how to create shortcut for an application?

Question

I just successfully opened Godot Engine. It was a .64 file that I learned to run in Terminal with chmod.

Is there a way to add a Shortcut for the Application on my Desktop?.

Answer 1

The solution to this are .desktop files. The simplest .desktop entry looks like this but you can add many things like an icon and so on. These 3 keywords are the only one which are needed for it to work:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=NameOfYourApplication
Exec=CommandToExecute

You have to save it as $HOME/.local/share/applications/CustomName.desktop But if you want it to be executable for every user, save it as /usr/share/applications/CustomName.desktop. You need root permissions to access that folder though.

Then you have to make it executable (chmod u+x /path/to/your/file.desktop).

Finally, you have to add a symbolic link to your Desktop with

ln -s /path/to/your/file.desktop $HOME/Desktop/NameItHowEverYouLike