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https://github.com/biont/sway-launcher-desktop

TUI Application launcher with Desktop Entry support. Made for SwayWM, but runs anywhere
https://github.com/biont/sway-launcher-desktop

application-autostart bash desktop-entries desktop-files dmenu-replacement fzf i3wm launcher menu sway swaywm tui xdg-basedir

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TUI Application launcher with Desktop Entry support. Made for SwayWM, but runs anywhere

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README 

        
# sway-launcher-desktop ![Build Status](https://github.com/Biont/sway-launcher-desktop/workflows/CI/badge.svg)



![screenshot_2019-10-25-213740](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4208996/67599848-3a1f3680-f771-11e9-9715-da6e943ae14e.png)



This is a TUI-based launcher menu made with bash and the amazing [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf).

Despite its name, it does not (read: no longer) depend on the Sway window manager in any way and can be used with just about any WM.



## Features

- Lists and executes available binaries

- Lists and executes .desktop files (entries as well as actions)

- Does not depend on `xdg-utils`. Just pure bash and `awk` (specifically gawk)

- Shows a preview window containing `whatis` info of binaries and the `Comment=` section of .desktop files

- History support which will highlight recently used entries

- Colored output and glyphs for the different entry types

- Entries are lazily piped into `fzf` eliminating any lag during startup

- Optional support for the XDG Autostart specification

- Executes arbitrary custom commands (if there are no other matches)



## Installation



Make sure you have `fzf` and `awk` installed and download this repository. 

To be precise, the script specifically depends on GNU awk (`gawk`) so check what flavour your distribution provides.



Arch Linux users can also grab it from the AUR (thanks @turtlewit)



* [sway-launcher-desktop](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sway-launcher-desktop/)

* [sway-launcher-desktop-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sway-launcher-desktop-git/)



Configure it in Sway like this:

```

for_window [app_id="^launcher$"] floating enable, sticky enable, resize set 30 ppt 60 ppt, border pixel 10

set $menu exec $term -a launcher -e /path/to/repo/sway-launcher-desktop.sh

bindsym $mod+d exec $menu

```

(this example was made with `term=foot` in mind; it may need to be adjusted for other terminals)



You can override the default icons/glyphs by setting the appropriate GLYPH_ variable in your $menu command, e.g.:

```

set $menu exec $term -e env GLYPH_COMMAND="" GLYPH_DESKTOP="" GLYPH_PROMPT="? " sway-launcher

```



If `fzf` is not in your `$PATH` you can specify the path by supplying a value to the `FZF_COMMAND` variable.

```

set $menu exec $term -e env FZF_COMMAND="/path/to/fzf" sway-launcher

```



By default, the launcher will use a generic & WM-agnostic command to launch the selected program. 

However, it will detect if its output is being piped to another program and merely print 

the selected command in that case - instead of launching it by itself. You can use this to integrate the launcher with other tools.

For example, if you wish to launch your programs with `swaymsg exec`, you can do that like this¹:



```shell

 swaymsg exec "$(./sway-launcher-desktop.sh)"

```



### Set up a Terminal command

Some of your desktop entries will probably be TUI programs that expect to be launched in a new terminal window. Those entries have the `Terminal=true` flag set and you need to tell the launcher which terminal emulator to use. Pass the `TERMINAL_COMMAND` environment variable with your terminal startup command to the script to use your preferred terminal emulator. The script will default to `$TERMINAL -e`



### Configure application autostart

If you want to be able to autostart applications , this script provides a function to handle them for you. Simply run `sway-launcher-desktop.sh autostart` in your `.bashrc`, at the end of your i3/sway config, or wherever else you deem fit.



### Configure fzf preview window

You can configure the fzf preview window using the environment variable `PREVIEW_WINDOW` (default: `up:2:noborder`). For example, if you prefer a taller window, you could use `PREVIEW_WINDOW=5:up`. The content of `PREVIEW_WINDOW` is passed to the `--preview-window` option, so check out the fzf manual for further details.



## Extending the launcher



In addition to desktop application entries and binaries, you can extend `sway-launcher-desktop` with custom item providers.

It will read the configuration of custom item providers from `$HOME/.config/sway-launcher-desktop/providers.conf`.

The structure looks like this:



```

[my-provider]

list_cmd=echo -e 'my-custom-entry\034my-provider\034  My custom provider'

preview_cmd=echo -e 'This is the preview of {1}'

launch_cmd=notify-send 'I am now launching {1}'

purge_cmd=command -v '{1}' || exit 43

```



The `list_cmd` generated the list of entries. For each entry, it has to print the following columns, separated by the `\034` field separator character:

1. The item to launch. This will get passed to `preview_cmd` and `launch_cmd` as `{1}`

2. The name of your provider (the same as what what you put inside the brackets, so `my-provider` in this example)

3. The text that appears in the `fzf` window. You might want to prepend it with a glyph and add some color via ANSI escape codes

4. (optional) Metadata that you can pass to `preview_cmd` and `launch_cmd` as `{2}`. For example, this is used to specify a specific Desktop Action inside a .desktop file



The `preview_cmd` renders the contents of the `fzf` preview panel. You can use the template variable `{1}` in your command, which will be substituted with the value of the selected item.



The `launch_cmd` is fired when the user has selected one of the provider's entries.



The `purge_cmd` is used as part of the `purge` function. It tests any entry of a provider. If the test exits with `43`, then the entry will be removed from the history file



Note: Pass the environment variable `PROVIDERS_FILE` to read custom providers from another file than the default `providers.conf`.

The path in `PROVIDERS_FILE` can either be absolute or relative to `${HOME}/.config/sway-launcher-desktop/`.



### Keeping builtin providers

When a custom provider config is used, the default behaviour is to replace the hardcoded builtins. This is not always desirable if you merely wish to *add* something new. Luckily, the built-in providers only call specific functions of the main script, which are also accessible externally.

So you can simply mimick their behaviour by placing this in your config file:



```

[desktop]

list_cmd=/path/to/sway-launcher-desktop.sh list-entries

preview_cmd=/path/to/sway-launcher-desktop.sh describe-desktop "{1}"

launch_cmd=/path/to/sway-launcher-desktop.sh run-desktop '{1}' {2}

purge_cmd=test -f '{1}' || exit 43



[command]

list_cmd=/path/to/sway-launcher-desktop.sh list-commands

preview_cmd=/path/to/sway-launcher-desktop.sh describe-command "{1}"

launch_cmd=$TERMINAL_COMMAND {1}

purge_cmd=command -v '{1}' || exit 43

```



## Launcher history file



By default, `sway-launcher-desktop` stores a history of commands to make frequently used entries available more quickly.

This history is stored in a file in `~/.cache/` (or `$XDG_CACHE_HOME`, if that environment variable is set).

You may change the file path and name by setting the environment variable `HIST_FILE` to the desired path.

Setting the variable to an empty value disables the history feature entirely.



### Housekeeping

After a while, this history might grow and contain some invalid entries due to removed/renamed programs etc.

You can use `./sway-launcher-desktop.sh purge` to identify broken entries and remove them.

Consider adding this command to a cronjob, startup script, or maybe even hook it into your package manager.



## Troubleshooting



Debug information is directed to file descriptor `3` and can be dumped using `./sway-launcher-desktop.sh 3>> ~/sway-launcher-desktop.log`



---



¹ If you want to use this as a keybinding though, this kind of shell substitution will not work inside the config file. [Here's a way to make it work](https://github.com/Biont/sway-launcher-desktop/issues/33#issuecomment-765145677)