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I just figured out how to manually create a .desktop file which allows a program to be launched by issuing the command gtk-launch [program.desktop]. Problem is it only seems to work if my present working directory is the Desktop directory for my username. Thus when I enter the command gtk-launch program.desktop it runs.

The problem is when I try to enter gtk-launch /home/userName/Desktop/program.desktop. Instead I get a message from terminal saying: gtk-launch: no such application. I know the file is there and cat works just fine reading it.

Why does gtk-launch only seem to be working from inside Desktop? Can I get around this? I'm using Kali linux with GNOME from a persistent USB.

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  • Did you find any of what was posted useful? It is always good to provide feedback. Commented Dec 22, 2021 at 21:48
  • To clarify for future visitors, this was an XY problem, where X was "use gtk-launch to launch a program" and Y was "get gtk-launch to understand absolute filesystem paths" —which, as noted below, it doesn't. I can totally relate to this, because my X and Y were the same. ;) Commented Dec 26, 2022 at 20:42

3 Answers 3

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To make this work, you have to satisfy two requirements:

  1. Your myapp.desktop file should reside in one of several directories (not exclusively /usr/share/application). These depend on your Linux distro; for Ubuntu:

    1.1. /usr/share/application

    1.2. /usr/local/share/applications

    1.3. ~/.local/share/applications

  2. You have to execute gtk-launch myapp (or gtk-launch myapp.desktop) without the path.

Related

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The manpage states the following:

gtk-launch takes at least one argument, the name of the application to launch. The name should match application desktop file name, as residing in /usr/share/application, with or without the '.desktop' suffix.

This indicates that the desktop file should be in the specified location, otherwise it can't used to launch an application. Source file gtk/gtk-launch.c shows that gtk-launch doesn't execute anything, but puts a message on D-Bus to to ask for the launch the required application.

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  • Ah yes. It does. Although it does beg the question--how does one launch a program via a .desktop file with the command line from OUTSIDE of the desktop? I haven't come across any solution which does not involve gtk-launch. Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 1:05
  • For that this post on AskUbuntu may set you on your way. Commented Sep 20, 2017 at 6:31
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Another possibility is that the desktop entry file being invalid. Try desktop-file-validate /home/userName/Desktop/program.desktop to see if it is and fix problems. In my case this works.

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