xfce-applications.menu merges in a non-standard way. default overrides merge

[Len Ovens]

the file /etc/xdg/menus/xfce-applications.menu has the <DefaultMergeDirs/> at the beginning of the file where it is processed and the extra files are merged before the rest of the default file are read. This means that the default layouts etc. will override the merged file but the freedesktop standard is that the merged in files (in the user's direcory for example) should override the default file. This affects any package like alacarte that edits the menu, or a package that customizes the menu from /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/ directory. This can be corrected by moving the <DefaultMergeDirs/> line to the second last line just one line bfore the very last </Menu> line.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: libgarcon-common 0.2.0-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-25.17-lowlatency 3.8.13
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-25-lowlatency i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Aug 17 19:37:06 2013
Dependencies:

InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-04-21 (119 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Studio 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130420)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: garcon
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Len Ovens (len-ovenwerks)]

I realize I sent the bug report from Raring Ringtail, and not saucy. I have confirmed that the version of libgarcon-common in saucy (0.2.1-1) has the same issue. This is a very common bug. Only KDE seems to come with this correct by default.

[Len Ovens (len-ovenwerks)]

I tried to set up my own branch with a fix to merge but failed... Seems I got the wrong branch or some such. It is new to me. However the diff file might help, so here it is.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "diff for xfce-appliactions.menu that fixes this bug." seems to be a debdiff. The ubuntu-sponsors team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review and hopefully sponsor the debdiff. If the attachment isn't a patch, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are member of the ~ubuntu-sponsors, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issue please contact him.]

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Thanks for your work here. Have you forwarded the patch upstream or to Debian?

[Jackson Doak (noskcaj)]

If someone can confirm this affects (and then fixes) debian, i'll add it there.

[Len Ovens (len-ovenwerks)]

I don't have a debian install to test with. However, the test case that I know is to install ubuntustudio-menu from ppa:len-ovenwerks/ppa (the main one hasn't had this version released yet, but hopefully this week). With out the patch, the five new submenus will be in alphabetical order mixed with the other categories. With the patch, these five categories will be at the top of the menu with a separator below them. There are other artifacts the patch fixes as well, but that is the easiest one to describe. It is safe to force ubuntustudio-menu to install without depends, but the depend (ubuntustudio-installer) is quite small too. Not installing ubuntustudio-installer just means there are some extra applications that don't do anything and have no icon :)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Could you upstream/send to the Debian the report? The way the .menu is currently done matches what GNOME is doing ... I see you reported bug #1192002 about that

Looking to GNOME old report I found https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=557443 which was marked as NOTABUG with details

"<DefaultMergeDirs/> really exists for third-parties, and not for the
system-builder. I wouldn't recommend using it this way.

Note that since the order of <Include> and <Exclude> matters, the issue you
have with <Exclude> that don't work has an opposite for the case of
<DefaultMergeDirs/> being at the end: stuff cannot be excluded from there..."

The change seems contriversial and something that should be resolved upstream, unsubscribing sponsors, we don't want to get that in an distro specific way without upstream discussion

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Is there any news about this bug? Has someone affected by this bug sent the report upstream? Could you tell us the bug number, so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status? Thanks in advance.

[FerVira (vira)]

This bug is still present in ubuntu studio, it's affecting me and others, 16.04 in my case.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/menulibre/+bug/1430571

[FerVira (vira)]

In my case, fresh installed Ubuntu Studio Menu categories (Audio Production, Graphic Design, and Video Production) and others disappeared after hiding Education category. It was the first thing I edited.

I've tried the fix proposed here:
"This can be corrected by moving the <DefaultMergeDirs/> line to the second last line just one line bfore the very last </Menu> line."
This didn't work for me.

I guess we'll have to find the way to restore xcfe-applications.menu and remember not to edit the Menu until this get fixed.

[Bluesabre-1 (bluesabre-1)]

Created attachment 8601
Patch for the default applications menu

Downstream bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/garcon/+bug/1213518

the file /etc/xdg/menus/xfce-applications.menu has the <DefaultMergeDirs/> at the beginning of the file where it is processed and the extra files are merged before the rest of the default file are read. This means that the default layouts etc. will override the merged file but the freedesktop standard is that the merged in files (in the user's direcory for example) should override the default file. This affects any package like alacarte that edits the menu, or a package that customizes the menu from /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/ directory. This can be corrected by moving the <DefaultMergeDirs/> line to the second last line just one line bfore the very last </Menu> line.

The attached patch seems to resolve this issue.

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

Created an upstream bug report for this. Hopefully we'll get it taken care of before Xfce 4.14pre2!

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

Resolved in Garcon 0.7.3.