Gnome Application Launcher – Run Application in Certain Directory

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:20:29 +0000

This would be easy in kde, but in gnome some extra steps are needed. I changed to gnome just recently being impressed by the clarity and simplicity of the user interface. Being used to the “kde way” I needed some time to figure that out.

This is an example for kdissert:

Create a wrapper script for example kdissert.sh in ~/bin/launch and make it executable

#!/bin/bash                                                                                                     
cd ~/Known
nohup kdissert > /dev/null 2>&1 &
exit 0

Then use the panel menu to create a Custom Application Launcher : Add to panel -> Custom Application Launcher -> Choose Type: Application, Command: /home/yourusername/bin/launch/kdissert.sh

Another way is to use shell directly. But watch out – you will need to source your .bashrc if needed:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=netbeans with some environment settings
Exec=/bin/bash -c  '. ~/.bashrc; ~/workarea/nb_run.sh'
# to run it in a terminal:
# Exec=gnome-terminal --command "/bin/bash -c  '. ~/.bashrc; ~/workarea/nb_run.sh' "
Icon=/home/kostja/bin/netbeans-6.5rc2/nb6.5/netbeans.png
Categories=Development;Java;IDE
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application

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Gnome Application Launcher – Run Application in Certain Directory