Desktop File

About

desktop-file is a tool to create desktop shortcuts for windows and linux.

Installation

To install desktop-file you need python 3 or later with pip installed.
Then you can install it by typing pip install desktop_file or by cloning or downloading this repository on github and executing python setup.py install

Usage

Python

You can use it in your python script like this:

>>> import desktop_file
>>> # get desktop and start menu folders
>>> desktop_file.getDesktopPath()
/home/PyRectangle/Desktop
>>> desktop_file.getMenuPath()
/home/PyRectangle/.local/share/applications
>>> # create a xterm shortcut
>>> shortcut = desktop_file.Shortcut("/home/PyRectangle/Desktop", "xterm", "/usr/bin/xterm")
>>> # Setting the title causes the file to have a different name instead of the file name (only affects linux)
>>> shortcut.setTitle("XTerm")
>>> shortcut.setWorkingDirectory("/home/PyRectangle")
>>> shortcut.setComment("A desktop file to start xterm")
>>> # Only files that contain icons work on Windows
>>> shortcut.setIcon("/usr/share/pixmaps/mini.xterm_48x48.xpm")
>>> # Categories don't have any effects on Windows
>>> shortcut.setCategories("System;")
>>> shortcut.save()

You will find a working shortcut named "XTerm" in the folder "/home/PyRectangle/Desktop"

Command

You can use python -m desktop_file or desktop-file to create shortcuts like this:

desktop-file --exec /usr/bin/xterm --workpath /home/PyRectangle --title XTerm --comment "A desktop file to start xterm" --icon /usr/share/pixmaps/mini.xterm_48x48.xpm --categories "System;" /home/PyRectangle/Desktop/xterm.desktop

You will need to type ".lnk" instead of ".desktop" if you are on Windows.