i have made a program in C using the gcc compiler. Right now it has no GUI components. I am compiling it with makefile and running it in the terminal. I need to deploy it so that the executable is standalone. I want the executable to have an icon and when clicked start the program in the terminal. Can anyone tell me how to do this?
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2 Answers
The basics
(disclaimer: the following was tested with kubuntu, you might need to make some adjustments for your system)
Actually there is a standard to do that, not just for Ubuntu but for any number of *nix systems. Consult: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Howto_desktop_files:
Lets assume you have your foo.bin file you want to deploy. According to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, a good place to put it (if you are not using a package manager) is /usr/local/bin/. You will also need an icon, I will assume your artistic talent produced foo.png, and a good place for it might be /usr/local/share/icons/.
Now you need to create foo.desktop that might look like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Comment=My awesome fooish application
Exec=/usr/local/bin/foo.bin
Icon=/usr/local/share/icons/foo.png
Name=Foobar
NoDisplay=false
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=1
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
and put it in /usr/share/applications/.
You might be able to use your menu editor to create such a file. Look for the generated desktop file under ~/.local/share/applications/.
This should do the trick.
Another convention is to put everything under /opt/foo/ and create symbolic links to /usr/local/.
Cross DE with Portland
The Portland project provides the xdg-* command line utilities that make it easy to install the application's icon / menu entry / resource file, in a DE (GNOME, KDE, etc) independent way.
See the KDE & GNOME cross-desktop development tutorial on linuxuser.co.uk.
A better way
For deployment you should consider creating a *.deb package. (with your executable, *.desktop file and icon). There are several tutorials on this subject e.g. http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/How-to-make-deb-packages/.
Note that if you are using a package manager, the convention for file location becomes /usr/ instead of /usr/local/.
Go all the way
The next step, if you are inclined to take it, is setup your own repository, or PPA.
2 Comments
sfactor
thanx for this link, i will do the whole -deb package in the future but for my urgent needs I just want it to open up the executable in the terminal by clicking the icon. there are no GUI components in my code. how can this be done?
Nick Meyer
@sfactor, the "Terminal=1" option Chen included in the
foo.desktop file should cause the program to open in a terminal.Chen's link gets the desktop icon and menu entry; for Ubuntu specifically (and really any Debian-derived system, for the most part), there is a whole lot of good documentation. It's available starting at this link: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Packaging?highlight=%28CategoryPackaging%24%29
Start reading at "PackagingGuide". :)
As far as running your app in a terminal under X - on Ubuntu - just run
x-terminal-emulator -e /path/to/your/command
The x-terminal-emulator command is managed by "update-alternatives" and will be a symlink to whatever the preferred xterm emulator is on the system. For a Kubuntu system, it'll usually be kterm, for a regular Ubuntu system it'll likely be gnome-terminal, etc. But you can count on x-terminal-emulator being available if X is installed. And the -e option works for all of them, because it's an xterm command which they all implement for compatibility.
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