[SOLVED] how to find console command for an application

pradtf · 2021-06-11 22:33:30

sometimes it is easy, but sometimes it's not, afaik!

for instance:

Drawing
A drawing application fro the GNOME desktop
https://maoschanz.github.io/drawing/

can be install using Software (version 40.2 on my system)

i can launch from Super key because it shows up as Drawing.
i can see it running top as drawing under the Command column.

however, i can't launch from terminal as drawing or Drawing because neither exist.
which drawing or draw give "not found"

when i go to /usr/share/application/*.desktop, there is nothing there resembling drawing.
if i grep -i draw or drawing i only get libreoffice stuff and gkbd-keyboard-display.

i can't even find how to install it except through Software, since i don't know what to call it!
nor can i find what it is installed as:
pacman -Qs draw doesn't locate it

it shows up as drawing in the arch repo:
https://archlinux.org/packages/?q=drawing
https://archlinux.org/packages/community/any/drawing/

finally, i checked the package contents where it shows:
/usr/bin/drawing (which doesn't exist)
/usr/share/applications/com.github.maoschanz.drawing.desktop (also doesn't exist)

and tried searching for maoschanz.drawing.desktop which i found in /var (of all places!):
sudo find /var/ -name "*maoschanz.drawing.desktop*"

and found the .desktop file in the obscure location:
/var/lib/flatpak/app/com.github.maoschanz.drawing/x86_64/stable/a818bff897a85213e6f22369cb5e1d08d752cf6a7b907aa06d1fe28bed424b79/export/share/applications/com.github.maoschanz.drawing.desktop

after examining that file, i was able to run drawing with the file's EXEC parameter:
/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=drawing --file-forwarding com.github.maoschanz.drawing

so is there a simpler way to find the console command for this elusive application?!!

Last edited by pradtf (2021-06-12 06:00:35)

schard · 2021-06-11 23:40:43

gnome-software uses flatpak to install packages.
Those will not be tracked by pacman.
Also flatpak packages have a different structure and content than pacman packages.
However, Drawing is also available as a pacman package in the official repos.
You can search those for their available binaries with

# pacman -Fly drawing | grep usr/bin

Last edited by schard (2021-06-11 23:45:15)

pradtf · 2021-06-12 05:59:43

schard wrote:

gnome-software uses flatpak to install packages.
Those will not be tracked by pacman.
Also flatpak packages have a different structure and content than pacman packages.
However, Drawing is also available as a pacman package in the official repos.
You can search those for their available binaries with
# pacman -Fly drawing | grep usr/bin

hey thx schard!!
this is really cool!

i didn't know about this Fly thing or even what to do with it.

here's what i learned though:

1. Fly gave me what's there in this link:
https://archlinux.org/packages/community/any/drawing/

2. i can use the "download from mirror" link at the right like this:
sudo pacman -U "https://archlinux.org/packages/communit … /download/"
and it'll install the package!

now it's in /usr/bin/

i also did pacman -Uw, so i can just download the stuff to:
/var/cache/pacman/pkg/drawing-0.8.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

extracted it to see we have:
usr/bin
usr/share

neat stuff! and thx again!

Arch Linux

#1 2021-06-11 22:33:30

[SOLVED] how to find console command for an application

#2 2021-06-11 23:40:43

Re: [SOLVED] how to find console command for an application

#3 2021-06-12 05:59:43

Re: [SOLVED] how to find console command for an application

Board footer