For detailed information describing the implementation of
the menu system, refer to the Desktop Menu
Specification located at the freedesktop.org
website: https://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest.
It is often useful for an administrator to add or remove items
from the main desktop Applications menu. Owing
to the complexity of the menu system, modifying the
Applications menu can sometimes be a difficult
task. For example, it is much more difficult to add a menu item
than it is to remove a menu item.
This chapter provides an overview of the menu system and
documents methods for:
This overview of the menu system is not intended to to be
comprehensive in its scope. For detailed information about the
menu system, refer to the various menu-related specifications
at the freedesktop.org web site: https://www.freedesktop.org
The Red Hat menu system is based on the the freedesktop.org
Desktop Menu Specification and consists of three major sets of
configuration and data files:
Menu (*.menu) Files
The *.menu files are XML
configuration files that specify the order, hierarchy, and
merging of both menus and menu items.
The system *.menu files are
located in /etc/xdg/menus/.
User-specific *.menu files are located in
$HOME/.config/menus/ and can be
edited to override the values specified in the system
*.menu files.
In particular, the
/etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu file
contains the definition of the main application menu
layout.
Directory Entry (*.directory) Files
The *.directory files provide
data about a menu such as its name,
tooltip, and icon, and are located in
/usr/share/desktop-directories/.
Refer to the GNOME Desktop System
Administration Guide for more information
on directory entry files.
Desktop Entry (*.desktop) Files
The *.desktop files provide data
about a menu item such as its name,
command to run, and its icon. The desktop entry files
also contain keywords that determine the location of the
menu item in the menu hierarchy. The system desktop entry files are located in
/usr/share/applications/. Refer to the
GNOME Desktop System Administration
Guide for more information on
desktop entry files.
User-specific desktop entry files are located in
$HOME/.local/share/applications/ and
can be used to add applications to the "Open With
=>" submenu that appears when right-clicking
on a file. The
$HOME/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
contains MIME type information associating the
$HOME/.local/share/applications/*.desktop
applications with the file types specified in the
*.desktop files.
