Bug 85938

Summary: Add DesktopNames key to the specification
Product: Specifications Reporter: Yves-Alexis <corsac>
Component: desktop-entryAssignee: Lars Uebernickel <lars>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: medium CC: desrt
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
Whiteboard:
i915 platform: i915 features:
Attachments: desktop-entry-spec: document DesktopNames

Description Yves-Alexis 2014-11-05 20:25:34 UTC
As requested by mail, it'd be nice to update the desktop entry specification to handle the DesktopNames key, which is used by DM to set the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable.
Comment 1 Allison Lortie (desrt) 2014-11-09 17:04:58 UTC
I'm confused about what this would do and why it's needed.

Can you link the mail that you refer to?
Comment 2 Yves-Alexis 2014-11-09 20:54:28 UTC
(In reply to Ryan Lortie (desrt) from comment #1)
> I'm confused about what this would do and why it's needed.
> 
> Can you link the mail that you refer to?

Actually the mail was to Lars Uebernickel. Here it is, along with his reply:

> On Mon, Oct 20, 2014, at 15:54, Yves-Alexis Perez wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm the maintainer of lightdm and Xfce in Debian, and I recently noted
> > the support for XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP and DesktopNames property in GDM [1]
> > 
> > LightDM previously used X-LightDM-DesktopName and now switched to
> > DesktopNames, but it seems that this key is not yet present in the
> > latest Desktop Entry Specification [2]. Is the addition planned?

> Ah thanks, I guess you're right. Can you please file a bug about that
> and assign me or Ryan Lortie.

> > [1] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=727546
> > [2] http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html#recognized-keys
Comment 3 Allison Lortie (desrt) 2015-03-01 01:29:53 UTC
Hi -- sorry about the delay in replying; my email has been messed up with respect to freedesktop bugs for the past while.

I think the confusion here is that xsession files are not *really* desktop files, but another type of file.

The question is then where this file format is documented, and the answer currently appears to be "nowhere".  hrmph.
Comment 4 Yves-Alexis 2015-03-01 13:11:20 UTC
(In reply to Ryan Lortie (desrt) from comment #3)
> Hi -- sorry about the delay in replying; my email has been messed up with
> respect to freedesktop bugs for the past while.
> 
> I think the confusion here is that xsession files are not *really* desktop
> files, but another type of file.
> 
> The question is then where this file format is documented, and the answer
> currently appears to be "nowhere".  hrmph.

And would it hurt to still add it to the desktop spec?
Comment 5 Allison Lortie (desrt) 2015-03-01 16:43:01 UTC
(In reply to Yves-Alexis from comment #4)
> And would it hurt to still add it to the desktop spec?

Being that this key has no place in a desktop file, I'd say that it would be bad to add it to the spec.
Comment 6 Allison Lortie (desrt) 2015-03-01 16:48:55 UTC
okay, here's the plan:

We can document this, not as a proper key, but as an extra paragraph under the OnlyShowIn key.  The desktop file already acts as the "home" of XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP, so why not explain how we expect this variable to get set?
Comment 7 Allison Lortie (desrt) 2015-03-01 16:55:43 UTC
Created attachment 113899 [details] [review]
desktop-entry-spec: document DesktopNames

Document the DesktopNames key as the mechanism by which
the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable is expected to be set.

We don't document this as a key in the normal way, because it is not a
valid key for desktop files.  We only include a mention of it here
because the desktop entry spec is more or less the "home" of what
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP means, and the mechanism by which it is normally set
should be part of that definition.
Comment 8 Lars Uebernickel 2015-03-01 17:00:02 UTC
Comment on attachment 113899 [details] [review]
desktop-entry-spec: document DesktopNames

Review of attachment 113899 [details] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Looks good to me. Thanks!
Comment 9 Allison Lortie (desrt) 2015-03-01 17:02:04 UTC
Okay.  Pushed.

Use of freedesktop.org services, including Bugzilla, is subject to our Code of Conduct. How we collect and use information is described in our Privacy Policy.