A spec to set default terminal applications?

[Vladimir Kudrya]

Hi. Let's dust off this thread.

I'm starting to transition xdg-terminal-exec to use stock entries 
filtered by "TerminalEmulator" in Categories key.

On 31/08/2018 16.35, Jan Tojnar wrote:
> Reusing `Categories` key would be nice, but we would still need 
> `category-defaults.list` for actually choosing the default 
> representant for each category, would not we?
>
> Caching is a good point, we would need to create some mechanism no 
> matter which solution we choose – for instance, if some of the actions 
> were optional, they would probably need to be cached as well.
>
> On Fri, 31 Aug, 2018 at 2:54 PM, PCMan <pcman.tw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi again,
>> There is another way to make this xdg terminal exec stuff more
>> standard compliant by reusing XDG menu spec.
>> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apas02.html
>> We can parse all desktop entry files and collect every one with
>> Category=TerminalEmulator to generate a list of terminal emulators.
>> This way we don't have to manually maintain a terminal.list file.
>> Of course parsing all of the *.desktop files is slow so we will need
>> something like "update-mime-database" to generate the list.
>>
>> To provide desktop entry files for those apps which are not shipped
>> with their own, we can install desktop files for them.
>> set XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/terminal-emulators:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
>>
>> And just add our own desktop entry files in
>> /usr/share/terminal-emulators/*.desktop for those terminals which do
>> not have desktop entries.
>> So we don't need to invent another spec to manage the terminals.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 8:46 PM PCMan <pcman.tw at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Hello,
>>>  Just took a look at xdg-terminal-exec and I liked the idea.
>>>  Actually I figured out something similar previously but did not 
>>> write any code.
>>>  There is, however, one thing I'd like to propose to make the spec 
>>> more complete.
>>>  Use the Desktop Entry Actions.
>>>
>>> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html#extra-actions 
>>>
>>>
>>>  Then, for each desktop entry file of a terminal emulator, we define
>>>  some standard actions:
>>>  * OpenDirInWindow: a command to open a dir in a new tab
>>>  * OpenDirInTab: a command to open a dir in a new tab
>>>  * ExecInWindow: a command to run a program in a new window
>>>  * ExecInTab: a command to run a program in a new tab
>>>
>>>  When the "InTab" actions are not defined in the desktop entry file,
>>>  fallback to the "InWindow" version.
>>>  This should cover most of the common operations when we need a 
>>> terminal window.
>>>
>>>  For example, we can write xterm.desktop like this
>>>  [Desktop Entry]
>>>  Name=Gnome Terminal
>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal
>>>  Actions=OpenDirInWindow;
>>>
>>>  [Desktop Action OpenDirInWindow]
>>>  Name=Open Directory in Terminal
>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal --window --working-directory %f
>>>
>>>  [Desktop Action OpenDirInTab]
>>>  Name=Open Directory in Terminal
>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal --tab --working-directory %f
>>>
>>>  [Desktop Action ExecInWindow]
>>>  Name=Execute in Terminal
>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal -e %f
>>>
>>>  In this way, we reuse the existing spec and support various kinds 
>>> of operations.
>>>  The only drawback is %f means a file name, but what we need to pass to
>>>  the terminal emulator is actually a full command line with args.
>>>
>>>  Just my two cents.
>>>
>>>  On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 3:36 PM Vladimir Kudrya 
>>> <vladimir-csp at yandex.ru> wrote:
>>>  >
>>>  > Couple of notes.
>>>  >
>>>  > xdg-terminal-exec in its current form is a minimum intervention
>>>  > solution: you need to place desktop files for some terminals, 
>>> then use
>>>  > xdg-terminal-exec itself as a command to launch terminal.
>>>  >
>>>  > ArgPrefix has a solid generic use case: there was a bug in 
>>> Ocrfeeder:
>>>  > https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=767732 It required an
>>>  > argument to open file, but no argument to just launch the app. 
>>> Current
>>>  > desktop entry spec can not handle this via single desktop entry.
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  > I'll try to sum up, simplify, and build upon Jan's and Ian's 
>>> proposals.
>>>  >
>>>  > Fields for destop entries:
>>>  > MimeType: what app can open
>>>  > MimeTypeView: what app can open for viewing
>>>  > MimeTypeEdit: what app can open for edit
>>>  > Intent: what actions app represents (analogous to MimeType, like:
>>>  > x-intent/terminal, x-intent/increase-brightness.) Choosing goes
>>>  > alongside mimetypes and schemes into mimeapps.list hierarchy.
>>>  > ArgPrefix: argument(s) to be added to the beginning of command 
>>> line if
>>>  > there are other arguments provided.
>>>  >
>>>  > With all above:
>>>  > xdg-open some.file: current behavior
>>>  > xdg-open --edit some.file: uses MimeTypeEdit choices.
>>>  > xdg-open --view some.file: uses MimeTypeView choices.
>>>  > xdg-intent terminal: opens terminal.
>>>  > xdg-intent termianl foo --bar: runs foo --bar in chosen terminal, 
>>> using
>>>  > ArgPrefix if needed. IMHO one of the few intents that would ever 
>>> require
>>>  > arguments.
>>>  >
>>>  > This strategy is backward-compatible, uses same data and config
>>>  > hierarchies, works without dbus (I don't want to touch it even 
>>> with ten
>>>  > meter stick), 'xdg-intent terminal' can be used as drop in for 
>>> terminal
>>>  > emulators. (xdg-terminal as wrapper to get rid of that space?).
>>>  > _______________________________________________
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>>>  > xdg at lists.freedesktop.org
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