Bug 18373

Summary:	Current desktop file spec unclear on validity of non-set Path entry
Product:	Specifications	Reporter:	Jonathan Thomas <echidnaman>
Component:	desktop-entry	Assignee:	Allison Lortie (desrt) <desrt>
Status:	RESOLVED MOVED	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	medium	CC:	faure
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	Other
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
i915 platform:		i915 features:

Description Jonathan Thomas 2008-11-04 10:37:39 UTC

Currently the fd.o spec regarding .desktop files is unclear about whether or not an actual path has to be specified for the Path entry. Currently .desktop files without paths (such as those from several KDE apps) explicitly passed *do* pass desktop-file-validate (with a warning, but not a failure). KDE can handle these just fine, but Nautilus has troubles.

The thing is that the spec is unclear about whether an unspecified path is valid.

The Desktop Entry Specification as per http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-1.1.html says the following about the value of keys which require a string:
> Values of type string may contain all ASCII characters except for control characters.
Unlike
> Values of type numeric must be a valid floating point number as recognized by the %f specifier for scanf in the C locale.
which clearly states that the key value _must_ be a valid floating point number.

String _may_ contain ASCII chars, but _may_ as well not do that. Numeric must include a valid floating point number, no content at all isn't meeting the requirements.

That coupled with above-mentioned desktop files passing validation makes for a very confusingly-stated standard. It also makes it hard for both sides to address the problems this ambiguous statement presents.

Comment 1 Vincent Untz 2015-09-18 09:41:40 UTC

Sorry for the noise, reassigning to new (since 2 years) maintainers (Ryan & David).

Comment 2 GitLab Migration User 2019-02-16 12:26:14 UTC

-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message --

This bug has been migrated to freedesktop.org's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity.

You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/desktop-file-utils/issues/35.

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