xenial (1) update-menus.1.gz

Provided by: menu_2.1.47ubuntu1.16.04.1_amd64 bug

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>

SEE ALSO

       menufile(5), /usr/share/doc/menu/html