gridlocdev / LinuxDesktopShortcutBuilder

A desktop application to help simplify creating and installing .desktop files on Linux-based operating systems

Linux Desktop Shortcut Builder

About

I wanted to simplify my own workflow for creating .desktop applications for applications I install in the AppImage format, so I created this application to make it simpler to get things set up!

Built With

• Avalonia UI 11
• .NET 7

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Install the .NET 7 SDK

Installation

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/gridlocdev/LinuxDesktopShortcutBuilder.git

2. Install the project's NuGet packages

   dotnet restore

3. (Optional, if you want the fast version) run dotnet publish -c Release, then use the compiled executable in the project directory: ./LinuxDesktopShortcutBuilder/bin/Release/net7.0/linux-x64/publish/LinuxDesktopShortcutBuilder

Usage

1. (Optional) Find or download an icon that you'd like to use for your application shortcut.

   Note: Icons can usually be found on the app's website, or in a "brand" repository with image assets if the creator is cool enough

2. Run dotnet run in the to launch the application

Roadmap

• Build a basic functional version of the application
• Remove deprecated fields (it looks like "Encoding" and "Terminal" have some things to fix using desktop-file-validate
• Add some additional fields (such as "Category")
• Add ComboBox controls to provide helpful suggestions for frequently used values
• Make it look prettier

Contributing

I'll gladly review pull requests if there are any!

1. Fork the repository
2. Commit locally, then push your changes to the fork
3. Open a Pull Request

Acknowledgements

Here are some helpful resources that I used when creating this project

• ArchLinux Wiki - Desktop entries
• The xdg/desktop-file-utils CLI utilities
• Avalonia UI 11 Documentation
• Microsoft Learn - dotnet publish