XDG-DESKTOP-ICON(1)

📦
version 1.2.1 · 14 versions
, in arch rolling, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 XDG-DESKTOP-ICON — the girlies' guide to putting stuff on your desktop ✨

okay so bestie, this is the manual for xdg-desktop-icon, from the xdg-desktop-icon Manual era (we're in the xdg-utils cinematic universe, no cap 🎀). It's a command line tool for (un)installing icons to the desktop. Yes literally that. Let's get into it 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

xdg-desktop-icon — command line tool for (un)installing icons to the desktop 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xdg-desktop-icon install [--novendor] FILE

xdg-desktop-icon uninstall FILE

xdg-desktop-icon {--help | --manual | --version}

like. three whole modes. pick your fighter 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The xdg-desktop-icon program can be used to install an application launcher or other file on the desktop of the current user. it's giving "drag and drop but make it terminal" ✨

An application launcher is represented by a *.desktop file. Desktop files are defined by the freedesktop.org Desktop Entry Specification. The most important aspects of *.desktop files are summarized below. (summary slay, we love a summary 👑)

🎀 COMMANDS 🎀

  • install — Installs FILE to the desktop of the current user. FILE can be a *.desktop file or any other type of file. no gatekeeping, any file is welcome here 🫶
  • uninstall — Removes FILE from the desktop of the current user. bye bestie 😭

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --novendor — Normally, xdg-desktop-icon checks to ensure that a *.desktop file to be installed has a vendor prefix. This option can be used to disable that check.

A vendor prefix consists of alpha characters ([a-zA-Z]) and is terminated with a dash ("-"). Companies and organizations are encouraged to use a word or phrase, preferably the organizations name, for which they hold a trademark as their vendor prefix. The purpose of the vendor prefix is to prevent name conflicts. so basically it's the surname of your app so nobody else's app has the same name, iconic honestly ⭐

  • --help — Show command synopsis.
  • --manual — Show this manual page. (hi, you're reading it, we're here 💜)
  • --version — Show the xdg-utils version information.

🌈 DESKTOP FILES 🌈

An application launcher can be added to the desktop by installing a *.desktop file. A *.desktop file consists of a [Desktop Entry] header followed by several Key=Value lines. it's basically a text file that cosplays as an app 💀 but in a cute way

A *.desktop file can provide a name and description for an application in several different languages. This is done by adding a language code as used by LC_MESSAGES in square brackets behind the Key. This way one can specify different values for the same Key depending on the currently selected language. multilingual queen 🌍✨

The following keys are often used:

  • Type=Application — This is a mandatory field that indicates that the *.desktop file describes an application launcher. mandatory means mandatory bestie, it's not optional, don't skip it 🚨
  • Name=Application Name — The name of the application. For example Mozilla
  • GenericName=Generic Name — A generic description of the application. For example Web Browser
  • Comment=Comment — Optional field to specify a tooltip for the application. For example Visit websites on the Internet
  • Icon=Icon File — The icon to use for the application. This can either be an absolute path to an image file or an icon-name. If an icon-name is provided an image lookup by name is done in the user's current icon theme. The xdg-icon-resource command can be used to install image files into icon themes. The advantage of using an icon-name instead of an absolute path is that with an icon-name the application icon can be provided in several different sizes as well as in several differently themed styles. main character energy for your pixels 👑
  • Exec=Command Line — The command line to start the application. If the application can open files the %f placeholder should be specified. When a file is dropped on the application launcher the %f is replaced with the file path of the dropped file. If multiple files can be specified on the command line the %F placeholder should be used instead of %f. If the application is able to open URLs in addition to local files then %u or %U can be used instead of %f or %F. lowercase = one file, uppercase = many files, that's the whole vibe check 🔥

For a complete overview of the *.desktop file format please visit http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec (iykyk 📖)

🧚 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🧚

xdg-desktop-icon honours the following environment variables:

  • XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL — Setting this environment variable to a non-zero numerical value makes xdg-desktop-icon do more verbose reporting on stderr. Setting a higher value increases the verbosity. so if you're a nosy girlie like me, crank that number and watch the lore unfold 🙈

💜 EXIT CODES 💜

An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:

  1. 1 — Error in command line syntax.
  2. 2 — One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.
  3. 3 — A required tool could not be found.
  4. 4 — The action failed.
  5. 5 — No permission to read one of the files passed on the command line.
okay so real talk, when something breaks, echo $? is your bestie. the number will tell you exactly which kind of mess we're in 😭

🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

The company ShinyThings Inc. has developed an application named "WebMirror" and would like to add a launcher for for on the desktop. The company will use "shinythings" as its vendor id. In order to add the application to the desktop there needs to be a .desktop file for the application:

shinythings-webmirror.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application

Exec=webmirror
Icon=shinythings-webmirror

Name=WebMirror
Name[nl]=WebSpiegel

Now the xdg-desktop-icon tool can be used to add the webmirror.desktop file to the desktop:

xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-webmirror.desktop

To add a README file to the desktop as well, the following command can be used:

xdg-desktop-icon install ./shinythings-README

see, told you any file is allowed. the README gets to be on the desktop too. periodt 💅

👑 AUTHORS 👑

  • Kevin Krammer — Author.
  • Jeremy White — Author.

the founders. the blueprint. we thank them for their service 🫶

Copyright © 2006

aaaand that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 🎀✨ this was the xdg-desktop-icon page, shipped as part of xdg-utils 1.0, dated 12/06/2025 — obsessively yours, go install something cute on your desktop, mwah 💖🦋

📦 where this page comes from