Richard Gaskin wrote:
I'd like to make an installer for Linux versions of my app which handles
the basics:
- Puts the application in its own folder
- Puts a shortcut to the app in the Start menu
- Assigns appropriate file types to the app
- Assigns icons for the app and its documents
When I went fishing for this info a couple years ago, it seemed each
desktop manager had their own way of doing these things, with little if
any consistency between them.
What's involved in making one installer file that works with most common
Linux distros today?
This installer will be made with Rev, so as much as I appreciate any
tips about third-party installers it's essential to my workflow that I
roll my own (I have an end-to-end automated build system).
The location of your app can be /usr/bin or usr/home/username/yourapp
Of course /usr/bin will require password to be able to be installed.
Sudo or su will get you through that (ask the user for the password in
advance.)
Their menu specs are here:
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fmenu_2dspec
For more specs linux related:
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards
Here are some locations found for shortcuts on linux:
/usr/share/applications
/usr/share/applications/kde
/usr/share/gnome/apps <- some sub dirs with shortcuts
/usr/lib/menu <- text config files for shortcuts
/usr/share/menu <- text config files for shortcuts
/etc/menu
Setting up a menu entry is still iffy if you ask me, but if you stick
with the freedesktop specs, you're more likely to have a working menu
entry since most distro's are adopting it. Otherwise, as you already
know, there's a mess when it comes to the shortcuts.
Gnome used it's own location, KDE another, and all the other WM's
probably have their own location also. :-(
For file types, I don't remember at the moment.
I don't believe there is a way to actually assign an icon to an
executable in any of the window managers. At least I didn't see of any
way under KDE or Gnome, just the shortcuts and menu entries have the icons.
And I can't remember how to assign a specific icon to associated files
at the moment. Been a while since I mucked around the innards of a
linux system.
Personally, I think the menu shortcuts are still the only major issue
you will run into. And imo I'd setup shortcuts in the KDE, Gnome and
freedesktop locations to insure that you get most, if not all of the users.
The other issue might be, what the equivalents of sudo and su are on
other flavors of linux. I know sudo and su are on debian, but not sure
about the others.
-Garrett
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