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It looks like we've acquired quite a few new options in desktop files lately. Some of these are explained in very narrow posts, such as how to add a static quicklist to a Unity LauncherEntry. Others are difficult to find documentation for. We seem to have non-standard items in some Gnome applications, for instance, beginning with X-GNOME-

So the question is: where can I find information about all of these, including these extensions? Are there extensions for all desktop environments, like KDE, Xfce and LXDE as well? In other words, what I am seeking, is a complete desktop file reference. Before you answer, please check for duplicates in http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s05.html. Those are standard and that's a good reference for those. It is all those other types I'm interested in.

Alvar
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Jo-Erlend Schinstad
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  • This may be an impossible question to answer. any 'X-' prefixed name is non-standard tag used by a particular entity. Lots of different entities use them (eg AppInstall) in totally undocumented ways. – Jjed Nov 11 '11 at 19:29
  • I have to agree on this, gnome discussion will take pages or more trying to include all the options for several desktop environments will be a huge task, maybe separating them in to several other smaller questions would be better. I sort of started here with gnome, it much in-complete ofc redirecting to a site with more information but to explain and display all options available for gnome can proof to be too much information, plus all the undocumented options. – Bruno Pereira Nov 11 '11 at 20:06
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    Bruno: your desktop file entries are explained in detail in the URL I provided. But I'm asking here because someone has to know. After all, someone's made these things. We have to do something about the state of documentation in the free world. It just isn't good enough. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Nov 13 '11 at 02:21

2 Answers2

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http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/index.html#introduction

This page has some sort of specs for .desktop files.

Juzer Ali
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There doesn't seem to be any such centralized documentation for all .desktop file options. That would've been nice. I'll mark this as answered for now, but if someone makes such a documentation site, please edit this answer, or add a new one and I'll accept that instead. Because I think the question is valid, even if there are no answers.

Jo-Erlend Schinstad
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