A Gnome 3 Folder Category Configuration Tool
The package can be installed by running the command: make install
, and can later be removed with: make uninstall
.
The following environment variables can be set to configure the location of various things:
$DESTDIR
: The base under root (default: /)$PREFIX
: The prefix that will be used under other folders (default: /usr)$MANDIR
: The folder (starting at $PREFIX) to install the man page.$VIMDIR
: The folder (starting at $PREFIX) to install the Vim filetype config.
While configuration is done primarily by hand, it's possible to iterate through the list of applications that aren't already in a folder category and select a category for each by running: gnome-catgen -c
In this mode you can do the following:
- Enter the name of a folder category to add the current application.
- Enter a blank line to skip the current application.
- Press ctrl-c to quit at any time.
Once all the applications without a folder have been cycled through, gnome-catgen will offer to apply the updated configuration. Choosing not to apply the changes at this time will simply exit the program, and the changes can then be applied later by running: gnome-catgen -s
You can manually configure a given folder category by running: gnome-catgen -e "Category Name"
This will create (if it doesn't already exist) and open (with the editor set by $EDITOR, or vi if nothing is set) the .category file in ~/.local/share/applications-categories for the provided category name. In this file, you can now add one application's '.desktop' filename per line. After all the desired applications have been added, you can then run: gnome-catgen -s
to apply your configuration.
- Blank lines are ignored.
- Lines where the first non-whitespace character is a # considered commented and are ignored.
gnome-catgen -f
|--get-folders
: list current foldersgnome-catgen -a
|--get-apps
: list current apps in each folder categorygnome-catgen -r
|--get-remaining
: list apps without a folder category
gnome-catgen -c
|--choose-remaining
: assign folder categories to unassigned appsgnome-catgen -e [CAT]
|--edit-category [CAT]
: edit the .category file of the folder category for [CAT].
gnome-catgen -s
|--set
: apply current folder configurationgnome-catgen -x
|--clear
: remove applied folder configuration
gnome-catgen -d
|--desktop-file-check
: check that configured desktop exist and are enabledgnome-catgen -h
|--help
: display this help
- If there are still uncategorized apps and
gnome-catgen -c
doesn't list them, there may be something unexpected in ~/.local/share/applications-categories, and an easy fix is to delete/backup and start again. - It may be necessary to delete/backup ~/.local/share/applications-categories when upgrading from Gnome 3.12 to 3.14 for reasons related to the note above.
Written by Kevin MacMartin:
Released under the MIT license.