Ubuntu Manpage: update-menus - generate Debian menu system

NAME

       update-menus - generate Debian menu system

SYNOPSIS

       update-menus   [-v]   [-d]   [-h|--help]   [--version]  [--menufilesdir  <dir>]  [--menumethod  <method>]
       [--nodefaultdirs] [--stdout]

DESCRIPTION

       Before the advent of update-menus, when the system administrators  installed  a  package  onto  a  Debian
       system,  they  would need to edit various window manager configuration files to make the new program show
       up on, for example, fvwm's menus. The menus could easily become out  of  sync  with  what  programs  were
       actually  available,  with some menu items that didn't work, and other programs that lacked a menu entry.
       update-menus and Debian's menu package aim to solve this problem.

       update-menus automatically generates menus of installed programs  for  window  managers  and  other  menu
       programs.  It  should be run whenever a menufile(5) or menu-method file is changed.  update-menus will be
       run automatically when Debian packages that contain menu files are  installed  on  or  removed  from  the
       system.

       update-menus  uses  the  package-supplied menu entry files (in /usr/share/menu) for its information about
       the menus (but this can be overruled by the system administrator/user; see below). If a menu  entry  file
       is  executable,  update-menus  executes  the  menu  entry  file, and uses its stdout to generate the menu
       database.

OPTIONS

       -v     Verbose output. Shows all arguments to the /etc/menu-methods programs.

       -d     Debug output. Generates loads of unintelligible output.

       -h, --help
              Display usage help and exit.

       --menufilesdir <dir>
              Adds directory <dir> to the list of directories to search for menu files in.

       --menumethod <method>
              Process only the menu method <method> instead of all the menu methods found.

       --nodefaultdirs
              Disables the search of menu entries in system menu directories.

       --nodpkgcheck
              Do not discard menu entries for packages that are not installed according to dpkg.

       --remove
              Remove the menus by calling the menu-methods with --remove.

       --stdout
              Output the menu list in a format suitable as input for install-menu or a menu method file.

       --version
              Output version information and exit.

CONFIGURATION

There are several ways to tune the operation of update-menus:

per menu entry, in /etc/menu/$package
In these directories the system administrator or user can override the default menu files (If a
file /etc/menu/$package exists, than the corresponding /usr/share/menu/$package file isn't read
any more). Users who want to override the system wide defaults put their files in ~/.menu. See
also menufile(5)
per window-manager in /etc/menu-methods/$wm
In these configuration files, one can tune generated system.${wm}rc files for each individual
window manager. For example, one can specify that the wm should ignore any icons that the packages
may supply, or set the default wrapper for text-only applications (usually, an xterm is started to
run a text-only application like vi). Users who want to override the system wide defaults put
their files in ~/.menu-methods. For more info, see /usr/share/doc/menu/html.
globally, in /etc/menu-methods/translate_menus
This file contains translations that will be performed for all menu entries and all window
managers. You can specify things like: `All sections that start with "Games" should be mapped to
"Applications/Games"', or `menuentry "gnuplot" should have a title of "GnuTeken"'. Look at the
default /etc/menu-methods/translate_menus for an example. Users who want to override the system
default translate file, put one in ~/.menu-methods/translate_menus. Note: This should not be used
for a full translation of the menu. Use po files as explained in the source package.
error report configuring, in /etc/menu-methods/menu.config
This file contains general information for the overall behaviour of update-menus. At the moment
you can only configure how verbose the output of update-menus is, and where it sends the output.
The amount of information is specified by `verbosity=VAL'. Use VAL=quiet to stop update-menu from
reporting anything but the most important errors, VAL=normal, VAL=verbose, VAL=debug for
progressively more output.

To specify where the output should go, use `method=stdout', `method=stderr', or `method=syslog
facility priority'. `Facility' is one of auth, authpriv, authcron, authdaemon, authkern,
authlocal0, authlocal1, authlocal2, authlocal3, authlocal4, authlocal5, authlocal6, authlocal7,
authlpr, authmail, authnews, authsyslog, authuser, authuucp. `priority' is one of emerg, alert,
crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug.

FILES

       Menu files: (Earlier listed directories override those listed later.)
              ~/.menu/*
                     Menu files added by the user. (Isn't read if root runs update-menus)
              /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.
       Menu methods:
              /etc/menu-methods/
                     Executable  configuration  files that are added by window managers and other menu programs,
                     these files are run by update-menus to generate menus for the different programs.  Also  in
                     this  directory  is  the translate_menus file, used for local configuration of the shape of
                     the menu trees.
              ~/.menu-methods/
                     For users to override the system-defaults of /etc/menu-methods.  If this directory  exists,
                     no files in /etc/menu-methods are read any more.

DISTRIBUTION

       Distribution is subject to the GNU General Public License.

BUGS

       update-menus  may  not  work properly when run by a normal user, to generate menus for that user. This is
       usually because the window manager doesn't expect the system.${wm}rc  files  in  the  directory  (usually
       ~/.${wm},  configurable  in  /etc/menu-methods). If you see such a thing, and you find a solution, please
       mail <menu@packages.debian.org>. It should work OK for fvwm and fvwm2: I usually test the  package  first
       as an ordinary user.

AUTHORS

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

THANKS

       To Joey Hess, for a lot of good ideas and pre-release testing, and to Tom Lees for a update-menus in pure
       C (of which I only used one function, but that's life).

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