Re: A spec to set default terminal applications?

FYI, The proposed xdg-terminal-exec 
<https://github.com/Vladimir-csp/xdg-terminal-exec/> now relies on stock 
desktop entries, the shell implementation is optimized, experimental 
cache support is in the works.

The spec proposal is updated 
<https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/terminal-wg/specifications/-/merge_requests/3>.

On 14/10/2023 23.33, Vladimir Kudrya wrote:
> Hi. Let's dust off this thread.
>
> I'm starting to transition xdg-terminal-exec to use stock entries 
> filtered by "TerminalEmulator" in Categories key.
>
> On 31/08/2018 16.35, Jan Tojnar wrote:
>> Reusing `Categories` key would be nice, but we would still need 
>> `category-defaults.list` for actually choosing the default 
>> representant for each category, would not we?
>>
>> Caching is a good point, we would need to create some mechanism no 
>> matter which solution we choose – for instance, if some of the 
>> actions were optional, they would probably need to be cached as well.
>>
>> On Fri, 31 Aug, 2018 at 2:54 PM, PCMan <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Hi again,
>>> There is another way to make this xdg terminal exec stuff more
>>> standard compliant by reusing XDG menu spec.
>>> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apas02.html
>>> We can parse all desktop entry files and collect every one with
>>> Category=TerminalEmulator to generate a list of terminal emulators.
>>> This way we don't have to manually maintain a terminal.list file.
>>> Of course parsing all of the *.desktop files is slow so we will need
>>> something like "update-mime-database" to generate the list.
>>>
>>> To provide desktop entry files for those apps which are not shipped
>>> with their own, we can install desktop files for them.
>>> set XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/terminal-emulators:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
>>>
>>> And just add our own desktop entry files in
>>> /usr/share/terminal-emulators/*.desktop for those terminals which do
>>> not have desktop entries.
>>> So we don't need to invent another spec to manage the terminals.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 8:46 PM PCMan <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Hello,
>>>>  Just took a look at xdg-terminal-exec and I liked the idea.
>>>>  Actually I figured out something similar previously but did not 
>>>> write any code.
>>>>  There is, however, one thing I'd like to propose to make the spec 
>>>> more complete.
>>>>  Use the Desktop Entry Actions.
>>>>
>>>> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html#extra-actions 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  Then, for each desktop entry file of a terminal emulator, we define
>>>>  some standard actions:
>>>>  * OpenDirInWindow: a command to open a dir in a new tab
>>>>  * OpenDirInTab: a command to open a dir in a new tab
>>>>  * ExecInWindow: a command to run a program in a new window
>>>>  * ExecInTab: a command to run a program in a new tab
>>>>
>>>>  When the "InTab" actions are not defined in the desktop entry file,
>>>>  fallback to the "InWindow" version.
>>>>  This should cover most of the common operations when we need a 
>>>> terminal window.
>>>>
>>>>  For example, we can write xterm.desktop like this
>>>>  [Desktop Entry]
>>>>  Name=Gnome Terminal
>>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal
>>>>  Actions=OpenDirInWindow;
>>>>
>>>>  [Desktop Action OpenDirInWindow]
>>>>  Name=Open Directory in Terminal
>>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal --window --working-directory %f
>>>>
>>>>  [Desktop Action OpenDirInTab]
>>>>  Name=Open Directory in Terminal
>>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal --tab --working-directory %f
>>>>
>>>>  [Desktop Action ExecInWindow]
>>>>  Name=Execute in Terminal
>>>>  Exec=gnome-terminal -e %f
>>>>
>>>>  In this way, we reuse the existing spec and support various kinds 
>>>> of operations.
>>>>  The only drawback is %f means a file name, but what we need to 
>>>> pass to
>>>>  the terminal emulator is actually a full command line with args.
>>>>
>>>>  Just my two cents.
>>>>
>>>>  On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 3:36 PM Vladimir Kudrya 
>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>  >
>>>>  > Couple of notes.
>>>>  >
>>>>  > xdg-terminal-exec in its current form is a minimum intervention
>>>>  > solution: you need to place desktop files for some terminals, 
>>>> then use
>>>>  > xdg-terminal-exec itself as a command to launch terminal.
>>>>  >
>>>>  > ArgPrefix has a solid generic use case: there was a bug in 
>>>> Ocrfeeder:
>>>>  > https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=767732 It required an
>>>>  > argument to open file, but no argument to just launch the app. 
>>>> Current
>>>>  > desktop entry spec can not handle this via single desktop entry.
>>>>  >
>>>>  >
>>>>  > I'll try to sum up, simplify, and build upon Jan's and Ian's 
>>>> proposals.
>>>>  >
>>>>  > Fields for destop entries:
>>>>  > MimeType: what app can open
>>>>  > MimeTypeView: what app can open for viewing
>>>>  > MimeTypeEdit: what app can open for edit
>>>>  > Intent: what actions app represents (analogous to MimeType, like:
>>>>  > x-intent/terminal, x-intent/increase-brightness.) Choosing goes
>>>>  > alongside mimetypes and schemes into mimeapps.list hierarchy.
>>>>  > ArgPrefix: argument(s) to be added to the beginning of command 
>>>> line if
>>>>  > there are other arguments provided.
>>>>  >
>>>>  > With all above:
>>>>  > xdg-open some.file: current behavior
>>>>  > xdg-open --edit some.file: uses MimeTypeEdit choices.
>>>>  > xdg-open --view some.file: uses MimeTypeView choices.
>>>>  > xdg-intent terminal: opens terminal.
>>>>  > xdg-intent termianl foo --bar: runs foo --bar in chosen 
>>>> terminal, using
>>>>  > ArgPrefix if needed. IMHO one of the few intents that would ever 
>>>> require
>>>>  > arguments.
>>>>  >
>>>>  > This strategy is backward-compatible, uses same data and config
>>>>  > hierarchies, works without dbus (I don't want to touch it even 
>>>> with ten
>>>>  > meter stick), 'xdg-intent terminal' can be used as drop in for 
>>>> terminal
>>>>  > emulators. (xdg-terminal as wrapper to get rid of that space?).
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