[2013-12-06 18:15:36 +0100] Alexander Rødseth:
I think .desktop files should ideally be provided by upstream. But for cases where they are not currently being provided, we should provide them.
Sure. That's exactly like service files, or rc.d files before that. Nothing new here.
Regardless of if it is correct that upstream should provide the .desktop files or not, the current plan is not working. TUs and devs are slow at reporting this as bugs and upstream are slow at responding. At the current rate, this will take years, perhaps decades. The current plan is not working.
Why not? If a given package does not have a desktop file and nobody is bothered enough to write one up and submit it through our bug tracker, then that package does not really need a desktop file.
Here are the arguments for generating the .desktop files with a tool like "gendesk":
* There is much duplication of code by having one .desktop file per (GUI) package * If the .desktop specification should change in the future, there is only one tool that has to be changed, not bazillions of little .desktop files * If there should be alternative ways of providing desktop shortcuts in the future, possibly for other desktop environments, the transition will be easier * It's more elegant than including manually crafted files everywhere * It provides one consistent look of .desktop files and avoids problems (for instance, one hand crafted (or upstream provided?) .desktop file used Terminal=1 instead of Terminal=true, which caused problems). Generated files are consistent, which avoids problems. * gendesk is already being used for several packages (and has been used for a while), and it seems to work fine * Many files are generating during the prepare or build process. .desktop files should be generated too.
So you suggest we use pacman hooks to deal with desktop files? Should service files be autogenerated as well? (I don't think so.)
If there are no protests, I will, after some time (say, three days without any replies to this thread):
* Create a TODO for this * Start fixing the packages (I will not fix the packages of maintainers that wish to reserve themselves from this, of course).
I object to any mass automated update of our PKGBUILDs. Why are you making such a big deal out of such an insignificant issue? Packages for whom nobody has yet bothered to write a desktop file just have no need for one... -- Gaetan