Icons in .desktop files are hardcoded

[Linus Groh]

There is already a bug report in the Python bug tracker, from 2014. It has only one response, saying the reporting person should open a bug on their distribution's bug tracker. I'm not sure if this ever happened, so I'm trying my luck here. If this belongs to Debian or Linux Mint please let me know.

Problem:
The icon paths in the .desktop files shipping with both Python 2.x and 3.x are hardcoded (e.g. "/usr/share/pixmaps/python3.5.xpm"). This is extremely annoying for theming.

Solution:
Instead of hardcoding the icon to "/usr/share/pixmaps/pythonx.x.xpm", it should just say "python2" and "python3", or even "python". Almost all icon themes will work for Python then.

Also I wonder why there's the NoDisplay directive set to true. Like this, having a desktop file makes no sense at all IMO. After each Python update I have to edit the file again and again.

So from this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Python (v3.5)
Comment=Python Interpreter (v3.5)
Exec=/usr/bin/python3.5
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/python3.5.xpm
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Categories=Development;
StartupNotify=true
NoDisplay=true
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.22

to this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Python (v3.5)
Comment=Python Interpreter (v3.5)
Exec=/usr/bin/python3.5
Icon=python3
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Categories=Development;
StartupNotify=true
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.22

Information:

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Release: 18.2
$ apt-cache policy python3
python3:
  Installiert: 3.5.1-3
  Installationskandidat: 3.5.1-3
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 3.5.1-3 500
        500 http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
$

Thanks,
- Linus

[Juhani Numminen (jsonic)]

Hi,

The desktop files come from Debian, so I suggest you report this against the Debian bug tracker, using the reportbug command or by sending email as instructed in https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting.

The bug should be reported against the python3.5 package. (Because that's the version you have. Some more python2.x and python3.y packages are actually also affected.) To verify which package owns a file, use the command "dpkg -S /usr/share/applications/python*.desktop".

Regards,
Juhani Numminen