update-menus - generate Debian menu system
update-menus [-v] [-d] [-h|--help] [--version] [--menufilesdir
<dir>] [--menumethod <method>] [--nodefaultdirs]
[--stdout]
Before the advent of update-menus, when the system
administrators installed a package onto a Debian system, they would need to
edit various window manager configuration files to make the new program show
up on, for example, fvwm's menus. The menus could easily become out of sync
with what programs were actually available, with some menu items that didn't
work, and other programs that lacked a menu entry. update-menus and
Debian's menu package aim to solve this problem.
update-menus automatically generates menus of installed
programs for window managers and other menu programs. It should be run
whenever a menufile(5) or menu-method file is changed.
update-menus will be run automatically when Debian packages that
contain menu files are installed on or removed from the system.
update-menus uses the package-supplied menu entry files (in
/usr/share/menu) for its information about the menus (but this can be
overruled by the system administrator/user; see below). If a menu entry file
is executable, update-menus executes the menu entry file, and uses
its stdout to generate the menu database.
- -v
- Verbose output. Shows all arguments to the /etc/menu-methods
programs.
- -d
- Debug output. Generates loads of unintelligible output.
- -h, --help
- Display usage help and exit.
- Adds directory <dir> to the list of directories to search for menu
files in.
- Process only the menu method <method> instead of all the menu
methods found.
- --nodefaultdirs
- Disables the search of menu entries in system menu directories.
- --nodpkgcheck
- Do not discard menu entries for packages that are not installed according
to dpkg.
- --remove
- Remove the menus by calling the menu-methods with --remove.
- --stdout
- Output the menu list in a format suitable as input for install-menu
or a menu method file.
- --version
- Output version information and exit.
There are several ways to tune the operation of update-menus:
per menu entry, in /etc/menu/$package
In these directories the system administrator or user can
override the default menu files (If a file /etc/menu/$package exists, than the
corresponding /usr/share/menu/$package file isn't read any more). Users who
want to override the system wide defaults put their files in ~/.menu. See also
menufile(5)In these configuration files, one can tune generated
system.${wm}rc files for each individual window manager. For example, one can
specify that the wm should ignore any icons that the packages may supply, or
set the default wrapper for text-only applications (usually, an xterm is
started to run a text-only application like vi). Users who want to override
the system wide defaults put their files in ~/.menu-methods. For more info,
see /usr/share/doc/menu/html.
globally, in /etc/menu-methods/translate_menus
This file contains translations that will be performed
for all menu entries and all window managers. You can specify things like:
`All sections that start with "Games" should be mapped to
"Applications/Games"', or `menuentry "gnuplot" should have
a title of "GnuTeken"'. Look at the default
/etc/menu-methods/translate_menus for an example. Users who want to override
the system default translate file, put one in ~/.menu-methods/translate_menus.
Note: This should not be used for a full translation of the menu. Use
po files as explained in the source package.
error report configuring, in /etc/menu-methods/menu.config
This file contains general information for the overall
behaviour of update-menus. At the moment you can only configure how verbose
the output of update-menus is, and where it sends the output. The amount of
information is specified by `verbosity=VAL'. Use VAL=quiet to stop update-menu
from reporting anything but the most important errors, VAL=normal,
VAL=verbose, VAL=debug for progressively more output.
To specify where the output should go, use `method=stdout',
`method=stderr', or `method=syslog facility priority'. `Facility' is one of
auth, authpriv, authcron, authdaemon, authkern, authlocal0, authlocal1,
authlocal2, authlocal3, authlocal4, authlocal5, authlocal6, authlocal7,
authlpr, authmail, authnews, authsyslog, authuser, authuucp. `priority' is
one of emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug.
Menu files: (Earlier listed directories override those listed
later.)
~/.menu/*
Menu files added by the user. (Isn't read if root runs
update-menus)
/etc/menu/*
Menu files added by the system administrator.
/usr/lib/menu/*
Architecture-dependant menu files provided by other
Debian packages.
/usr/share/menu/*
Architecture-independant menu files provided by other
Debian packages.
/usr/share/menu/default/*
Menu files provided by the menu package.
Menu methods:
/etc/menu-methods/
Executable configuration files that are added by window
managers and other menu programs, these files are run by update-menus
to generate menus for the different programs. Also in this directory is the
translate_menus file, used for local configuration of the shape of the menu
trees.
~/.menu-methods/
For users to override the system-defaults of
/etc/menu-methods. If this directory exists, no files in /etc/menu-methods are
read any more.
Distribution is subject to the GNU General Public License.
update-menus may not work properly when run by a normal
user, to generate menus for that user. This is usually because the window
manager doesn't expect the system.${wm}rc files in the directory (usually
~/.${wm}, configurable in /etc/menu-methods). If you see such a thing, and
you find a solution, please mail <menu@packages.debian.org>. It should
work OK for fvwm and fvwm2: I usually test the package first as an ordinary
user.
Joost Witteveen <joostje@debian.org>, original idea by Lars
Wirzenius <liw@iki.fi>. Now maintained by Bill Allombert
<ballombe@debian.org>.
To Joey Hess, for a lot of good ideas and pre-release testing, and
to Tom Lees for a update-menus in pure C (of which I only used one function,
but that's life).
Man page by Joey Hess, <joeyh@debian.org>