install-menu(1)

💖 install-menu(1) 💖

okay bestie, so this is the install-menu page from the Debian GNU/Linux manual, and it's genuinely one of those little glue tools that holds your whole desktop together. no cap. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

install-menu — Process a menu method and generate the menu files for a window manager or a menu-aware application.

like, that's the whole job description. it processes a menu method, and it makes the menu files. for a WM or a menu-aware app. iconic behaviour tbh 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so here's the tea, bestie. update-menus(1) figures out the whole list of menu entries — the full roster — and then hands it off, one by one, to the menu methods sitting in /etc/menu-methods/. that's the whole pipeline. 🦋

and the task of a menu method? it generates menus for one specific window manager. just one. that's its whole personality.

install-menu is the way you do that in a generic and customizable way. it's giving "one tool, infinite fits". ✨

now, the documentation for the install-menu definition language? that lives in the Debian Menu manual, and there's a local copy chillin' right at /usr/share/doc/menu/html if you wanna read it yourself. go look, it's there, i promise 📚

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

install-menu [-vh] [--remove] <menu-method>

okay so what this actually does: it reads menu entries from stdin in update-menus --stdout format, and then generates menu files using the menu-method you specified. that's it. that's the whole flow. 💅

and ngl, you'll normally see it used inside menu method scripts, like this:

#! /usr/bin/install-menu

shebang energy. main character energy. 🧚

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h, --help — shows you the help message and then dips. exit stage left. that's all. 🎀
• --remove — takes the menu files away instead of making them. delete, but make it menu-related. 💀
• -v, --verbose — the program will actually talk to you about what it's doing. output messages, narrating its own life. obsessed. 🔥

👑 COPYING 👑

install-menu is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2, or (at your option) any later version. so you've got options, bestie. slay ⭐

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Written by Joost Witteveen <joostje@debian.org>. 🫶

Now maintained by Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>. 💜

🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

• update-menus(1)
• menufile(5)
• /usr/share/doc/menu/html

go read those too, iykyk 📖✨

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one came to you from the Debian Project, dated 28 November 2005 — yeah, she's been around a minute, and she's still doing her thing. periodt. 💖🦋🌸