Debian Menu System
------------------
Joost Witteveen <joostje@debian.org>
Joey Hess <joey@kite.ml.org>
Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org>
version 1.3, 22 Januaro 2000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract
--------
The `menu' package was inspired by the `install-fvwm2-menu' program
from the old `fvwm2' package. However, `menu' tries to provide a more
general interface for menu building. With the `update-menus' command
from this package, no package needs to be modified for every X window
manager again, and it provides a unified interface for both text- and
X-oriented programs.
Copyright Notice
----------------
Copyright (C)1997 Joost Witteveen, Joey Hess, Christian Schwarz.
This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
later version.
This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but _without
any warranty_; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or
fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License
for more details.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as
`/usr/doc/copyright/GPL' in the Debian GNU/Linux distribution or on
the World Wide Web at `http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html'. You can
also obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675
Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents
--------
1. Introduction
2. Menu from the viewpoint of a user
2.1. How/when do the window manger startup files get created?
2.2. Tuning of the generated window manager startup files
2.3. Optimization of menu tree: hints
3. What packages with applications should do
3.1. Registering your applications
3.2. Preferred menu structure
3.3. Hints
3.4. Icons
3.5. Fvwm's task and title bars
4. What packages with menu managers should do
5. How a user can override the menus
5.1. Configuring the menus
5.2. Specifying a ``no-menu entry''
5.3. Include: (one) other feature
6. The internals of the menu package
6.1. The update-menus program
6.2. The install-menu program
6.3. The install-menu config script definitions
6.4. Hints, tree optimization
6.5. Variables and functions in the install-menu scripts
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
---------------
Before the advent of `update-menus', when the sysadmin installed a
package onto a debian system, they would need to edit various window
manager config files to make the new program show up on, for example,
`fvwm''s menus. The menus could easily become out of sync with what
programs were actually available, with some menu items that didn't
work, and other programs that lacked a menu entry. update-menus and
debian's menu package aim to solve this problem.
`update-menus' automatically generates menus of installed programs for
window managers and other menu programs. It should be run whenever a
menu file or menu-method file is changed. `update-menus' will be ran
automatically when debian packages that contain menu files are
installed or removed from the system.
One problem we ran into with menu-1.x (and before) was that the number
of entries in any submenu vary wildly: on my system there are only two
entries in /Apps/Editors, while I'm sure that other people have more
like 20 entries there. Many people complaind about the fullness of
certain submenus, citing scientific studies or personal experience to
explain why overfull or underfull submenus are a bad thing. To
overcome this, menu-2.0 now can optimize the tree itself, possibly
subdividing for example the /Apps/Editors tree in, say
Editors/Beginner, Editors/Experienced, or whatever, if there are many
entries in that submenu, or maybe even totally removing /Apps/Editors
on systems where there are few editors installed. To be able to do
this, menu follows the information supplied to it in the `hints'
variables (see paragraph below, or the hints chapter).
Each package that needs to add an entry to the menu tree, includes a
menu file `/usr/lib/menu/package-name'. In this file, it will have
one line per menu entry, like this (copied from
`/usr/lib/menu/xbase'):
?package(xbase):command="/usr/bin/X11/xedit" needs="X11" \
section="Apps/Editors" title="Xedit" \
hints="Beginner,Small"
This describes the type of interface Xedit needs (X11), the menu
section the menu entry should be in, the menu text, and the command
that should be executued. Also, it tells menu that, if /Apps/Editors
is overfull, it could put Xedit in a Apps/Editors/Beginner or
Apps/Editors/Small subsection.
Whenever `root' runs `update-menus', it will check all menu files in
`/etc/menu' and `/usr/lib/menu', and run the installation scripts that
display managers like `fvwm2' should provide in `/etc/menu-methods'.
The menu package itself provides a set of default menu files, for
people to get the idea, and to speed up things a bit. (These files
should be incorporated into the package.)
Note, that substantial and incompatible changes took place with the
menu-1.0 release, while substantial features were added by the release
of menu-2.0. This document describes menu-2.0. Menu-2.0 now doesn't
accept the menu-methods written for menu-0.x, but for most window
managers that still have those old menu-methods, I have put new style
menu-methods in /usr/doc/menu/examples. Everything written for
menu-1.0 will work with menu-2.0.
Most notable changes between menu-0.x and menu-1.x are listed in the
file README.changes in the menu package, the features added by
menu-2.0 can be summerised here: hints, and the menu-2 compat mode.
(where lines are finished by a ';' instead of a newline).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Menu from the viewpoint of a user
------------------------------------
2.1. How/when do the window manger startup files get created?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Basically, you as user don't need to know any of how and when the
startupfiles are created, but you might be interested to know anyway.
When package that wants to add something to the menu tree gets
installed, it will run `update-menus' in it's `postinst' script.
Update-menus then reads in all menu files in `/etc/menu/'
`/usr/lib/menu' and `/usr/lib/menu/default', and stores the menu
entries of all installed packages in memory. Once that has been done,
it will run the menu-methods in `/etc/menu-methods/*', and pipe the
information about the menu entries to the menu-methods on stdout, so
that the menu-methods can read this. Each Window Manager or other
program that wants to have the debian menu tree, will supply a
menu-method script in `/etc/menu-methods/'. This menu-method then
knows how to generate the startup-file for that window manager. To
facilitate this task for the window-manager maintainers, menu provides
a `install-menu' program. This program can generate the startupfiles
for just about every window manager.
2.2. Tuning of the generated window manager startup files
---------------------------------------------------------
In principle this is a very window-manager specific bussines. But for
all window managers (and others) applies:
The file to attac is the menu-method in `/etc/menu-methods/$wm', with
`$wm' the name of your window manager. However, if this menu-method
`!include'-s the `menu.h' file (as it should), you can also edit that
file, to make your changes work for every installed window manager.
If the menu-method file of your window manager does `!include' the
`menu.h' file, and makes proper use of the definitions in there, then
you can look at the comments in that `menu.h' file to see how you can
make minor adjustments to the look of your menus in your window
manager.
To generally change the menu tree, see the next section:
2.3. Optimization of menu tree: hints
-------------------------------------
If in the `/etc/menu-methods/*' script appears the definition
`hint_optimize=true' (actually, that definition should appear in the
`!include'-ed `menu.h' file), then install-menu will try to alter the
menu tree, to make every submenu have about the optimum number of menu
entries (as specified by `hints_nentry=...'). It will do that by
removing underfull submenus (unly if the `parent' of that submenu
isn't itself already overfull), and by possibly creating new submenus,
using hints. Note, however, that the optimization of the tree takes
in principle exponential time, so I've had to speedup the process, at
the expence of occasionally not finding the best tree. So, the tree
you are presented with may not be optimal. For tuning variables, see
the hint_* variables in the last chapter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. What packages with applications should do
--------------------------------------------
3.1. Registering your applications
----------------------------------
A package should provide a menu file `/usr/lib/menu/<package-name>'
that contains information about each program it likes to make
available in the menus.
Here is an example to describe the syntax of such a file:
?package(gnuplot):\ specifies what packages need to be installed
needs=text\ what kind of terminal this command expects
needs=X11: if this program runs only on X11
needs=text: if it only runs on text terminals
(the window manager should spawn
an xterm or rxvt in this case)
needs=vc: runs only at linux console
needs=wm: this starts another window manager
section=Apps/Math\ in what section this menu entry should be
title="Gnuplot"\ the title of the menu entry
(please make it short!)
command="/usr/bin/gnuplot" the command to run.
A program like gnuplot which can be run on X11 as well as on a text
terminal should _not_ have an extra entry with `needs=X11' because it
will then be next to impossible to configure the window managers to
spawn `rxvt' instead of the default `xterm'.
On the other hand, if a program (like `emacs') can be run as real X
application as well as in a terminal, two entries should be listed,
otherwise the program will always be run in an `xterm' (or `rxvt').
In the menu entry files, you can use "#" as comment (like in shell
scripts).
You should add a line like this to your `postinst' script
if test -x /usr/bin/update-menus; then update-menus; fi
and the `postrm' script should get the line
if test -x /usr/bin/update-menus; then update-menus; fi
(that is, the same line in postinst and in postrm).
3.2. Preferred menu structure
-----------------------------
Here is the _authoritative list of Debian's menu structure_. If you
have a package which does not fit in here or if you have any
suggestions how to improve this structure, please send an email to the
maintainer of the `menu' package, Joost Witteveen
<joostje@debian.org>. If you have more general remarks about
restructuring the menu tree (or adding an entry that may require
discussion), the best thing to do is to go to `debian-policy', and
start a discussion there. I (Joost) will without hesitation change
the structure of the menu-tree if a decision was reached on
debian-policy, but I'm very reluctant to changes without prior
discussion.
Please do _not_ put your packages into any other sections without
asking for permission first!
- {Window_Manger_Name}
- Configuration
- Hardware
- Packaging
- Networking
- Printing
- Boot and Init
- Other
- Applications
- Development
- Interpreters
- Code generators
- Development environments
- Tools
- Sciences
- Astronomy
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Computer science
- Geosciences
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Other
- Communications
- Editors
- Emulators
- Archiving
- Compression
- Cd burning
- Backup
- Other
- Monitoring
- Publishing
- Terminals
- Shells
- File tools
- Text tools
- Documentation
- Office
- Networking
- File transfer
- IRC
- ICQ
- Chat
- News
- Mail
- WWW
- Remote access
- Other
- Amusement
- Adventure
- Arcade
- Boards
- Cards
- Puzzles
- Sports
- Strategy
- Other
- Toys
- Multimedia
- Sound
- Graphics
- Video
This menu is genereated specifically by each windowmanager,
to provide specific wm related functions (restart, etc.) :
- Session...
- Windowmanagers...
- Restart session
- Exit session
3.3. Hints
----------
Hints have been added starting from this version of menu. There needs
to be some discussion about them first, but if you want to try them
out, simply add a hints="Myhint,Herhint,Hishint" definition to the
menu entry file. For example:
?package(emacs20):\
needs="x11"\
hints="Big,Expert,Featureful" \
section="Apps/Editors"\
title="Emacs 20"\
command="/usr/bin/emacs20"\
icon=/usr/share/emacs/20.3/etc/emacs.xbm
The above hints will case `menu' to consider grouping `emacs' together
with other editors that are marked similar. For example, if `vi' on
your system has a hints="Small,Expert" definition, and there are too
many entries in the /Apps/Editors menuentry, then menu will consider
creating a /Apps/Editors/Expert submenu, and put both `vi' and `emacs'
in it. (of cource, only if you have `hint_optimize=true' in your
/etc/menu-methods/menu.h file).
3.4. Icons
----------
Please, make sure the icons you specify are always available on the
system. So, if you want to have an icon with your menu entry, the
preferred method is to supply the icon with that package. Also, to
prevent the distribution of icons files to turn too much into a mess,
please put all icon files in the directory
`/usr/X11R6/include/X11/{bitmaps,pixmaps}'.
Debian package maintainers should ensure that any icons they include
for use in the debian menus conform to the following points:
1. The icons should be in xpm format.
2. The icons may not be larger than 32x32 pixels, although smaller
sizes are ok.
3. The icons should use only the 24 colors present in cmap.xpm,
which comes with the `menu' package.
4. The background area of the icon should be transparent, if
possible.
If you have Imagemagick installed, you can make your icons meet
requirements 1, 2, and 3 with the following command, but you will need
to edit the icon afterwards to clean it up and make the background
transparent:
$ mogrify -format xpm -geometry 32x32 -map cmap.xpm <filenames>
If you, as a system administrator, don't like the icons in the menus,
simply remove the `$%{icon}' from the files in
`/etc/menu-methods/$wm', and run `update-menus'.
It's also possible to specify an icon for a sub-menu. However, if
each package would supply its own icons for the sub menus we can never
be sure that the icon files are available. Thus, only the `menu'
package is allowed to specify icons for sub menus. The syntax for
this is:
X11 Apps menu/apps /usr/X11R6/include/X11/pixmap/icon.xpm "Editors"
3.5. Fvwm's task and title bars
-------------------------------
The problem with the stuff in the task bar is that all items are
displayed all of the time. So, if 1500 debian packages all were to
register a button, the buttons would quickly fill the screen, making
the exercise useless. The few applications that are considered
important enough to be listed in the task bar usually vary widely on
each system, making it impossible to select a ``happy few'' apps that
are allowed there on every debian system. If you (as a local system
administrator) want your `fvwm2' to have a few buttons, you can
install files for those packages in `/menu/$package', containing a
menu entry like this:
?Package(xmball):needs=button\
section=Games/Puzzles\
icon=path-to-pixmap.xpm\
title="Xmball"\
command=/usr/games/xmball
Then, do the following:
cd /etc/menu-methods/
cp fvwm2 fvwm2button
vi fvwm2button
and remove all the "supported" entries, adding the one below. For the
rest, leave everything the same except those listed below.
supported
button="+ Style \"" $title "\" TitleIcon" $icon " Exec " $command "\n"
endsupported
startmenu: "AddToTitlebar \n"
endmenu: "\n"
submenutitle:""
mainmenu:
genmenu: "buttondefs.hook"
(Of course regular users (not system administrators) can also specify
`buttonfiles' in their ~/.menu/ directory).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. What packages with menu managers should do
---------------------------------------------
Each package containing a _menu manager_ (i.e. a program that can
display a menu) should provide a script or program in
`/etc/menu-methods/' that can read the menu files. This script will
be executed by `update-menus', which will feed the menu entries to be
installed to your script via standard input (stdin).
The scripts in `/etc/menu-methods/' should be configuration files, so
the user can tune the behaviour of the script.
Good examples for these scripts for nearly all debian window managers
are included in the `menu' package in `/usr/doc/menu/examples'. Note
that while working on your script, you can use the tricks described in
"The internals of the Menu package", section "The update-menus
program", to run just your script, instead of having update-menus run
all scripts (can save quite a lot of time).
Run `update-menus' (if it exists) in your `postinst' script, and
remove the execute bit from the `/etc/menu-methods/' script in the
`postrm' when called with option ``remove.'' The wm-menu-config script
is provided to make all this easier:
Here is an example of such a `postrm' script using `sh':
#!/bin/sh
set -e
wm=twm #or pdmenu, fvwm, ... whatever manager you're installing
case "$1" in
remove)
if test -x /usr/sbin/wm-menu-config; then wm-menu-config $wm off;fi
;;
purge)
#remove the files that install-menu creates:
(cd /etc/X11/twm/; rm system.twmrc menus.dat menudefs.hook)
;;
upgrade);;
*)
echo "postrm called with unknown argument \`$1'" >&2
exit 0
;;
esac
And here is a good example for a `postinst' script:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
wm=pdmenu #or fvwm, ... whatever manager you're installing
if test -x /usr/sbin/wm-menu-config; then wm-menu-config $wm on;fi
Please, do not make your package _depend_ on the menu package! The
preferred way of telling dpkg that your wm can cooperate with menu is:
Suggests: menu (>1.5)
Please only consider using "depends" if you feel providing reasonable
defaults for systems without menu will make life very difficult for
you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. How a user can override the menus
------------------------------------
5.1. Configuring the menus
--------------------------
A user can specify his/her own menu entries in the `~/.menu'
directory. The files can have an arbitrary file name as long as the
new syntax for the menu entries is used. They should start with
either
?package(installed-package):
or
?package(local.mystuff):
if it's something that isn't ``debian-officially'' installed. (Any
``package'' that starts with ```local.''' is considered installed.)
If a user wants to have his/her own menu methods, he/she should create
a `~/.menu-methods' directory and put all scripts he/she wants to be
run in it. (If `~/.menu-methods' exists, `/etc/menu-methods' will not
be searched when a user runs `update-menus').
A system administrator should place system-wide menu entries in
`/etc/menu' (not in `/usr/lib/menu/package', since these files will
probably be overwritten by a package upgrade).
5.2. Specifying a ``no-menu entry''
-----------------------------------
If a user wants to remove an entry from the system menu (in
`/etc/menu'), then this will do the trick:
echo -n > ~/.menu/package
The zero-size file will tell `update-menus' that the corresponding
package should not have any menu entries listed.
5.3. Include: (one) other feature
---------------------------------
More out of curiosity than anything else, I recently read the KDE
mailing list. In it I saw some discussion about how good the Debian
menu system is (whow, thanks, guys!), but one person found a missing
feature: s/he said you couldn't include other files in the user menu
files. Well, actually, it was already possible, but not very well
documented. To include the contents of file /usr/lib/menu/somefile,
add this to your menu file:
!include /usr/lib/menu/somefile
Apart form that, it is of course possible to make the menu entry file
executable (`chmod a+x ~/.menu/package'), and do something like
#!/bin/sh
cat /usr/lib/menu/somefile
sed -e "/unwanted_entry/s/?package(/?package(notinstalled./" \
/usr/lib/menu/someotherfile
to get the same effect, with the added flexibility of being able to
filter out unwanted lines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. The internals of the menu package
------------------------------------
6.1. The update-menus program
-----------------------------
On startup, update-menus checks the file `/var/run/update-menus.pid'
and the pid in it. If there's an `update-menus' process with that pid
it kills it. If `/var/lib/dpkg/lock' exists, it forks to background
and returns control to dpkg. The background process checks the
`/var/lib/dpkg/lock' file approx. every second until the file's gone.
After that, `update-menus' reads the menu-entry-files in the following
directories:`/etc/menu /usr/lib/menu /usr/lib/menu/default' (if a user
runs `update-menus', it will add ~/.menu to the front of that list).
For every menu entry line in each file it checks if the corresponding
package is installed (works on file bases for old syntax menu entry
files). The menu entries of all "installed" packages are added
together in one big buffer that is kept in memory (exception:
executable menu entry files are executed, and stdout is placed in the
buffer).
Once it's read all menu entry files, `update-menus' starts all
executable scripts in /etc/menu-methods/, hands the scripts the
previously created buffer via stdin. (If `update-menus' is ran by a
user, it will first try to run the scripts in ~/.menu-methods, and
only if that directory doesn't exist, it will run the scripts in
/etc/menu-methods).
Note that as an aid to debugging, one can create a simple script like
#!/bin/sh
cat > /tmp/menu-stdout
and then view the file /tmp/menu-stdout to see exactly what
`update-menus' handed the menu-methods on their stdin.
This may also be usefull for people writing /etc/menu-method/*
scripts: Running `update-menus' every time you changed something in
the script may be quite time-consuming. So, it's much easier to
install the above script in `/etc/menu-methods/', run `update-menus'
once, and then run
/etc/menu-methods/mymethod < /tmp/menu-stdin
(and, if that also takes too long, just try editing /tmp/menu-stdin,
and removing 90% or so of all entries)
6.2. The install-menu program
-----------------------------
The files `/etc/menu-methods/$wm' are executable config files that
start with the line
#!/usr/sbin/install-menu
and thus start that program, handing it the configuration file for the
specific window manager in the first command line argument. This
configuration consists of:
1. the compatibility mode ("menu-1" or "menu-2").
2. where the various files should be stored/read.
3. what "needs" are supported, and what wrapper files should be used
for each "type".
See `/usr/doc/menu/examples/' of the menu package for more comments.
Options to `install-menu':
-v be verbose
-d Produce loads of debugging output
Some window managers don't support an `include' like statement in
their `system.*rc' files (like `m4' or `cpp' preprocessing), they
cannot read the `menudefs.hook' file generated by install-menu from
their `system.*rc' config file. To still be able to use them,
`install-menu' will copy the file `$path/$examplercfile' to
`$path/$rcfile' (with `$examplercfile' and `$rcfile' defined in the
`install-menu' config file, and `$path' eighter the `$rootprefix' or
`${HOME}/userprefix', depending on whether root or user executed the
file.), and replace all occurrences of ``install-menu-defs'' with the
`$genmenu' file it just generated.
As an example, consider the following:
`examplercfile=system.foo-wm-example', `rcfile=system.foo-wm',
`genmenu=menudefs.hook' and `rootprefix=/etc/X11/foo-wm'. Now, if
`install-menu' gets run, it will first generate the file
`/etc/X11/foo-wm/menudefs.hook'. Next, it will line-by-line read the
file `/etc/X11/foo-wm/system.foo-wm-example' and copy it's contents to
`/etc/X11/foo-wm/system.foo-wm', replacing every occurence of the
string `install-menu-defs' by the contents of the file
`/etc/X11/foo-wm/menudefs.hook'.
To activate the file copying in this way, simply define the
`$examplercfile' and `$rcfile' variables in the `install-menu'
configuration file (for example, see `/etc/menu-methods/fvwm'), and
make sure there is a `$path/$examplercfile' (`$path' being either
`$rootprefix', or `$userprefix'.)
If you are wringing a menu method, you can use the following to debug
it somewhat easier:
1. use the "cat" menu-method in `/usr/doc/menu/examples/cat' to
create a list of menu entries in `/tmp/menu-stdin' (put it in
`~/.menu-methods', and run `update-menus'), and then
2. you can run just your menu-method with (if it's called wm):
./wm -v < /tmp/menu-stdin
(Use `-v' for verbose, `-d' for debugging, and you'll get loads
of output!)
6.3. The install-menu config script definitions
-----------------------------------------------
The menu-methods in `/etc/menu-methods/*' are basically made up of a
lot of ``tag=string'' definitions, explaining `install-menu' how to
generate a `system.$wmrc' script. This way you can tune the look of
generated `system.$wmrc' to your needs.
In the following, something like
treewalk="c(m)"
means that the treewalk variable by default has the value "c(m)".
For examples of what these scripts can look like, see
`/usr/doc/menu/examples/*'.
`compat="menu-1"'
Should always be "menu-1". Please, make this the first
non-comment line in the script.
`supported'
`endsupported'
Between the `supported' and `endsupported' keywords you define
what "needs" are supported by this window manager. So, the
following is an example for a wm that supports both needs=x11 and
needs=text:
supported
x11=" ShowEntry(\"" $title "\", \"" $command "\")"
text=" ShowEntry(\"" $title "\", \"" $command
"xterm -T " $title " -e " $command "\")"
endsupported
For the variable substitution (and functions, not shown above),
see the next paragraph. In the above example, you'll notice that
for the menu entries that "need=text", an xterm is spawned for
the command to run in. Also, as x11 is higher up in the
supported list above than text, a package that supplies both a
"needs=x11" and a "needs=text" entry will have the needs=x11
entry installed, in favour of the needs=text entry. You can
continue lines on the next line with a \, but do make sure you
don't add any spaces after the \.
`startmenu=""'
`endmenu=""'
`submenutitle=""'
These define what to print for the beginning/end of a menu, and
how to the print a menu entry that pops up another menu entry.
They are substituted the same way as the "supported" stuff is.
(see next paragraph).
`treewalk="c(m)"'
This string defines in what order to dump the `$startmenu',
`$endmenu', and `$submenutitle' (and its children). Each char in
the string refers to:
c : dump children of menu.
m : dump this menu's $submenutitles
( : dump $startmenu
) : dump $endmenu
M : dump all $submenutitles of this menu and this menu's children.
The default is "c(m)". For olvwm, one needs: "(M)"
`genmenu=""'
The menu file to generate (usually something like
`system."$wm"rc'). The file itself may depend on the level or
title that is currently being worked on, like
genmenu="/subdir/" replacewith($section," ","_") "/rc.menu"
(Substitution works just like in the supported stuff, see above).
Note that the files made this way are truncated upon opening, so
if you have a genmenu like the example above, then your
`endmenu=' will override the startmenu stuff (but you probably
only need one of the two anyway).
`rootsection="/Debian"'
the prefix, every `$section' variable gets.
`prerun=""'
`postrun=""'
The commands to run before resp. after the actual generation of
the `menudefs.hook' (genmenu) file. Commands will be executed by
`sh'. Example:
prerun="rm -rf " prefix() "/*"
postrun="killall -USR1 fvwm2"
(Substitution works just like the supported stuff, see below).
`preruntest=""'
Just like prerun, but if the return value of the command is
non-zero, menu will quit.
`onlyrunasroot=false'
`onlyrunasuser=false'
If onlyrunasroot is set to true, menu will quit silently when run
as user. Simmilarly for onlyrunasuser.
`preoutput="#Automatically generated file. Do not edit (see
/usr/doc/menu/html)\n\n"'
`postoutput=""'
Text to put at the beginning resp. end of the generated file
($genmenu).
`command=""'
A command to run instead of `install-menus'. This command used
to be needed to get around limitiations due to compatibilty
stuff. But that compatibility with pre menu-1 stuff has been
dropped, and isn't needed any more.
Example:
command="cat > /tmp/menu-stdin"
`hotkeyexclude=""'
Keys not to use for hotkey generation. You can use the same
variables and functions here as in for example the startmenu
sections.
Example:
hotkeyexclude="q" $section
`hotkeycase="insensitive"'
can be either "insensitive" or "sensitive". Determines whether
the hotkeys can be of mixed case (`fvwm2' reads the hotkeys
case-insensitive, `pdmenu' case-sensitive). In case of the
titles "Xa" and "xb", hotkey case-insensitive will generate "X"
and "b", whereas case-sensitive would generate "X" and "x".
`sort=$title'
Entries within one menu will be alphabetically sorted by whatever
sort returns. So, if you do `sort=ifelse($command, "1",
"0"):$title', then all submenus will appear above the commands in
a submenu. (A submenu always has `$command=""')
`rcfile=""'
If the window manager doesn't support an "include filename" or
"read(filename)" statement in it's config file, you can rename
the wm's config file to `system."$wm"rc-menu', and insert a
"install-menu-defs" line (without the quotes, or whitespace
around it, and "install-menu-defs" must be the only thing on the
line) in the `system."$wm"rc-menu' file. This will then get
replaced by the `$genmenu' file that was just created (see also
`$examplercfile').
`examplercfile=""'
if needed (see `rcfile'), this is the `system.rc"$wm"-menu' file.
In that case, make `rcfile=system.rc"$wm"'.
`rootprefix=""'
The prefix to use when running as root (applies to $genmenu,
$rcfile, $examplercfile and other old cache files)
`userprefix=""'
see `rootprefix', but when running as user.
`repeat_lang=""'
If set to "LOCALE", then menu will automatically translate all
title's to the languages specified by the current LC_LOCALE
setting. (LC_ALL, ...). It is intended to expand this to
`repeat_lang="en:es:eo:nl"', which would repeatedly run
install-menus for the various specified languages. But the
latter hasn't yet been implemented.
`hint_optimize=false'
If set to true, menu will try to generate an `optimal' tree,
using the variables below. If set to false, menu will keep the
sections as they are specified in the menu entry files (and
ignore any hint stuff).
`hint_nentry=6'
Optimal number of entries in a submenu. It's a float, so you can
set it to 5.5 if you cannot decide between 5 and 6. Also, values
less than 3 probably don't work very well at the moment.
`hint_topnentry=5'
Same as hint_nentry, but for the top level menu. Often here are
other entries, added by the Window Manager itself (like Exit,
Xterm, whatever) that menu doesn't know about, so that you may
want to instruct menu to put less entries in the top level menu.
`hint_mixedpenalty=15.0'
Penalty for `mixed' menus. Mixed menus are those with both
submenus and direct commands in them.
`hint_minhintfreq=0.1'
Minimal relative frequency for the hints before they are
considered. Internal variable to speed up the tree generation.
If you find menu slow, increase this value (to, say 0.2 or 0.3).
`hint_mlpenalty=2000'
`max local penalty', while evaluating the possible trees, menu
gives `penalties' for submenus that don't contain the desired
number of submenus. The penalty is sqrt(n_entry_opt-n_entry),
and eventually will be calculated as a sum of all nodes. But to
speed things up, menu will discard possibilities in which any
node has a `local' penalty of more than hint_mlpenalty. Increase
this value if you think menu is overlooking your favorate tree
(also decrease minhintfreq), decrease this value if you think
menu is waisting too much time. Because of hint_max_ntry, the
influence of this variable is nearly zero nowadays.
`hint_max_ntry=4'
menu will recursively, for each node, try the hint_max_ntry best
local menu-divisions.
`hints_max_iter_hint=5'
The search for what hints to use in one menu is rather expensive.
But due to the way things are sorted, menu seems to always find
the `best' match in the first 2% of iterations. Thus, a way to
speedup things is simply to cutt of menu searching after `some'
iterations are done. This value controls this, and limits the
number of iterations to
5+hint_max_iter_hint*number_of_possible_hints. Set this value to
negative to disable this.
`hint_debug=false'
Set to true if you want to see loads and loads of debug output.
6.4. Hints, tree optimization
-----------------------------
The hints actually work in a rather strange way: when
`hint_optimize=true' then all `$section' elements are added to the
specified `$hints' variable, and the order (/Apps/Editors or
/Editors/Apps) of the resulting hints is completely ignored. Then,
the hints for each menu entry are handed to the optimization routine,
that will calculate a reasonable tree for those hints. That tree must
comply with the following:
When a user looks for a program "Program" with, say, hints
"Good,Bulky,Heaven", then, while walking through the tree, it should
at every node vizited be clear for the user what submenu to select (or
the menu should have "Program" directly in it). So, the toplevel menu
may look like
Good
Hell
Microsoft
because then a searcher for a menu entry with hints
"Good,Bulky,Heaven" will know to select the submenu "Good". The
toplevel menu may not look like
Good
Hell
Heaven
as now it isn't clear whether to vizit the Good or the Heaven submenu.
That rule allows usually for many different trees, and the task of the
optimization procedure is to select, in a finite amount of time, the
tree that best matches the user's desire obout the optimimum number of
menu entries.
6.5. Variables and functions in the install-menu scripts
--------------------------------------------------------
The supported "needs" definitions and "startmenu=", "endmenu=" and
"submenutitle=" are interpreted as follows:
String constants:
Anything inside double quotes ("") is interpreted as a string, and
is written verbatim to the output file.
Stuff like \n, \t, ... will be substituted for their C expansions
(But not \0xx, currently).
Variables:
Anything matching $[a-z,A-Z,_]* is interpreted as a variable, and
the corresponding definition from the menu entry is substituted.
Special variables:
The following variables are treated in a special way by install-menus,
either because they are used for other purposes too, or because they
are modified by install-menus (the ones marked with a "!" are modified
by install-menus).
needs: used to determine whether the window manager supports this
menu entry.
command: If this is undefined, this menu entry is taken as defining
a sub-menu. (this way you can specify icons of sub-menus).
title!: Used for sorting (see section).
For sub-menu entries (those with empty command), this
is initialised to the last part of the section.
Please, keep the title short (two words at maximum).
The title is for people who already know what programme
they want to start. See "longtitle" and "description" below
for longer descriptions.
sort: used for sorting (see section). To make sure an entry is
at the beginning, use something with a low ASCII number,
like "$". For sorting at the end, use "|"
section!:Used to determine the section of the menu entry.
The menu entries that have a empty $command, ie those that
define a submenu, have $title added to the end of $section
The menu entries that have a non-empty $command have their
$section modified to $section/$title, or $section/$sort:$title
if $sort is defined. The menu entries within one submenu
are sorted according to $section.
hotkey!: Modified to reflect what install-menus thinks is the
most suitable hotkey for this menu entry. The hotkey=
in the menu entry file is taken as a suggestion, that could
be overwritten if there is another entry with the same hotkey=.
To suggest two possible hotkeys for an entry use
hotkey="ab", with "a" being the most preferred hotkey.
Preferred variables:
The following aren't special for install-menus, but it's nice
(read: essential) to use the same variables for the same things.
So, I'll suggest some here. If you want to invent new ones, please
do so and mail them to me so that I can include them here.
icon: The location of the iconfile for this menu entry.
If you don't have an iconfile, just leave out the icon=
in the menu entry.
longtitle: For people that like descriptive titles (about one line)
It is probably best to include this in your menu entries,
while the window-managers don't (by default) put it in the
menus. That way, people who want descriptive titles can
turn them on, but others don't need to use them.
description:An even longer description (about 5 lines).
For example, a description of the documentation in
the dwww generated html pages.
Suggested variables:
The following variables probably shouldn't appear often (or at
all) in the menu files supplied with packages. They are mostly
intended for use by local system managers. Nevertheless, it is
advised that all debian systems use the following variable names:
visable: Some apps add entries to utmp the utmp file, so that
"who" and friends know they are running (this is
especially true for xterms etc). If $visable set
(to anything other than "" or "none"), xterms etc will
not write logging info to utmp. (may not work for
your window manager).
geometry: For X apps, this will be the size of the (main) window
that will be created (units in either chars or pixels,
depending on type of main window (xterm or graphic)).
If you as package maintainer want to use this, you should
probably think about setting this variable somewhere
in an Xresources file.
Functions:
Anything matching [a-z,A-Z,_] is taken as a function (and an error
is generated if the function doesn't exist). The arguments of the
functions can be other functions, string constants or variables.
prefix()
returns the current prefix dir: either $rootprefix, or
$HOME/$userprefix, depending on who runs install-menu
ifroot($rootarg, $userarg)
if(getuid()==0) print $rootarg, else print $userarg
print($arg)
Same as just $arg; if $arg is empty, generate an error.
nstring($n, $string)
write $string $n times. So, nstring(3,"Aa") writes "AaAaAa".
(Useful in combination with level()).
esc($arg1,$arg2)
Print $arg1, but escape all occurrences of characters in $arg2
with a \. (thus, if arg1="hello", arg2="lo", print "he\l\l\o").
escwith($arg1, $arg2, $arg3)
Same as esc, but use $arg3 as escape sequence.
escfirst($arg1, $arg2, $arg3)
Same as escwith, but only escapes thirst occurrence of $arg2.
cppesc($arg1)
Escape anything that isn't a letter, number or _ with
$<hex-ascii-code>. So, for example, a '-' is replaced by '$2D'.
This way, $arg1 can be used as a #define in cpp.
tolower($arg)
toupper($arg)
Returns the argument set in lowercases resp uppercases.
replacewith($s, $replace, $with)
Search s for occurrences of characters from string replace, and
replace them by the corresponding character in $with.
Example:
replacewith_string("hello $world, %dir", "$% ", "123")
returns: "hello31world,32dir"
ifempty($arg1, $arg2)
If $arg1 is empty, print $arg2, otherwise print nothing.
For compatibility, $arg1="none" is interpreted as empty.
ifnempty($arg1, $arg2)
If $arg1 is not empty, print $arg2.
For compatibility, the string "none" is seen as empty.
ifelse($arg1,$arg2,$arg3)
If $arg1 is non-empty, print $arg2, otherwise $arg3.
For compatibility, the string "none" is seen as empty.
ifeq($arg1, $arg2, $arg3)
If ($arg1==$arg2) then print $arg3
ifneq($arg1, $arg2, $arg3)
If ($arg1!=$arg2) then print $arg3
ifeqelse($arg1, $arg2, $arg3, $arg4)
If ($arg1==$arg2) then print $arg3 else print $arg4
cond_surr($arg1, $arg2, $arg3)
If $arg1 is non-empty print $arg2$arg1$arg3, otherwise print nothing.
For compatibilty, $arg1="none" is interpreted as empty.
iffile($arg1, $arg2)
If file $arg1 exists, and can be opened for reading by whoever
started the current process, return $arg2, otherwise return nothing.
ifelsefile($arg1, $arg2, $arg3)
If file $arg1 exists, and can be opened for reading by whoever
started the current process, return $arg2, otherwise return $arg3.
catfile($arg1)
Return the contents of file $arg1.
forall($array, "var", $exec)
For each element of the colum separated array $array, set
$var to that element, and print $exec.
Example:
forall("eo:nl", "lang", " name[" $lang "]=\"" translate(title()) "\"\n")
will print:
name[eo]="Mi estas titolo"
name[nl]="Ik ben een titel"
parent($arg)
for $arg a "directory", return parent directory:
parent("/Debian/Apps/Editors") = "/Debian/Apps".
basename($arg)
return the last part of the parent directory:
basename("/Debian/Apps/Editors") = "Apps".
stripdir($arg)
everything after the last slash, i.e. what basename()
should have returned: stripdir("/Debian/Apps/Editors") = "Editors".
entrycount()
the number of entries in this menu.
entryindex()
returns relative position of this entry. Start with 0,
last entry is entrycount() - 1.
BUG: if sort= anything other than $title, then this
entryindex() will return incorrect values.
firstentry($arg)
return $arg if this is the first entry of this menu
(that is, entryindex() = 0). Else, return nothing.
lastentry()
return $arg if this is the last entry in this menu
(that is, entryindex() = entrycount() -1). Else, return nothing.
level()
return nesting of this menu in the total menu tree.
add($arg1,$arg2)
sub($arg1,$arg2)
mult($arg1,$arg2)
div($arg1,$arg2)
returns the sum, difference, product or quotient of $arg1 and
$arg2. Note that the arguments are strings, that are converted
to integers.
example: mult("24", entryindex())
rcfile() examplercfile() mainmenutitle() rootsection() rootprefix()
userprefix() treewalk() postoutput() preoutput()
These functions all output whatever they were defined to be in
the menu-method file.
translate($lang, $text)
translate $text into $lang.
example:
translate("eo", "Apps")
prints:
Aplikoj
String constants, variables and functions can be concatenated
by placing them after each other with a space in between, like:
"hello" ifelse($comma, $comma, " sorry" $period " comma not defined") " world"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debian Menu System
Joost Witteveen <joostje@debian.org>
Joey Hess <joey@kite.ml.org>
Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org>
version 1.3, 22 Januaro 2000
