Linux::DesktopFiles(3)

NAME
Linux::DesktopFiles - Fast parsing of the Linux desktop files.

SYNOPSIS
  use Linux::DesktopFiles;
  my $obj = Linux::DesktopFiles->new( terminalize => 1 );
  print join("\n", $obj->get_desktop_files);
  my $hash_ref = $obj->parse_desktop_files;

DESCRIPTION
The "Linux::DesktopFiles", a very fast and simple way to parse the Linux desktop files.

CONSTRUCTOR METHODS
The following constructor methods are available:

$obj = Linux::DesktopFiles->new( %options )
    This method constructs a new "Linux::DesktopFiles" object and returns it. Key/value pair arguments may be provided to set up the initial state.

    By default,

        Linux::DesktopFiles->new();

    is equivalent with:

        Linux::DesktopFiles->new(

            terminal               => $ENV{TERM},
            terminalize            => 0,
            terminalization_format => "%s -e '%s'",

            skip_entry       => [],
            skip_filename_re => [],
            substitutions    => [],

            desktop_files_paths => ['/usr/local/share/applications',
                                    '/usr/share/applications'],

            keys_to_keep        => ["Name", "Exec", "Icon"],
            categories          => [qw( Utility
                                        Development
                                        Education
                                        Game
                                        Graphics
                                        AudioVideo
                                        Network
                                        Office
                                        Settings
                                        System
                                   )],

            case_insensitive_cats   => 0,
            keep_unknown_categories => 0,
            unknown_category_key    => 'Other',
          );

  Main options

desktop_files_paths => ['dir1', 'dir2', ...]
    Sets the directories where to find the desktop files.

keys_to_keep => [qw(Name Exec Icon Comment ...)]
    Any valid keys from the desktop files to keep in the results from "parse_desktop_file". The Categories key is implicitly included.

categories => [qw(Graphics Network AudioVideo ...)]
    Any valid categories from the desktop files. Any category not listed will be ignored or stored in the unknown_category_key when "keep_unknown_categories" is set to a true value.

  Other options

keep_unknown_categories => $bool
    When an entry is not part of any specified category, it will be stored inside the unknown category, specified by unknown_category_key.

unknown_category_key => $name
    Category name where to store the entries which do not belong to any specified category.

case_insensitive_cats => $bool
    This option makes the category names case insensitive, by lowercasing and replacing any non-alphanumeric characters with an underscore. For example, "X-XFCE" becomes "x_xfce".

terminal => $command
    This terminal command will be used when terminalize is set to a true value.

terminalize => $bool
    When the value of Terminal is true, modify the Exec value to something like:

        terminal -e 'command'

    This option will include the "Terminal" key inside the keys_to_keep array.

terminalization_format => q{%s -e '%s'}
    Format used by "sprintf()" to terminalize a command which requires to be executed inside a terminal.

    Used internally as:

        sprintf($self->{terminalization_format}, $self->{terminal}, $entry{Exec});

  Regex options

skip_filename_re => qr/regex/
    Skip any desktop file if its file name matches the regex.

    NOTE: File names are from the last slash to the end.

skip_entry  => [{key => 'KeyName', re => qr/REGEX/i}, {...}]
    Skip any desktop file if the value from a given key matches a regular expression.

    The key can be any valid key from the desktop files.

    Example:

            skip_entry => [
                {key => 'Name', re => qr/(?:about|terminal)/i},
                {key => 'Exec', re => qr/xterm/},
            ],

substitutions => [{key => 'KeyName', re => qr/REGEX/i, value => 'Value'}, {...}]
    Substitute, by using a regex, in the returned values from desktop files.

    The key can be any valid key from the desktop files.

    The re can be any valid regular expression. Anything matched by the regex, will be replaced with the string stored in value.

    For global matching/substitution, set the global key to a true value.

    Example:

            substitutions => [
                {key => 'Exec', re => qr/xterm/,    value => 'sakura'},
                {key => 'Exec', re => qr/\$HOME\b/, value => '/my/home', global => 1},
            ],

SUBROUTINES/METHODS

$obj->get_desktop_files()
    Returns a list with the absolute paths to all desktop files from desktop_files_paths.

    In scalar context, returns an ARRAY reference.

$obj->parse(\%hash, @desktop_files)
    Parse a list of desktop files into a HASH ref, where the keys of the HASH are the categories from desktop files and the values are ARRAY references containing information about each entry, as returned by "parse_desktop_file()".

$obj->parse_desktop_file($desktop_file)
    Parse a given desktop file and return a key-value list as a result.

    Example:

        my %info = $obj->parse_desktop_file($desktop_file);

    where %info might look something like this:

        my %info = (
            Name       => "...",
            Exec       => "...",
            Icon       => "...",
            Categories => ["...", "...", "..."],
        );

    When keep_unknown_categories is true and a given entry does not belong to any category, "parse_desktop_file" will set Categories to ["unknown_category_key"].

    Returns a HASH reference in scalar contenxt.

    When a given file cannot be parsed or its specified as Hidden or NoDisplay, an empty list is returned (undef in scalar context).

$obj->parse_desktop_files()
    It returns a HASH reference categorized on category names, with ARRAY references as values, each ARRAY containing a HASH reference with the keys specified in the keys_to_keep option, and values from the desktop files.

    The returned HASH reference may look something like this:

            {
              Utility => [ {Exec => "...", Name => "..."}, {Exec => "...", Name => "..."} ],
              Network => [ {Exec => "...", Name => "..."}, {Exec => "...", Name => "..."} ],
            }

    This function is equivalent with:

        $obj->parse(\%hash, $obj->get_desktop_files);

    In list contenxt, it returns a key-value list, while, in scalar context, it returns a HASH reference.

REPOSITORY
<https://github.com/trizen/Linux-DesktopFiles>

AUTHOR
Daniel "Trizen" Șuteu, <trizenx@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2012-2017

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.14.2 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

SEE ALSO
File::DesktopEntry and X11::FreeDesktop::DesktopEntry