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How to view executable command associated with various application icons in start menu?
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Linux Booter
Aug 9, 2022, 1:37:58 PM8/9/22
to
Hello !
My first attempt to shift on to linux from windows. Linux Mint,
20.3 Cinnamon.
Windows start menu icons usually have a path associated with them which
points to an executable file. This path is visible when one right clicks
and goes to properties etc ... similarly, in case of linux mint, how do
I know which command is getting executed and where is the executable
file located for application icons in the start menu?
Eg. I installed 'Onboard' flexible onscreen keyboard ... how to see
which command runs and the path to the executable file that runs when I
click on the Onboard application icon in the start menu to start the
program.
I want to know this so that I can put that command on one of the hot
corners to start the Onboard application that way !
System info-
https://termbin.com/rp7a
Thanks.
My first attempt to shift on to linux from windows. Linux Mint,
20.3 Cinnamon.
Windows start menu icons usually have a path associated with them which
points to an executable file. This path is visible when one right clicks
and goes to properties etc ... similarly, in case of linux mint, how do
I know which command is getting executed and where is the executable
file located for application icons in the start menu?
Eg. I installed 'Onboard' flexible onscreen keyboard ... how to see
which command runs and the path to the executable file that runs when I
click on the Onboard application icon in the start menu to start the
program.
I want to know this so that I can put that command on one of the hot
corners to start the Onboard application that way !
System info-
https://termbin.com/rp7a
Thanks.
Marco Moock
Aug 9, 2022, 1:46:06 PM8/9/22
to
Am Dienstag, 09. August 2022, um 23:07:48 Uhr schrieb Linux Booter:
> Windows start menu icons usually have a path associated with them
> which points to an executable file. This path is visible when one
> right clicks and goes to properties etc ... similarly, in case of
> linux mint, how do I know which command is getting executed and where
> is the executable file located for application icons in the start
> menu?
Look at the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications and
> Windows start menu icons usually have a path associated with them
> which points to an executable file. This path is visible when one
> right clicks and goes to properties etc ... similarly, in case of
> linux mint, how do I know which command is getting executed and where
> is the executable file located for application icons in the start
> menu?
~/.local/share/applications
These are text files, you can view them with cat or with any text
editor like vi.
Then there is a like Exec, this is the command.
Exec=xskat
Mike Easter
Aug 9, 2022, 2:05:28 PM8/9/22
to
Linux Booter wrote:
> Windows start menu icons usually have a path associated with them which
> points to an executable file.
Similarly, if you R click the Menu/Start button/ Configure/ (top of
> Windows start menu icons usually have a path associated with them which
> points to an executable file.
window title bar select menu) / (lower part of top panel - box) Open the
menu editor/ (find the menu item which you have installed) - then you
can use Properties to see the/its command, which is 'onboard' (no
quotes) - but that doesn't give you the Path.
I can also use Synaptic to show me the Properties of installed programs
which shows me that onboard and its settings is in usr/bin and its docs
are in usr/share/doc/onboard/ -- there's even a 'hacking' doc in there.
--
Mike Easter
Big Al
Aug 9, 2022, 2:43:55 PM8/9/22
to
will show you where.
There's always more than one way to skin a cat!
Al
Mike Easter
Aug 9, 2022, 2:51:15 PM8/9/22
to
Big Al wrote:
> Also, if you know the program is onboard from the menu editor, opening a
> terminal window and typing 'whereis onboard' will show you where.
>
> There's always more than one way to skin a cat!
I especially like to know both graphical and command methods to do
> Also, if you know the program is onboard from the menu editor, opening a
> terminal window and typing 'whereis onboard' will show you where.
>
> There's always more than one way to skin a cat!
something.
It takes a lot less keystrokes in a news message to tell someone how to
do something graphically 'elaborate' than to tell it as a command.
$ whereis onboard
onboard: /usr/bin/onboard /usr/share/onboard
/usr/share/man/man1/onboard.1.gz
--
Mike Easter
Mike Easter
Aug 9, 2022, 2:53:56 PM8/9/22
to
Mike Easter wrote:
> It takes a lot less keystrokes in a news message to tell someone how to
> do something graphically 'elaborate' than to tell it as a command.
That came out (sorta) backwards.
> It takes a lot less keystrokes in a news message to tell someone how to
> do something graphically 'elaborate' than to tell it as a command.
It takes less keystrokes in the msg to explain w/ a command.
Somehow that 'than' crept in and confuses me.
--
Mike Easter
Linux Booter
Aug 9, 2022, 3:38:23 PM8/9/22
to
bad sector
Aug 9, 2022, 10:57:46 PM8/9/22
to
Jeff Layman
Aug 18, 2022, 5:18:30 PM8/18/22
to
for the game "Mines":
jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$ whereis Mines
Mines:
jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$
Is the path hidden in some way?
--
Jeff
David W. Hodgins
Aug 18, 2022, 5:55:57 PM8/18/22
to
On Thu, 18 Aug 2022 17:18:28 -0400, Jeff Layman <Je...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> When I tried that, no path appeared. For example, looking for the path
> for the game "Mines":
> jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$ whereis Mines
> Mines:
> jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$
>
> Is the path hidden in some way?
The whereis command is only useful if you already know the file name.
> When I tried that, no path appeared. For example, looking for the path
> for the game "Mines":
> jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$ whereis Mines
> Mines:
> jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$
>
> Is the path hidden in some way?
For example
$ whereis kmines
kmines: /usr/bin/kmines /usr/share/kmines
or
$ whereis gnome-mines
gnome-mines: /usr/bin/gnome-mines /usr/share/gnome-mines /usr/share/man/man6/gnome-mines.6.xz
Menu entries usually have a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/
though other places may be used.
My preferred method of searching for a file by partial name uses tree and grep.
$ tree -ifa /usr/share/applications/|grep -i mines
/usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Mines.desktop
/usr/share/applications/org.kde.kmines.desktop
To find the executable, look at the Exec line in the desktop file
$ grep ^Exec /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Mines.desktop
Exec=gnome-mines
Exec=gnome-mines --small
Exec=gnome-mines --medium
Exec=gnome-mines --big
$ grep ^Exec /usr/share/applications/org.kde.kmines.desktop
Exec=kmines -qwindowtitle %c
Regards, Dave Hodgins
Jeff Layman
Aug 19, 2022, 4:53:16 AM8/19/22
to
It seems a bit chicken and egg to me, in that I have to know the actual
file name to find it. If the file name doesn't contain the app name or
is a version of it, you might not know. What if, for example, the game
"Mines" had a file name of "mns"? Or searching on "colour" wouldn't
work, but "color" would.
I did find a simpler method, but don't know if it would work for
everything. Just right-clicking on the menu entry offered "Add to
desktop". Doing that, right-clicking on the file, and looking at
Properties | Basic | Command showed that to be "sgt-mines". Doing a
"whereis" on that name resulted in:
jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$ whereis sgt-mines
sgt-mines: /usr/games/sgt-mines /usr/share/man/man6/sgt-mines.6.gz
jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$
It's probably that this is just a version of Mike's first post.
--
Jeff
Kenny McCormack
Aug 19, 2022, 6:21:00 AM8/19/22
to
In article <tdnj1q$1drk2$1...@dont-email.me>,
Jeff Layman <Je...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
...
haven't already done so - normally, this is about the first thing I install
on any fresh OS install).
Then do something like:
$ locate -i mines | grep bin
The -i makes it search case-insensitively. Grepping for bin looks for only
the executable - there may be lots of other files scattered around the
system that you're not really interested in.
You will usually find it somewhere, in some "bin" directory...
--
Marshall: 10/22/51
Jessica: 4/4/79
Jeff Layman <Je...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
...
>It seems a bit chicken and egg to me, in that I have to know the actual
>file name to find it. If the file name doesn't contain the app name or
>is a version of it, you might not know. What if, for example, the game
>"Mines" had a file name of "mns"? Or searching on "colour" wouldn't
>work, but "color" would.
The method that I usually use is to install the "locate" package (if you
>file name to find it. If the file name doesn't contain the app name or
>is a version of it, you might not know. What if, for example, the game
>"Mines" had a file name of "mns"? Or searching on "colour" wouldn't
>work, but "color" would.
haven't already done so - normally, this is about the first thing I install
on any fresh OS install).
Then do something like:
$ locate -i mines | grep bin
The -i makes it search case-insensitively. Grepping for bin looks for only
the executable - there may be lots of other files scattered around the
system that you're not really interested in.
You will usually find it somewhere, in some "bin" directory...
--
Marshall: 10/22/51
Jessica: 4/4/79
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