As discussed with Jonathan Thomas it isn't exactly clear if empty path lines are actually considered wrong.
The Desktop Entry Specification as per http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-1.1.html says the following about the value of keys which require a string:
> Values of type string may contain all ASCII characters except for control characters.
Unlike
> Values of type numeric must be a valid floating point number as recognized by the %f specifier for scanf in the C locale.
which clearly states that the key value _must_ be a valid floating point number.
String _may_ contain ASCII chars, but _may_ as well not do that. Numeric must include a valid floating point number, no content at all isn't meeting the requirements.
desktop-file-validate does also support this interpretation
> kate.desktop: warning: value "" for key "Path" in group "Desktop Entry" does not look like an absolute path
I assume if an empty value was actually breaking the standard compatibility it would use an error: instead of a warning:
Then again this might as well just be a bug in desktop-file-validate, so Jonathan is going to (or already did) get in contact with the responsible people at fd.o to get a clear definition about this.
Depending on the outcome either GNOME needs to fix it's desktop file parser, or KDE needs to get rid of all the empty keys and desktop-file-validate should be fixed to output an error for empty keys.
As discussed with Jonathan Thomas it isn't exactly clear if empty path lines are actually considered wrong.
The Desktop Entry Specification as per http:// standards. freedesktop. org/desktop- entry-spec/ desktop- entry-spec- 1.1.html says the following about the value of keys which require a string:
> Values of type string may contain all ASCII characters except for control characters.
Unlike
> Values of type numeric must be a valid floating point number as recognized by the %f specifier for scanf in the C locale.
which clearly states that the key value _must_ be a valid floating point number.
String _may_ contain ASCII chars, but _may_ as well not do that. Numeric must include a valid floating point number, no content at all isn't meeting the requirements.
desktop- file-validate does also support this interpretation
> kate.desktop: warning: value "" for key "Path" in group "Desktop Entry" does not look like an absolute path
I assume if an empty value was actually breaking the standard compatibility it would use an error: instead of a warning:
Then again this might as well just be a bug in desktop- file-validate, so Jonathan is going to (or already did) get in contact with the responsible people at fd.o to get a clear definition about this. file-validate should be fixed to output an error for empty keys.
Depending on the outcome either GNOME needs to fix it's desktop file parser, or KDE needs to get rid of all the empty keys and desktop-