Ubuntu Manpage: menufile - entry in the Debian menu system

NAME

       menufile - entry in the Debian menu system

SYNOPSIS

       ~/.menu/*

       /etc/menu/*

       /usr/lib/menu/*

       /usr/share/menu/*

       /usr/share/menu/default/*

DESCRIPTION

       Menu  files  add  entries  to  the  Debian  menu system. The system administrator can place menu files in
       /etc/menu/ to override menu files that packages add to /usr/share/menu/ .  The user can place menu  files
       in ~/.menu/ to override all other menu files.

       Please  read  the Debian menu manual available in /usr/share/doc/menu/html for the complete specification
       of menu files.

       The menu files are usually named after the Debian package that contains the programs listed in  them.  In
       it,  you  can  list  several "menu entries" that specify a specific item in the menu structure. Each menu
       entry specifies which packages it depends on; if that package are not installed, the menu entry  will  be
       ignored  by  update-menus(1).  (In a menu entry you can specify pseudo-packages that start with "local.";
       update-menus will always use those menu entries).  If you wish to remove an item from the menu  entirely,
       make an empty menu file with the same name as the file you want to override.

Examples

       Dosemu could install the following menu file as /usr/share/menu/dosemu:

        ?package(dosemu):needs="text" section="Applications/Emulators" title="Dosemu" command="dosemu"
        ?package(dosemu):needs="X11" section="Applications/Emulators" title="Dosemu" command="xdos"

       The  system administrator wants to override this file to change how dosemu is run, so /etc/menu/dosemu is
       created:

        ?package(dosemu):needs="text" section="Applications/Emulators" title="Dosemu" command="dosemu -A"
        ?package(dosemu):needs="X11"  section="Applications/Emulators" title="Dosemu" command="xdos -A"

       A user does not want Dosemu to appear in the menus at all, so  the  user  creates  an  empty  file  named
       ~/.menu/dosemu.

FORMAT

A menu file consists of 0 or more lines of the following format:

?package(package-name):var1=value1 var2=value2 ...

needs Specify what kind of environment the program require. This variable must be defined, and
should be one of the following:

needs="text"
Program requires a terminal

needs="x11"
Program requires a X server

needs="vc"
Program requires a Linux console (i.e.: svgalib programs)

needs="wm"
The program is a window manager.

needs="fvwmmodule"
The program is a fvwm compatible module.

section
The section in which the menu entry should appear. See MENU LAYOUT for preferred section
names.

icon An icon for this menu entry. If no icon is available, just don't define this.

title The title of the program that will appear on the menus. Keep it short. If two menu entries
share the same title and section, the one that best fits the available display will be
used. So in the example above with two menu entries that both have the menu id "title", if
X is available, the X11 one will be used; otherwise the text one will be used. Must be
defined.

command
The command to be executed when this menu entry is selected.

hints A comma-separated list of hints on how grouping menu entries; see the manual.

MENU LAYOUT

       The  authoritative  list  of Debian's menu structure is maintained in the Debian Menu sub-policy document
       which is part of the Debian Policy package. The menu structure below is included  only  for  convenience.
       Please do not put your packages into any other sections.

       Use `/' to separate sub-menu names, for example, "Applications/Editors" or "Games/Arcade".

        Applications
          Accessibility
          Amateur Radio
          Data Management
          Editors
          Education
          Emulators
          File Management
          Graphics
          Mobile Devices
          Network
            Communication
            File Transfer
            Monitoring
            Web Browsing
            Web News
          Office
          Programming
          Project Management
          Science
            Astronomy
            Biology
            Chemistry
            Data Analysis
            Electronics
            Engineering
            Geoscience
            Mathematics
            Medicine
            Physics
            Social
          Shells
          Sound
          System
            Administration
            Hardware
            Language Environment
            Monitoring
            Package Management
            Security
          Terminal Emulators
          Text
          TV and Radio
          Viewers
          Video
          Web Development
        Games
          Action
          Adventure
          Blocks
          Board
          Card
          Puzzles
          Simulation
          Strategy
          Tools
          Toys
        Help
        Screen
          Saving
          Locking
        Window Managers
        FVWM Modules
        Window Maker

NOTES

       If you want to specify an icon or hotkey for a sub-menu (for example, the Editors sub-menu), just use the
       same syntax but leave the command empty:

       ?package(mypackage):needs="X11" section="Applications" \
        icon="/usr/share/pixmaps/icon.xpm" hotkey="E" title="Editors"

       Whenever any menu files are changed, you must run update-menus(1)

FILES

       (Earlier listed files override later files with the same names.)

       ~/.menu/*
              Menu files added by the user.
       /etc/menu/*
              Menu files added by the system administrator.
       /usr/lib/menu/*
              Architecture-dependant menu files provided by other Debian packages.
       /usr/share/menu/*
              Architecture-independant menu files provided by other Debian packages.
       /usr/share/menu/default/*
              Menu files provided by the menu package.

AUTHORS

       Joost Witteveen <joostje@debian.org>, based on work by Lars Wirzenius  <liw@iki.fi>.  Now  maintained  by
       Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>.

       (Man page by Joey Hess, <joeyh@debian.org>)