#!/bin/bash # Script to extract Exec= lines from .desktop files # and create a list of bash aliases in a deterministic order. # --- Configuration --- DESKTOP_DIR="/home/linaro/.local/share/applications" OUTPUT_FILE="/home/linaro/desktop-exec-alias.txt" ALIAS_COUNTER=0 # --- End Configuration --- echo "--- Script Starting ---" echo "Desktop directory: $DESKTOP_DIR" echo "Output file: $OUTPUT_FILE" # Ensure the target directory for .desktop files exists if [ ! -d "$DESKTOP_DIR" ]; then echo "Error: Directory $DESKTOP_DIR does not exist." >&2 exit 1 fi echo "Desktop directory confirmed to exist." # Clear or create the output file for a fresh list # This ensures that if the script is run multiple times, # the output file contains only the latest aliases. > "$OUTPUT_FILE" echo "Output file initialized (cleared or created)." echo "Finding .desktop files..." # Find all files ending with .desktop in the specified directory. # -print0 outputs filenames null-terminated. # sort -z sorts null-terminated input (ensures deterministic order of aliases). # The while loop with IFS= and read -r -d $'\0' # robustly handles filenames that might contain spaces or special characters. find "$DESKTOP_DIR" -name "*.desktop" -type f -print0 | sort -z | while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' desktop_file; do echo "----------------------------------------" # Separator for each file echo "Processing file: $desktop_file" # DEBUG # Try to get the Exec line using grep first for debugging # This helps see if the line is even present in a way grep recognizes echo "Attempting to grep '^Exec=' from file..." # DEBUG grep_exec_line=$(grep '^Exec=' "$desktop_file") # DEBUG if [ -n "$grep_exec_line" ]; then echo "DEBUG: grep found the following Exec line(s):" # DEBUG echo "$grep_exec_line" # DEBUG else echo "DEBUG: grep did NOT find any line starting with 'Exec='" # DEBUG fi # Original sed command to extract the value echo "Attempting to extract Exec value with sed..." # DEBUG exec_value=$(sed -n 's/^Exec=//p' "$desktop_file" | head -n 1) if [ -n "$exec_value" ]; then echo "DEBUG: sed extracted value: '$exec_value'" # DEBUG # Append the alias command to the output file. # Single quotes around '$exec_value' are important to preserve # the command exactly as it is, including spaces and special characters, # when writing to the alias file. echo "alias $ALIAS_COUNTER='$exec_value'" >> "$OUTPUT_FILE" ALIAS_COUNTER=$((ALIAS_COUNTER + 1)) # Increment the alias number else echo "DEBUG: sed did NOT extract any value for Exec=" # DEBUG # Output a warning to the standard error stream if an Exec line # couldn't be found or its value was empty in a specific .desktop file. echo "Warning: Could not extract Exec value from $desktop_file (or line was not found/empty after 'Exec=')" >&2 fi done echo "----------------------------------------" echo "File processing loop finished." echo "Alias list generation complete." echo "Output saved to: $OUTPUT_FILE" echo "Total aliases generated: $ALIAS_COUNTER" # Shows actual count echo "--- Script Finished ---" exit 0