A new addition to desktop-file-utils? (Repost)

[Jeff Abbott]

On Oct 6, 2006, at 4:39 PM, Brian J. Tarricone wrote:

> 1.  If it's going into a cross-desktop set of utility programs, the
> calls to gnome_desktop_file_*() have to go.  It should't be too  
> hard to
> just fopen() the file, fgets() each line until you see "[Desktop
> Entry]", then, assuming you don't see another line starting with '[',
> grab the first line that starts with "Exec=", "Name=", etc.

I was using these functions because they're already in use in the  
desktop-file-utils toolset.  I agree, though, and while I haven't dug  
through all the source -- and don't really have the time to do so  
right now -- it looks like those are purely names and don't have any  
actual connection to GNOME.  Thus, they could easily be renamed to  
have more cross-desktop-friendly names and still provide internal  
consistency for desktop-file-utils.  Dunno what external stuff that  
might break, though.  I'd be willing to work up a patch for that, if  
there was interest, and if my tool would be better suited outside of  
desktop-file-utils I've got nothing against doing what little parsing  
I need done the manual way, as you mention.

> 2.  Instead of using system() and returning its exit code, you should
> use one of the exec*() functions instead.

To be honest, I used system() because it did the job I wanted and  
seemed to do so well enough.  Is there a reason for preferring exec* 
() to it?  I've got no problem with using one of the exec*()s, though  
it was convenient to simply pass the string straight to system()  
without having to do any coercion to make it fit the array params for  
the execv*() functions that seemed to be the ones I might want.

> 3.  Just use fprintf(stderr, ...) and avoid needing glib at all.

I was using Glib because it was already there for the other desktop- 
file-utils stuff.  Again, if I were to divorce the tool from that  
toolset, though, I'd be up for removing Glib as a dependency.

> 4.  Your use of strcat() is unsafe.

Should I be using strncat() instead?  Something else?

Thanks a bunch for the feedback,
Jeff