to Application. If it has a .directory extension, Type is Directory. Other extensions will cause ParsingError to be raised.

parse(file)

Parse a desktop entry file.

This can raise ParsingError, DuplicateGroupError or DuplicateKeyError.

validate(report='All')

Validate the contents, raising ValidationError if there is anything amiss.

report can be ‘All’ / ‘Warnings’ / ‘Errors’

findTryExec()

Looks in the PATH for the executable given in the TryExec field.

Returns the full path to the executable if it is found, None if not. Raises NoKeyError if TryExec is not present.

Added in version 0.26.

getCategories()

getComment()

getExec()

getGenericName()

getHidden()

getIcon()

getMimeTypes()

getMiniIcon()

getName()

getNoDisplay()

getNotShowIn()

getOnlyShowIn()

getPath()

getProtocols()

getStartupNotify()

getStartupWMClass()

getTerminal()

getTerminalOptions()

getTryExec()

getType()

getURL()

getVersionString()

Convenience methods to get the values of specific fields. If the field is missing, these will simply return an empty or zero value. There are similar methods for deprecated and KDE specific keys, but these are not listed here.