XFDESKTOP(1)

📦
version 4.20.2 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, debian trixie, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ XFDESKTOP ✨

okay bestie so welcome to xfdesktop — this is the manual page for the desktop manager of the Xfce 4 Desktop Environment, and it's lowkey the main character of your whole desktop. let's get into it 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xfdesktop
xfdesktop [options]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like, xfdesktop manages the desktop itself in the Xfce 4 Desktop Environment. That's a lot of stuff actually, it's giving multitasking queen:

  • it draws the desktop backdrop (yes the wallpaper, that's her)
  • it gives you a right-click applications menu
  • it gives you a middle-click window list menu
  • it draws icons on the desktop
⚠️ Important bestie: only one instance of xfdesktop can be running at a time. no duplicates, no clones, one icon only 💅

And the way you're supposed to start it? Just run xfdesktop with no arguments at all. that's it. that's the move. periodt.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

💜 HELP OPTIONS:

  • -h, --help — shows you the help options
  • --help-all — shows you all the help options, the whole buffet
  • --help-gtk — shows you GTK+ Options
  • --help-sm-client — shows you session management options

💖 APPLICATION OPTIONS:

  • -V, --version — displays version information
  • -R, --reload — tells an already-running xfdesktop to reload all its settings and redraw the desktop background. glow-up on demand ✨
  • -N, --next — tells an already-running xfdesktop to advance to the next wallpaper on the current workspace. new fit, who dis 🎀
  • -M, --menu — tells an already-running xfdesktop to pop up the applications menu at the current position of the mouse cursor
  • -W, --windowlist — tells an already-running xfdesktop to pop up the window list menu at the current position of the mouse cursor
  • -A, --arrange — automatically arranges all the icons on the desktop. clean girl aesthetic 🧚
  • -D, --disable-wm-check — do not wait for a window manager on startup
  • -e, --enable-debug — enables debug messages
  • -d, --disable-debug — disables debug messages
  • -Q, --quit — causes xfdesktop to quit (goodbye bestie 😭)
  • --display=[DISPLAY] — the X display to use

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

xfdesktop's behavior is affected by these environment variables. she's sensitive like that, but in a cute way:

  • XDG_CONFIG_HOME — specifies the root for all user-specific configuration files. If this environment variable is not present, it defaults to ~/.config
  • XDG_CONFIG_DIRS — specifies a colon-separated list of system directories in which to search for configuration data. If this environment variable is not present, it defaults to /etc/xdg

🍓 FILES 🍓

xfdesktop searches for a menu description file in $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/menus/xfce-applications.menu.

Also, xfdesktop can use a user-customized menu in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/menus/. yes bestie you can customize it, go off 👑

💀 BUGS 💀

Please report any bugs to https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop — not me, the devs, fr fr 🙈

Development discussion should be conducted on the xfce4-dev@xfce.org mailing list.

Usage-related questions should be directed to the xfce@xfce.org mailing list.

⭐ HOMEPAGE ⭐

https://xfce.org/

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jasper Huijsmans <huysmans@users.sourceforge.net>, Benedikt Meurer <benny@xfce.org>, Brian Tarricone <brian@tarricone.org>, and Eric Koegel <eric@xfce.org>.

This manual page was originally written by Brian Tarricone <brian@tarricone.org>.

and that's the whole thing bestie, ily, go manage that desktop 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅🫶

This page came from the General Commands Manual, version xfdesktop(1), dated July 2019 — yeah it's a lil vintage but she aged like fine wine 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from