Freedesktop Desktop Entry Parser

A Rust library for parsing and manipulating Linux .desktop files according to the freedesktop.org Desktop Entry Specification.

Features

• Full support for Desktop Entry Specification v1.5
• Locale-aware string handling
• Icon resolution using freedesktop icon theme
• Support for desktop actions
• Strong type safety with Rust's type system

Usage

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
freedesktop-file-parser = "0.3.0"

Basic Example

use freedesktop_file_parser::{parse, EntryType};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let content = r#"[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Firefox
Exec=firefox %u
Icon=firefox
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
    "#;

    let desktop_file = parse(content)?;
    
    // Access basic properties
    println!("Name: {}", desktop_file.entry.name.default);
    
    // Check entry type
    if let EntryType::Application(app) = &desktop_file.entry.entry_type {
        println!("Exec: {}", app.exec.as_ref().unwrap());
    }

    Ok(())
}

Handling Localized Strings

use freedesktop_file_parser::LocaleString;

// Access different translations
if let Some(de_name) = desktop_file.entry.name.variants.get_variant("de") {
    println!("German name: {}", de_name);
}

Working with Actions

// Access application actions
for (action_name, action) in &desktop_file.actions {
    println!("Action: {}", action.name.default);
    if let Some(exec) = &action.exec {
        println!("Action command: {}", exec);
    }
}

Supported Fields

The library supports all standard fields from the Desktop Entry Specification, including:

• Basic fields (Type, Name, GenericName, NoDisplay, Comment, Icon)
• Application fields (Exec, TryExec, Path, Terminal, MimeType, Categories)
• Startup fields (StartupNotify, StartupWMClass)
• Display fields (Hidden, OnlyShowIn, NotShowIn)
• Actions
• DBus activation

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• freedesktop.org for the Desktop Entry Specification
• freedesktop-icons for icon resolution support

Status

This project is under active development. While it implements the full specification, please report any bugs or missing features.