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 = "0.1.0"

Basic Example

use freedesktop_entry::parse;

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_entry::LocaleString;

// Access different translations
if let Some(de_name) = desktop_file.entry.name.variants.get("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.

freedesktop-file-parser 0.1.0