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>)