Packages provided menu files should be in /usr/lib/menu/
.
System-local menu files should be in /etc/menu/
. User-specific
menu files should be in ~/.menu/
The format is
?package(package[,package2,...]): \ field1="value1"\ field2="value2"\
Here is an example to describe the syntax of such a file:
?package(gnumeric):\ specifies what packages need to be installed multiple requirements should be separated by comma needs="X11"\ what kind of environment this command expects section="Apps/Math"\ in what section this menu entry should be title="Gnumeric"\ the title of the menu entry command="gnumeric" \ the command to run hints="Gnome,Spreadsheets" \ some hints about menu placement. icon="/usr/share/pixmaps/gnumeric.xpm" the path to the icon to use.
A number sign ("#") can be used to include comments. An entry must be terminated by a newline, however you can use \ to escape a newline.
Values must be quoted with ", and meta-character (", \, newline) must be escaped with a \.
You can include several entries in the same files.
The file must be encoded in ASCII 7bit. This is necessary to accomodate window managers that do not support 8bit. However the translations are not limited in encoding.
?package(...) contains a comma-separated list of packages that need to be installed for the menu entry to be displayed. That should include the package containing the menu file and any packages necessary to run the command not depended by the package nor essential. Users can use pseudo packages names starting by local. which are assumed to be always installed.
The fields needs, section, title and command are mandatory. Other fields are optional. Custom fields are supported, so you can add new fields for you own purpose. If a field is specified multiple times in a menuentry, the last instance will be used.
The title must follow the following requirements:
The following needs are documented for use in the Debian menu.
A menu manager can use a special needs named after the package for menu entries that must only be displayed in this menu manager. Examples include fvwm modules, dwww menu entries.
A program like gnumeric which can be run on X11 as well as on a text terminal
should not have an extra entry with needs=X11 because it
will then be next to impossible to configure the window managers to spawn
rxvt
instead of the default xterm
.
On the other hand, if a program (like emacs
) can be run as real X
application as well as in a terminal, two entries should be listed, otherwise
the program will always be run in an xterm
(or rxvt
).
Though you must remember, that two entries are never allowed to have the same
title. The title must be unique.
The section field hold a / separated list of hierarchical sections components.
The authoritative list of Debian's menu structure is maintained in the Debian Menu sub-policy document which is part of the Debian Policy package.
The menu structure below is included only for convenience and is not authoritative. If it disagree with the structure in the Debian Menu sub-policy, please send a wishlist bug to the menu package.
Please do not put your packages into any other sections.
Apps - normal apps Databases - interactive database programs Editors - text editors, word processors Education - educational and training programs Emulators - dosemu, etc. Graphics - image manipulation Hamradio - anything relating to ham radio. Math - maxima, octave, oleo, etc. Net - mail, news, web, irc, etc. Programming - debuggers, etc. Science - scientific programs Tools - other tools: xclock, xmag, xman, etc. Technical - technical stuff. Text - text oriented tools other than editors. Shells - bash, ksh, zsh, etc. Sound - sound players and editors Viewers - image viewers System - system administration and monitoring tools Games - games and recreations Adventure - walk around virtual space, zork, MOO's, etc Arcade - any game where reflexes count Board - like gnuchess, pente, gnugo Card - solitaire, etc Puzzles - Stuff from xpuzzles, ... Simulation Sports - Games derived from "real world" sports Strategy - games involving long term strategic thinking Tetris-like - games involving falling blocks Toys - oneko, xeyes, etc. Help - programs that provide user documentation Screen - programs that affect the whole screen Lock - xlock, etc. Save - screen savers Root-window - things that fill the root window WindowManagers - X window managers Modules - window manager modules XShells - shells (like xterm, rxvt, ...)
For users wanting to access some menu entries quickly, you can also put entries in the root menu. This is done by using section="/". Package provided menu entries must never use this feature.
The command field holds the command that should be executed when the menu entry
is selected. Commands will be executed with sh -c
using
execl("/bin/sh","sh","-c",command)
or the equivalent.
Please, make sure the icons you specify are always available on the system. So, if you want to have an icon with your menu entry, the preferred method is to supply the icon with that package. Also, to prevent the distribution of icons files to turn too much into a mess, please put all icon files in the directory /usr/share/pixmaps.
Debian package maintainers should ensure that any icons they include for use in the Debian menus conform to the following points:
You can provide both 16x16 and 32x32 pixels icons using the variables icon16x16 and icon32x32 so that the user can configure menu to use one or the other.
If you, as a system administrator, don't like the icons in the menus, simply
change the icon() function from the file
/etc/menu-methods/menu.h, and run update-menus
.
Hints are used to help menu structure generated menus in a more optimal way. For example:
?package(emacs20):\ needs="x11"\ hints="Big,Expert,Featureful" \ section="Apps/Editors"\ title="Emacs 20"\ command="/usr/bin/emacs20"\ icon=/usr/share/emacs/20.3/etc/emacs.xbm
The above hints will case menu to consider grouping emacs together with other editors that are marked similar. For example, if vi on your system has a hints="Small,Expert" definition, and there are too many entries in the /Apps/Editors menuentry, then menu will consider creating a /Apps/Editors/Expert submenu, and put both vi and emacs in it. (of course, only if you have hint_optimize=true in your /etc/menu-methods/menu.h file).
It is possible to add entries for menu sections, but it is not mandatory since section entries are created automatically. However, this allows to specify fields for sections like icon and sort. The syntax for menu sections entries is the same as for regular entries, the section field holding the name of the parent section. For example
?package(local.games): needs="text" title="Games" section="/" sort="001"
will sort Games first.
The problem with the stuff in the task bar is that all items are displayed all
of the time. So, if 1500 Debian packages all were to register a button, the
buttons would quickly fill the screen, making the exercise useless. The few
applications that are considered important enough to be listed in the task bar
usually vary widely on each system, making it impossible to select a ``happy
few'' apps that are allowed there on every Debian system. If you (as a local
system administrator) want your fvwm2
to have a few buttons, you
can install files for those packages in /menu/$package, containing
a menu entry like this:
?Package(xmball):needs=button\ section=Games/Puzzles\ icon=path-to-pixmap.xpm\ title="Xmball"\ command=/usr/games/xmball
Then, do the following:
cd /etc/menu-methods/ cp fvwm2 fvwm2button vi fvwm2button
and remove all the "supported" entries, adding the one below. For the rest, leave everything the same except those listed below.
supported button="+ Style \"" $title "\" TitleIcon" $icon " Exec " $command "\n" endsupported startmenu: "AddToTitlebar \n" endmenu: "\n" submenutitle:"" mainmenu: genmenu: "buttondefs.hook"
(Of course regular users (not system administrators) can also specify `buttonfiles' in their ~/.menu/ directory).
Debian Menu System
version 1.4, 22 March 2005joostje@debian.org
joeyh@debian.org
schwarz@debian.org
ballombe@debian.org