APP2UNIT(1)

✨ APP2UNIT(1) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the app2unit(1) page — general commands manual, but make it a group chat 💅

the whole fam of commands lives here, and they're all the same vibe with different defaults baked in: app2unit, app2unit-open, app2unit-term, app2unit-open-scope, app2unit-open-service, app2unit-term-scope, and app2unit-term-service 🎀

it's literally your application launcher, your file opener, and your default terminal launcher for systemd environments. main character energy fr fr 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

app2unit [options] [--] {entry-id.desktop | entry-id.desktop:action-id |
command} [args ...]

app2unit -T [options] [--] [entry-id.desktop |
entry-id.desktop:action-id | command] [args ...]

app2unit -O [options] [--] {URL|Path ...}

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

app2unit launches applications by their Desktop Entry IDs, or by arbitrary command lines. and the way it does it? it launches them as systemd user units — slay ✨

with the -O option it can open files or URLs in the applications associated with them 🫶

with the -T option it can force the application to run in a terminal, or just open the default terminal (utilizing xdg-terminal-exec). iconic behavior honestly 💅

and here's a cute little trick: symlinks with specially suffixed names can be used to pre-select some modes and unit types with a single command 🧚

• app2unit-open
• app2unit-open-scope
• app2unit-open-service
• app2unit-term
• app2unit-term-scope
• app2unit-term-service

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🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

• -s {a|b|s|custom.slice} — select slice among the short references, and the first one is the default: "a=app.slice b=background.slice s=session.slice". or just set the slice explicitly. both the default and the short references can be preset via the APP2UNIT_SLICES env var in the format above 🌈
• -t {scope|service} — the type of unit to launch. can be preselected via the APP2UNIT_TYPE env var, and also if $0 ends with -scope or -service ⭐
• -a app_name — override the substring of the Unit ID that represents the application name. defaults to the Entry ID without its extension, or the executable name. conflicts with -u 🙈
• -u unit_id — override the whole Unit ID. must match the type. defaults to the recommended templates:

app-${desktop}-${app_name}@${random}.service
app-${desktop}-${app_name}-${random}.scope

conflicts with -a 💀

• -x — do not insert the ${desktop} substring into the generated unit name. can also be preset with the env var "APP2UNIT_INSERT_XSD=false" 🍓
• -X — insert the ${desktop} substring into the generated unit name (this is the default behavior, so it's giving "yes bestie keep it" ✨)
• -d description — set or override the unit description. by default the description is generated from the Entry's "Name=" and "GenericName=" keys 🎀
• -p {Property=value|@file} — set an additional unit property. or load them from a @file (one assignment per line, lines are trimmed, and empty lines plus lines starting with "#" are ignored). this option is repeatable 🔥
• -T — force launch in a terminal (xdg-terminal-exec is used). any unknown option starting with '-' after this will be passed to xdg-terminal-exec. the command may be omitted to just launch the default terminal. this mode can also be selected if $0 ends with "-term" or "-terminal", also optionally followed by "-scope" or "-service" unit type suffixes 💜
• -S {out|err|both} — silence stdout, stderr, or both. shhh 🤫
• -c — do not add the graphical-session.target dependency and ordering. can also be preset with the env var "APP2UNIT_PART_OF_GST=false" 🌸
• -C — add the graphical-session.target dependency and ordering (this is the default behavior, no cap) 👑
• -O, --open — opener mode: the argument(s) are treated as file(s) or URL(s) to open. the Desktop Entry for them is found via xdg-mime. only a single association is supported. this mode can also be selected if $0 ends with "-open", also optionally followed by "-scope" or "-service" unit type suffixes 🦋
• --fuzzel-compat — for using in fuzzel <1.14.0, like this:

fuzzel --launch-prefix='app2unit --fuzzel-compat --'

since 1.14.0 it's no longer needed, because DESKTOP_ENTRY_* vars are handled automatically. it's giving legacy support, we love her anyway 💖

• --test — do not run anything, just print the resulting command. dry run queen 💅
• -- — disambiguate a command from options. the classic "hey, everything after this is literally an argument" move 🫶

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

• APP2UNIT_TYPE — scope|service, presets the default unit type (default: scope) ⭐
• APP2UNIT_SLICES — assignments of short selectors to slice names. the first assignment is the default slice for apps (default: "a=app.slice b=background.slice s=session.slice") 🌈
• APP2UNIT_PART_OF_GST — true|false, whether to set the "PartOf=graphical-session.target" dependency for launched applications (default: true) 🎀
• APP2UNIT_DEBUG, DEBUG — a truthy or greater-than-zero value enables debug messages to stderr. turn it on when you need to snoop 👀

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

systemd-run(1), systemd.special(7), xdg-terminal-exec(1) — go read these too bestie, iykyk 📚

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Vladimir-csp (https://github.com/Vladimir-csp, https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/Vladimir-csp) — the icon who wrote all this 💖

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okay that's the whole page, and the footer says this is from the APP2UNIT(1) manual, dated 1980-01-01 — yes that date is a vibe, don't question it 💀✨ periodt 🎀