fvwm-menu-desktop(1)

NAME
fvwm-menu-desktop - Reads XDG menu files and creates Fvwm menus

SYNOPSIS
fvwm-menu-desktop [ --help|-h ] [ --version|-v ] [ --install-prefix DIR ] [ --desktop NAME ] [ --menu-type NAME ] [ --theme NAME ] [ --with-titles|-w ] [ --enable-mini-icons ] [ --size|-s NUM ] [ --mini-icon-dir|-t DIR ] [ --title|-t NAME ] [ --insert-in-menu NAME ] [ --get-menus all|desktop ] [ --set-menus menu_paths ] [ --verbose ]

DESCRIPTION
This is a python script which parses XDG menus definitions to build corresponding fvwm menus.

OPTIONS

Main Options

--help
    Show the help and exit.

--version
    Show the version and exit.

--install-prefix DIR
    Optional parameter to override the standard locations for XDG menu definitions. The standard locations are /etc/xdg/menus (and $HOME/.config/menus if it exists).

--desktop NAME
    Optional parameter to override the NAME of the main desktop environment installed on the system. If a system offers multiple desktop environments $XDG_MENU_PREFIX is typically set and is ignored if --desktop is denoted. Possible names are: gnome, kde, xfce, lxde, debian, etc.

--menu-type NAME
    Defines which type of menus should be found. Possible NAME types could be: applications, settings, preferences, etc. Note that if the specified menu type doesn't exist the generated menu is empty!

--theme NAME
    Defines the used icon theme. Default is gnome but all others found in /usr/share/icons could be used except the hicolor theme because it's the default fallback theme if no icon is found.

--with-titles|-w
    If this option is set menus are generated with titles. Default is no titles.

--title|-t NAME
    Option to define the menu title NAME of the top menu used by Fvwm's Popup command. Default is "FvwmMenu".

--insert-in-menu NAME
    Option to insert generated menu(s) IN a menu NAME (its top title). Note that this option does not work correctly with the Regnerate Menus menu entry in a normal built menu since items inserted into such a menu cannot be removed (currently). If you use this option there and want to update your menus, you have to restart fvwm. A better way is to use dynamic menus (see the example in the USAGE section).

--get-menus all|desktop
    Prints a space separated list of full menu paths. all is all menus on the system except empty ones. desktop is desktop related menus. No menu generation is done. This option is meant for use with the configuration tool.

--set-menus menu_paths
    Expects a space separated list of full menu paths to generate user specified menus This option is meant for use with the configuration tool.

--verbose
    Enables additional information printouts on STDERR.

Icons Options
    By default, fvwm-menu-desktop builds menus without mini-icons. To enable mini-icons use:

--enable-mini-icons
    This option enables mini-icons in the menus. If set, 24x24 mini-icons are used. If the specified icon isn't that size it will be converted if ImageMagick is installed and saved in $HOME/.fvwm/icons or to the directory specified with --mini-icon-dir option. Otherwise no icon appears in the menu for that entry. With most distributions, all the menu entries will have mini-icons appropriate to the application.

--size|-s NUM
    If --enable-mini-icons is used the size of the icons can changed with this parameter. Default is 24.

--mini-icon-dir DIR
    When the right size mini-icon isn't available, fvwm-menu-desktop creates icons with the right size in $HOME/.fvwm/icons. If you don't want to use the default directory, $HOME/.fvwm/icons, use this option to specify a different folder.

USAGE
Without any parameters fvwm-menu-desktop creates a menu named "FvwmMenu" with sub menus found for the main desktop environment installed on the system. To add the default generated menu to the "Root" menu add the following to your fvwm config file (~/.fvwm/config or ~/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc). This generates the menu each time you pop it up:
        AddToMenu MenuRoot "XDG Menus" Popup FvwmMenu
        PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop'
This is likely to be too slow and is not recommended. Another possibility is to use DynamicPopupAction, the menu will be built only if you pop up the menu. The following creates a "KDE Menus" menu which contains all Kde menus found on the system which is built only the first time you pop it up:
        AddToMenu MenuRoot "KDE Menus" Popup FvwmKde
         ...
        AddToMenu FvwmKde
        + DynamicPopupAction PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --desktop kde \
                                                         --title FvwmKde \
                                                         --enable-mini-icons \
                                                         [other options]'
The example above generates a menu with the Xdg menus as sub menus. If the sub menus should appear one level higher do this:
        AddToMenu MenuRoot "Root Menu" Title
        + PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --insert-in-menu MenuRoot'
To generate single menus like preferences:
        fvwm-menu-desktop --desktop kde --menu-type preferences --title FvwmPref \
                          --enable-mini-icons -size 16 --with-titles
This generates a single KDE Preferences menu with top title "FvwmPref", mini icons with a size of 16x16 pixels and titles for each sub menu. But only if a menu with the name preferences exists in the users or system wide Xdg directories. Else it's empty! To add the generated menu to the "Utilities" menu for example put the following to your fvwm config file (~/.fvwm/config or ~/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc):
        AddToMenu Utilities "Preferences Menu" Popup FvwmPref
        PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --desktop kde --menu-type preferences \
                                    --title FvwmPref [other options]'
If you think that fvwm-menu-desktop slows down your menu startup too much do not use PipeRead. Instead run fvwm-menu-desktop and redirect the menu to a file and read that file in your .fvwm2rc file.
        AddToMenu MenuRoot "XDG Menus" Popup FvwmMenu
         ...
        AddToMenu FvwmMenu
        + DynamicPopupAction Function FuncRecreateXdgMenus
         ...
        DestroyFunc FuncRecreateXdgMenus
        AddToFunc   FuncRecreateXdgMenus
        + I Test (f  $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu) Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu
        + I TestRC (!Match) PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop > $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu \
                                      &&  echo "Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu"'
or if you want to show the menus directly in a normal "Root" menu use this:
        AddToMenu MenuRoot "Root Menu" Title
        + FuncXdgMenusInRoot
         ...
        DestroyFunc FuncXdgMenusInRoot
        AddToFunc   FuncXdgMenusInRoot
        + I Test (f  $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu) Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu
        + I TestRC (!Match) PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --insert-in-menu MenuRoot \
                                      > $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu \
                                      && echo "Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu"'
The problem here is, that you have to restart fvwm because items insserted into such a menu cannot be removed. For that BOTH menus must be regenerated:
        AddToMenu MenuRoot DynamicPopupAction FuncMenuRoot
        DestroyFunc FuncMenuRoot
        AddToFunc FuncMenuRoot
        + I DestroyMenu MenuRoot
        + I AddToMenu MenuRoot DynamicPopupAction FuncMenuRoot
        + I AddToMenu MenuRoot "Root Menu" Title
        + I Popup XdgMenus
        AddToMenu XdgMenus DynamicPopupAction FuncXdgMenusInRoot
        DestroyFunc FuncXdgMenusInRoot
        AddToFunc FuncXdgMenusInRoot
        + I AddToMenu XdgMenus DynamicPopupAction FuncXdgMenusInRoot
        + I Test (f  $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu) Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu
        + I TestRC (!Match) PipeRead 'fvwm-menu-desktop --insert-in-menu MenuRoot \
                                      > $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu \
                                      && echo "Read $[FVWM_USERDIR]/.menu"'

GUI
There's a FvwmForm GUI to setup the menu generation manually. It is found in the root of the generated menu called "Regenerate XDG Menu(s)". Or it can be started from within FvwmConsole with
        Module FvwmPerl -l fvwm-menu-desktop-config.fpl

BUGS
The whole process of creating menus from files is slow. Otherwise report bugs to the fvwm-workers mailing list <fvwm-workers@fvwm.org>.

AUTHORS
This script is based on fvwm-xdg-menu.py written by Piotr Zielinski (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pz215/) who assigned Licence: GPL 2 Date: 03.12.2005. The script was reworked to replace the existing fvwm-menu-desktop perl script by the fvwm-workers.

COPYING
The script is distributed by the same terms as fvwm itself. See GNU General Public License for details.