How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

lord.garbage · 2014-08-27 07:20:00

I was thinking about how to correctly spawn processes, gui programs etc from the shell in a terminal recently (http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions … om-a-shell). This led me to be interested in how Gnome and KDE and several other desktop environments launch applications. Presumably they all send some sort of command through the shell. Is there some form of standard that has proven to be effective? I have neither Gnome nor KDE on my machine, only DWM.

jasonwryan · 2014-08-27 07:24:24

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_entries

lord.garbage · 2014-08-27 07:59:47

Cheers. I just read the wiki entry. How can I employ desktop entries in an environment like dwm where I do not have something like a desktop where icons are shown. Can I still use these desktop entries somehow and how can I mimic their behavior from the shell i.e. how can I start applications from the shell in the same they I start them from a desktop entry?

jasonwryan · 2014-08-27 08:05:42

I just use dmenu... If I do want to start an app from the shell, I generally open a scratchpad and `application &`.

lord.garbage · 2014-08-27 08:30:40

The thing is I want to get rid of dmenu and spawn applications only from the shell but in order to do that I try to understand how applications are launched within different desktop environments.

lord.garbage · 2014-08-27 08:34:02

So my question comes down to: Do these desktop entries pass some kind of command to a shell i.e. how is the "exec=" field evaluated?

Arch Linux

#1 2014-08-27 07:20:00

How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

#2 2014-08-27 07:24:24

Re: How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

#3 2014-08-27 07:59:47

Re: How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

#4 2014-08-27 08:05:42

Re: How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

#5 2014-08-27 08:30:40

Re: How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

#6 2014-08-27 08:34:02

Re: How do Gnome and KDE launch an application?

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