Do not put update-gnome-menus-cache into $PATH

[Valentijn Sessink]

Binary package hint: gnome-menus

After installing Lucid 10.04-alpha on 2010-03-17 (from a preseeded PXE install), the /usr/share/applications/desktop.nl_NL.utf8.cache file contains many, many English descriptions of the applications - so the Gnome menus are filled with English descriptions. The system language is nl_NL.utf8 (and, in fact, a cache file that has nl_NL.utf8 should *never* get the English descriptions in the menus when there are nl_NL.utf8 descriptions available).

Running the (undocumented) update-gnome-menus-cache in this directory fixes things, but there's a couple of bad practices here:

- the documentation for various packages doesn't tell about update-gnome-menus-cache.
- update-gnome-menus-cache doesn't even have a man page
- For example, trying to add a new screensaver-type by hand does not work when you put a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/screensavers/. In fact, *deleting* a .desktop file there does not remove the screensaver from the screensaver settings menu!
- a cache file should not reside in /usr/share/applications/
- *if* you cache files, you should make sure the cached file will be rebuilt.

In this case, a wrong desktop.$i18n.cache file will get all menus wrong, and there seems nothing you can do about it.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, the cache update uses a trigger which means it will be updated when any package install a desktop entry in the directory, local changes are supposed to be made in the local directory and not in the distribution one

[Valentijn Sessink (valentijn)]

On 23-03-10 12:06, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Thank you for your bug report, the cache update uses a trigger which
> means it will be updated when any package install a desktop entry in the
> directory, local changes are supposed to be made in the local directory
> and not in the distribution one

Do you want me to file bugs for the individual problems? I.e. a cache
file not in a cache directory; the nl_NL files containing English
descriptions; the non-documentation for this utility?

V.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

> - the documentation for various packages doesn't tell about update-gnome-menus-cache.
> - update-gnome-menus-cache doesn't even have a man page

It's an internal implementation detail. I agree it shouldn't be in /usr/bin, so we can use this bug to track moving it to /usr/share/.

> - For example, trying to add a new screensaver-type by hand does not work when you put a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications /screensavers/. In fact, *deleting* a .desktop file there does not remove the screensaver from the screensaver settings menu!

This is not supported. Please use /usr/local/applications or ~/.local/applications for custom .desktop files. /usr is for distro packages, /usr/local and /home for user customizations.

> - a cache file should not reside in /usr/share/applications/

Indeed it might be nicer in /var/cache; it makes the lookups less efficient, but it should be bearable. This could become a separate wishlist bug.

> - *if* you cache files, you should make sure the cached file will be rebuilt.

That's already done via dpkg triggers.

[Valentijn Sessink (valentijn)]

Martin, there's just one element of the bug left, namely the /usr/share/applications/desktop.nl_NL.utf8.cache containing English descriptions. As far as I can see, this is probably the result of update-gnome-menus-cache setting it's locale with locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, ''), while the output file is probably generated with another mechanism - unknown to me.

During preseeded installation, these seem to differ, and the menus end up being in English.

Do you want me to open a different bug for this?

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Valentijn,

this sounds related to bug 517616, but if you still get it on lucid beta-1 (after sudo update-gnome-menus-cache), then yes, please file a new bug and assign it to "pitti". Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-menus - 2.29.92-0ubuntu5

---------------
gnome-menus (2.29.92-0ubuntu5) lucid; urgency=low

  * debian/update-gnome-menus-cache: Fix crash on invalid UTF-8 in
    translations, fall back to untranslated string. (LP: #531412)
  * debian/python-gmenu.postinst, debian/rules: Install
    update-gnome-menus-cache into /usr/share/gnome-menus instead of /usr/bin.
    It's a private implementation detail, not something that users should
    run/see. (LP: #540813)
  * debian/update-gnome-menus-cache: Ignore other exceptions during
    translation as well (such as IndexError), and fall back to untranslated
    string instead of crashing. (LP: #504785)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:49:40 +0100