NAME

       File::DesktopEntry - Object to handle .desktop files

SYNOPSIS

           use File::DesktopEntry;

           my $entry = File::DesktopEntry->new('firefox');

           print "Using ".$entry->Name." to open http://perl.org\n";
           $entry->run('http://perl.org');

DESCRIPTION

       This module is designed to work with .desktop files. The format of these files is
       specified by the freedesktop "Desktop Entry" specification. This module can parse these
       files but also knows how to run the applications defined by these files.

       For this module version 1.0 of the specification was used.

       This module was written to support File::MimeInfo::Applications.

       Please remember: case is significant for the names of Desktop Entry keys.

VARIABLES

       You can set the global variable $File::DesktopEntry::VERBOSE. If set the module prints a
       warning every time a command gets executed.

       The global variable $File::DesktopEntry::LOCALE tells you what the default locale being
       used is. However, changing it will not change the default locale.

AUTOLOAD

       All methods that start with a capital are autoloaded as "get(KEY)" where key is the
       autoloaded method name.

METHODS

       "new(FILE)"
       "new(\$TEXT)"
       "new(NAME)"
           Constructor. FILE, NAME or TEXT are optional arguments.

           When a name is given (a string without '"/"', '"\"' or '"."') a lookup is done using
           File::BaseDir. If the file found in this lookup is not writable or if no file was
           found, the XDG_DATA_HOME path will be used when writing.

       "lookup(NAME)"
           Returns a filename for a desktop entry with desktop file id NAME.

       "wants_uris( )"
           Returns true if the Exec string for this desktop entry specifies that the application
           uses URIs instead of paths. This can be used to determine whether an application uses
           a VFS library.

       "wants_list( )"
           Returns true if the Exec string for this desktop entry specifies that the application
           can handle multiple arguments at once.

       "run(@FILES)"
           Forks and runs the application specified in this Desktop Entry with arguments FILES as
           a background process. Returns the pid.

           The child process fails when this is not a Desktop Entry of type Application or if the
           Exec key is missing or invalid.

           If the desktop entry specifies that the program needs to be executed in a terminal the
           $TERMINAL environment variable is used. If this variable is not set "xterm -e" is used
           as default.

           (On Windows this method returns a Win32::Process object.)

       "system(@FILES)"
           Like "run()" but using the "system()" system call.  It only return after the
           application has ended.

       "exec(@FILES)"
           Like "run()" but using the "exec()" system call. This method is expected not to return
           but to replace the current process with the application you try to run.

           On Windows this method doesn't always work the way you want it to due to the "fork()"
           emulation on this platform. Try using "run()" or "system()" instead.

       "parse_Exec(@FILES)"
           Expands the Exec format in this desktop entry with. Returns a properly quoted string
           in scalar context or a list of words in list context. Dies when the Exec key is
           invalid.

           It supports the following fields:

               %f    single file
               %F    multiple files
               %u    single url
               %U    multiple urls
               %i    Icon field prefixed by --icon
               %c    Name field, possibly translated
               %k    location of this .desktop file
               %%    literal '%'

           If necessary this method tries to convert between paths and URLs but this is not
           perfect.

           Fields that are deprecated, but (still) supported by this module:

               %d    single directory
               %D    multiple directories

           The fields %n, %N, %v and %m are deprecated and will cause a warning if $VERBOSE is
           used. Any other unknown fields will cause an error.

           The fields %F, %U, %D and %i can only occur as separate words because they expand to
           multiple arguments.

           Also see "LIMITATIONS".

       "get(KEY)"
       "get(GROUP, KEY)"
           Get a value for KEY from GROUP. If GROUP is not specified 'Desktop Entry' is used. All
           values are treated as string, so e.g. booleans will be returned as the literal strings
           "true" and "false".

           When KEY does not contain a language code you get the translation in the current
           locale if available or a sensible default. The request a specific language you can add
           the language part. E.g. "$entry->get('Name[nl_NL]')" can return either the value of
           the 'Name[nl_NL]', the 'Name[nl]' or the 'Name' key in the Desktop Entry file. Exact
           language parsing order can be found in the spec. To force you get the untranslated key
           use either 'Name[C]' or 'Name[POSIX]'.

       "set(KEY => VALUE, ...)"
       "set(GROUP, KEY => VALUE, ...)"
           Set values for one or more keys. If GROUP is not given "Desktop Entry" is used.  All
           values are treated as strings, backslashes, newlines and tabs are escaped.  To set a
           boolean key you need to use the literal strings "true" and "false".

           Unlike the "get()" call languages are not handled automatically for "set()".  KEY
           should include the language part if you want to set a translation.  E.g.
           "$entry->set("Name[nl_NL]" => "Tekst Verwerker")" will set a Dutch translation for the
           Name key. Using either "Name[C]" or "Name[POSIX]" will be equivalent with not giving a
           language argument.

           When setting the Exec key without specifying a group it will be parsed and quoted
           correctly as required by the spec. You can use quoted arguments to include whitespace
           in a argument, escaping whitespace does not work.  To circumvent this quoting
           explicitly give the group name 'Desktop Entry'.

       "text()"
           Returns the (modified) text of the file.

       "read(FILE)"
       "read(\$SCALAR)"
           Read Desktop Entry data from file or memory buffer.  Without argument defaults to file
           given at constructor.

           If you gave a file, text buffer or name to the constructor this method will be called
           automatically.

       "read_fh(IO)"
           Read Desktop Entry data from filehandle or IO object.

       "write(FILE)"
           Write the Desktop Entry data to FILE. Without arguments it writes to the filename
           given to the constructor if any.

           The keys Name and Type are required. Type can be either "Application", "Link" or
           "Directory". For an application set the optional key "Exec". For a link set the "URL"
           key.

   Backwards Compatibility
       Methods supported for backwards compatibility with 0.02.

       "new_from_file(FILE)"
           Alias for "new(FILE)".

       "new_from_data(TEXT)"
           Alias for "new(\$TEXT)".

       "get_value(NAME, GROUP, LANG)"
           Identical to "get(GROUP, "NAME[LANG]")".  LANG defaults to 'C', GROUP is optional.

NON-UNIX PLATFORMS

       This module has a few bits of code to make it work on Windows. It handles "file://" uri a
       bit different and it uses Win32::Process. On other platforms your mileage may vary.

       Please note that the specification is targeting Unix platforms only and will only have
       limited relevance on other platforms. Any platform-dependent behavior in this module
       should be considered an extension of the spec.

LIMITATIONS

       If you try to exec a remote file with an application that can only handle files on the
       local file system we should -according to the spec- download the file to a temp location.
       This is not supported. Use the "wants_uris()" method to check if an application supports
       urls.

       The values of the various Desktop Entry keys are not parsed (except for the Exec key).
       This means that booleans will be returned as the strings "true" and "false" and lists will
       still be ";" separated.

       If the icon is given as name and not as path it should be resolved for the %i code in the
       Exec key. We need a separate module for the icon spec to deal with this.

       According to the spec comments can contain any encoding. However since this module read
       files as utf8, invalid UTF-8 characters in a comment will cause an error.

       There is no support for Legacy-Mixed Encoding. Everybody is using utf8 now ... right ?

AUTHOR

       Jaap Karssenberg (Pardus) <pardus@cpan.org>

       Maintained by Michiel Beijen <michielb@cpan.org>

       Copyright (c) 2005, 2007 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved.

LICENSE

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

       <http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html>

       File::BaseDir and File::MimeInfo::Applications

       X11::FreeDesktop::DesktopEntry