xdgmenumaker(1)

📦 version 2.5, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

✨ NAME: xdgmenumaker(1) — generate XDG menus ✨

okay so hi bestie 💖 welcome to the xdgmenumaker(1) page from the General Commands Manual — yes it’s a real manual page and yes we’re making it a vibe. This tool is literally called xdgmenumaker and it does exactly what it says on the tin: it generates XDG menus. iconic behavior tbh 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xdgmenumaker [OPTIONS]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

xdgmenumaker is a command line tool, written in python, that generates application menus using XDG information by scanning *.desktop files in all $XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications directories. All applications are sorted according to the main categories as specified by freedesktop.org (http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html) — slay, organized queen 💅

The menu entries generated by xdgmenumaker are localised according to the running user locale settings. so it speaks your language, no cap 🌍✨

xdgmenumaker currently supports generating menus for:

  • amiwm
  • blackbox
  • compizboxmenu
  • fluxbox
  • fvwm
  • icewm
  • jwm
  • openbox
  • pekwm
  • twm and compatible derivatives such as ctwm and vtwm
  • windowmaker

xdgmenumaker requires Python 3.x, pygobject and gobject-instrospection, as well as pyxdg. Pillow is an optional dependency (used by the --max-icon-size option). dependency check bestie, don’t skip it 🫶

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

  • -f, --format — specify the output format to use. Valid options are amiwm, blackbox, compizboxmenu, fluxbox, fvwm, icewm, jwm, openbox, pekwm, twm and windowmaker. Specifying the output format is mandatory — like, you must pick one, bestie, it’s not optional 😤
  • -i, --icons — enable support for icons in the menus. This option does not have any effect for amiwm, blackbox or windowmaker menus. cute but those WMs said no icons today 💀
  • -s, --size — set the preferred icon size in pixels. The default size is 16. You can set this to any number, but it generally makes sense to use standard icon sizes, like 16, 22, 24, 32 etc. Obviously this has an effect only if the --icons option is used. You have to be careful with the sizes you use; some window managers don’t support large icons in the menu. respect the WM’s limits, bestie 🎀
  • -n, --no-submenu — do not create a submenu. Instead, place the application categories menus in the window manager’s main menu. This option does not have any effect for openbox or windowmaker menus. those two are in their own lane ✨
  • --max-icon-size — restrict the maximum size for icons to the one specified with the --size option. Any icons that are larger than the specified size will get discarded and will not be used. big icon? not today, blocked and reported 🚫
  • --no-svg — do not use SVG icons even for the WMs that support it. Right now that is only JWM. SVG who? not in this house 🧚
  • --pekwm-dynamic — create dynamic menus for pekwm. If you want to have dynamically generated menus for pekwm you have to use this option. Do not use it if you want to generate static menus for pekwm. Only works with pekwm of course. pekwm-only behavior, iykyk 💅
  • --twm-titles — display menu titles in TWM menus. Naturally, only has an effect when used with twm. titles for twm, periodt 🌈

🫶 GENERAL OPTIONS 🫶

  • -h — Prints a usage message briefly summarizing all command-line options and exits. tiny help moment, very demure, very mindful 🙈

🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

The terminal emulator to be used for menu entries that state that an application must be launched inside a terminal can be specified in a ~/.config/xdgmenumaker.cfg configuration file. Here’s an example specifying rxvt as the default terminal emulator:

[Terminal]
terminal = rxvt

If no such file is present, or if no terminal is set within the file, xdgmenumaker will default to the one specified in the debian alternatives system on debian and debian-like systems and to xterm in any other case.

Setting the path to a terminal emulator in an XDGMENUMAKERTERM environment variable will override any other setting. env var said “I’m the main character” and honestly? valid 👑

🌈 USAGE 🌈

🍓 AmiWM

You can generate a menu for AmiWM, running xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f amiwm > ~/.amiwm-xdgmenu

As AmiWM does not support including other files in its settings file, you’ll have to copy the contents of the created file in your ~/.amiwmrc. It should be possible to create a script that would generate the main ~/.amiwmrc file from different “source” files, but I’ll leave that as an exercise to the user. homework era, sorry bestie 😭

🦋 Blackbox

To generate an application menu for Blackbox, you can run xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f blackbox > ~/.blackbox/xdg_menu

and then change your main Blackbox menu to include this file as a submenu. For example, add this somewhere in your ~/.blackbox/menu file:

[include] (~/.blackbox/xdg_menu)

You can add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu, if you want to update it, without having to run the command manually again:

[exec] (Update Blackbox Menu) {xdgmenumaker -f blackbox > ~/.blackbox/xdg_menu}

💅 Compiz Boxmenu

There are two ways to have an xdg menu in compiz-boxmenu. The first one auto-updates the menu every time the menu is called. The second one updates the menu only when the user wants to. choose your fighter, bestie ⚔️

✨ Dynamic Menus ✨

Edit your ~/.config/compiz/boxmenu/menu.xml file with your favorite text editor and add a block of code like this inside the root <menu> element:

<item type="launcher">
  <command mode2="pipe">xdgmenumaker -nif compizboxmenu</command>
  <icon>applications-other</icon>
  <name>Applications</name>
</item>

Alternatively, you can also run compiz-boxmenu-editor and click the dropdown for new menu files or menu items. Select launcher to create a new launcher. Set the name of the launcher to whatever you want. This will be the display name for the pipe menu. Then enter in:

xdgmenumaker -nif compizboxmenu

for the command entry. Click the combobox next to the command text box and switch that to “Pipe”. yes bestie, select “Pipe”, that’s the move 💅

⭐ Static Menus ⭐

Edit your ~/.config/compiz/boxmenu/menu.xml file with your favorite text editor and paste the output of:

$ xdgmenumaker -if compizboxmenu

into ~/.config/compiz/boxmenu/menu.xml.

Alternatively, you can also run compiz-boxmenu-editor and click the button that says Generate menu entries from a pipemenu script. In the dialog box that pops up, type in:

xdgmenumaker -if compizboxmenu

to append the statically generated menu to any menu file you want. static menu girlies rise 🧚✨

🔥 Fluxbox

To generate an application menu for Fluxbox, you can run xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f fluxbox > ~/.fluxbox/xdg_menu

and then change your main Fluxbox menu to include this file as a submenu. For example, add this somewhere in your ~/.fluxbox/menu file:

[include] (~/.fluxbox/xdg_menu)

You can add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu, if you want to update it, without having to run the command manually again:

[exec] (Update Fluxbox Menu) {xdgmenumaker -f fluxbox > ~/.fluxbox/xdg_menu}

🌸 Fvwm

To generate an application menu for Fvwm, you can run xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f fvwm > ~/.fvwm/xdgmenu

and then edit your main Fvwm configuration file and add a line to read that file:

read xdgmenu

and also include it somewhere in your main menu, for example:

AddToMenu MenuFvwmRoot  "Root Menu"             Title
+                       "Applications"          Popup xdgmenu

You could also put the menus for individual categories in your main menu if you want. Just look in the ~/.fvwm/xdgmenu file for the category names. category names are right there, bestie, go look 👀

You can add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu, if you want to update it:

+ "Update Fvwm Menu" Exec xdgmenumaker -f fvwm > ~/.fvwm/xdgmenu

and restart Fvwm to apply the changes.

NOTE: If you’re going to use the --icons option to include icons in your menus, you might consider using the --max-icon-size option too. Fvwm does not resize icons in its menu and having entries with icons that are too big makes for funny looking menus. funny looking menus are a real risk, protect your aesthetic 😭💀

👑 IceWM

To generate an application menu for IceWM, run xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f icewm > ~/.icewm/appmenu

or if you want icons in your menu:

$ xdgmenumaker -i -f icewm > ~/.icewm/appmenu

and you can then edit your ~/.icewm/menu file and add this line somewhere:

include appmenu

You can add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu, if you want to update it, without having to run the command manually again:

prog "Update Menu" _none_ xdgmenumaker -i -f icewm > ~/.icewm/appmenu
NOTE: If you don’t request icons in the menu, or if an icon is not found for a certain app, the icon name in the menu for that app is set to "_none_". This doesn’t actually set the icon for that app to none. IceWM menu entries should always include an icon. So, by pointing it to a non existing icon, you essentially set it to use no icon. If you actually have an icewm icon named "_none_", that one will be used instead. the "_none_" lore is real and it’s deep 🫶💀

🦋 JWM

You can edit your ~/.jwmrc file and add a line that generates the applications menu, like this:

<Include>exec: xdgmenumaker -n -i -f jwm</Include>

You need to put that line somewhere in the RootMenu section of the ~/.jwmrc file.

You can update the menu with:

$ jwm -reload

Or you can restart JWM and the updated menu should appear. The menu will be recreated every time JWM is started, restarted, or when the menu is reloaded with the above command. You can even add a menu item that will refresh the menu, like this:

<Program label="Refresh Menu">jwm -reload</Program>

refresh menu button? we love a convenient icon ✨

🎀 Openbox

xdgmenumaker creates pipe-menus for Openbox, which are, by definition, dynamic menus. The simplest way to have an auto-generated “Applications” submenu in the main Openbox menu is to just add a line like the following one somewhere inside the <menu id="root-menu"> in your ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml file::

<menu execute="xdgmenumaker -i -f openbox" id="xdg-pipe-menu" label="Applications"/>

This menu will be generated every time you open the Openbox menu, so it will always be up-to-date. always fresh, always iconic, we love to see it 👑💖

okay so bestie, if you’re not about that dynamic-menu life, you can make a static menu instead and then pull it into your main menu with a pipe-menu. Here’s the move:

$ xdgmenumaker -f openbox > ~/.cache/openbox/apps.menu

Then open ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml and drop this line somewhere inside the <menu id="root-menu"> section:

<menu execute="cat ~/.cache/openbox/apps.menu" id="applications-pipe-menu" label="Applications"/>

You can also add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu so you can rebuild it without running the command manually again:

<item label="Rebuild applications menu">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>xdgmenumaker -i -f openbox > ~/.cache/openbox/apps.menu</command>
  </action>
</item>

🦋 pekwm 🦋

There are literally two ways to have an XDG menu in pekwm, bestie. The first one auto-updates the menu every time the menu is called. The second one updates the menu only when the user wants to. Pick your vibe 💅

Dynamic Menus

Edit your ~/.pekwm/menu file with your favourite text editor and add a line like the following one in the location where you want the dynamically generated menu to appear:

Entry = "" { Actions = "Dynamic /usr/bin/xdgmenumaker -n -i -f pekwm --pekwm-dynamic" }

Restart pekwm and the generated menu should appear. The menu will be automatically generated every time you access it, so it will always be up to date. But since xdgmenumaker will run every time you access the menu, the menu might not appear instantly, especially if you are using an older PC 😭

Static Menus

Run this:

$ xdgmenumaker -n -i -f pekwm > ~/.pekwm/appsmenu

to create a file with the menu contents. Then edit your ~/.pekwm/menu file to include that menu by adding a line like the following in the location where you want the menu to appear:

INCLUDE = "/home/your_user_name/.pekwm/appsmenu"

Restart pekwm and the generated menu should appear. The menu is static, so if you add or remove any applications, you will have to run the xdgmenumaker command and restart pekwm all over again to update it. The advantage is that there will be no delay in displaying the menu ✨

🔥 TWM and Derivatives 🔥

You can create a menu for TWM by running xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f twm > ~/.twm-xdgmenu

If you’re using the standard TWM, then unfortunately you’ll have to manually copy/paste the contents of the generated ~/.twm-xdgmenu file into your ~/.twmrc. You could then add something like this to your main menu definition:

"Applications" f.menu "xdgmenu"

It could be possible to create a script that updates the menus inside the main ~/.twmrc settings file, but that’s left as an exercise for the user 🫶

If you’re using CTWM or VTWM, instead of manually copy/pasting the menu contents into your settings file, you could just add an include line like this:

sinclude(`/home/george/.twm-xdgmenu')
Note: in order for this to work with VTWM, vtwm has to be called with the -m switch. No cap.

🌈 WindowMaker 🌈

There are two ways to have an XDG menu in WindowMaker. The first one auto-updates the menu every time the menu is called. The second one updates the menu only when the user wants to.

xdgmenumaker uses utf8 encoding and localised strings by default and has been tested only with wmaker-crm>=0.95.1. No idea if utf8 works properly with older WindowMaker versions 🙈

Dynamic Menus

Open the WindowMaker preferences tool. In the Application Menu Definition section, add a Generated Submenu in your menu by dragging it in. Click on the menu item you just dragged in and in the preferences window, in Command, add:

xdgmenumaker -f windowmaker

Save and close the preferences window.

That command will be run every time you access that submenu, so the application list in there will always be up to date. The downside is that running this command every time—especially if you are on a very old PC—might slow things down a bit. Even then it is probably not anything considerable 💖

Static Menus

Run:

$ xdgmenumaker -f windowmaker > ~/GNUstep/Defaults/xdg_menu

Then open the WindowMaker preferences tool and in the Application Menu Definition section, add an External Submenu by dragging it into your menu. Click on the menu item you just dragged in and in the preferences window, in Path for Menu, add the location of the menu file you just created:

~/GNUstep/Defaults/xdg_menu

You can add the above mentioned xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu if you want to update it without having to run the command manually again. In the Application Menu Definition section in the WindowMaker preferences window, add a Run Program item in your menu by dragging it into your menu. Click on the menu item you just dragged in and in the preferences window, in Program to Run, add the xdgmenumaker command as mentioned above.

The downside of this method is that the menu contents will not be updated when you install a new application or remove one. You will need to run the xdgmenumaker command every time you want the menu to be updated. The upside is that the menu will not be generated every time you access the menu. This might be a better choice for (really) older hardware 👑

🌐 WEBSITE 🌐

https://github.com/gapan/xdgmenumaker

👑 AUTHORS 👑

xdgmenumaker was written by George Vlahavas <vlahavas~at~gmail~dot~com> 💖

That’s the whole page, bestie. The footer vibe is author George Vlahavas, version/date stamp 88mtime(8m/8d/8Y), and page name xdgmenumaker(1) — iconic, honestly. Periodt 🎀

📦 where this page comes from