README.md
1# j4-dmenu-desktop
2
3[](https://travis-ci.org/enkore/j4-dmenu-desktop/)
4
5j4-dmenu-desktop is a replacement for i3-dmenu-desktop. It's purpose
6is to find .desktop files and offer you a menu to start an application
7using dmenu. Since r2.7 j4-dmenu-desktop doesn't require i3wm anymore
8and should work just fine on about any desktop environment.
9
10You can also execute shell commands using it.
11
12## Project status
13
14I consider j4-dmenu-desktop pretty much feature complete since a few years: larger new features need
15a compelling reason and a good patch. Preferably discuss it before putting more work into it.
16
17## Build requirements
18
19* Compiler with basic C++11 support (GCC 4.77 or later required, Clang works, too)
20* CMake
21
22Building is the usual cmake/make thingy:
23
24 cmake .
25 make
26 sudo make install
27
28## Distribution packages
29
30### Archlinux <a href="https://repology.org/project/j4-dmenu-desktop/versions"><img src="https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/j4-dmenu-desktop.svg" alt="Packaging status" align="right"></a>
31
32
33The package is provided by the AUR. You can install it with an AUR helper of your choice: `j4-dmenu-desktop-git` or `j4-dmenu-desktop`. Else, you may install it manually by invoking the following commands as a regular user. (to build packages from the AUR, the `base-devel` package group is assumed to be installed)
34
35 git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/j4-dmenu-desktop.git
36 cd j4-dmenu-desktop
37 makepkg -si
38
39or for the latest:
40
41 git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/j4-dmenu-desktop-git.git
42 cd j4-dmenu-desktop-git
43 makepkg -si
44
45### FreeBSD
46
47j4-dmenu-desktop is now available in the FreeBSD Ports Collection. A prebuilt package can be installed via
48
49 pkg install j4-dmenu-desktop
50
51### Gentoo
52
53j4-dmenu-desktop is available in Portage for the `amd64` and `x86` architectures. You can install it via
54
55 echo "x11-misc/j4-dmenu-desktop ~amd64 ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords
56 emerge --ask x11-misc/j4-dmenu-desktop
57
58The package is also provided by the `gentoo-el` overlay. You can install it with the following commands as root. (you need to have `layman` installed and configured)
59
60 layman -a gentoo-el
61 echo "=x11-misc/j4-dmenu-desktop-9999 **" >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords
62 emerge x11-misc/j4-dmenu-desktop
63
64### Ubuntu
65
66The package is now in the apt repository. You can install it via
67
68 sudo apt-get install j4-dmenu-desktop
69
70### Debian
71
72j4-dmenu-desktop is in Debian stable:
73
74 sudo apt install j4-dmenu-desktop
75
76### Nix / NixOS
77
78j4-dmenu-desktop is in [nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/applications/misc/j4-dmenu-desktop/default.nix):
79
80 nix-env --install j4-dmenu-desktop
81 # Or use pkgs attribute of the same name in NixOS configuration
82
83
84## Invocation
85
86Usage:
87
88 j4-dmenu-desktop [--dmenu="dmenu -i"] [--term="i3-sensible-terminal"]
89 j4-dmenu-desktop --help
90
91Options:
92
93 --dmenu=<command>
94 Determines the command used to invoke dmenu
95 Executed with your shell ($SHELL) or /bin/sh
96 --use-xdg-de
97 Enables reading $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP to determine the desktop environment
98 --display-binary
99 Display binary name after each entry (off by default)
100 --no-generic
101 Do not include the generic name of desktop entries
102 --wrapper=<wrapper>
103 A wrapper binary. Useful in case you want to wrap into 'i3 exec'
104 --term=<command>
105 Sets the terminal emulator used to start terminal apps
106 --usage-log=<file>
107 Must point to a read-writeable file (will create if not exists).
108 In this mode entries are sorted by usage frequency.
109 --wait-on=<path>
110 Must point to a path where a file can be created.
111 In this mode no menu will be shown. Instead the program waits for <path>
112 to be written to (use echo > path). Every time this happens a menu will be shown.
113 Desktop files are parsed ahead of time.
114 Perfoming 'echo -n q > path' will exit the program.
115 --no-exec
116 Do not execute selected command, send to stdout instead
117 --help
118 Display this help message
119
120Environment variables
121
122- $SHELL is respected, and if absent /bin/sh is used
123- XDG-spec variables (XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP, XDG_DATA_HOME, HOME) are respected
124
125## FAQ / RAQ / RMR
126
127### Case insensitivity?
128
129Add the `-i` option to the dmenu command
130
131### I want it to display normal binaries, too, yes?
132
133You can put this in a script file and use it instead of calling j4dd directly:
134
135 j4-dmenu-desktop --dmenu="(cat ; (stest -flx $(echo $PATH | tr : ' ') | sort -u)) | dmenu"
136
137Exchanging the `cat` and `(stest ... sort -u)` parts will swap the two parts (j4dd's output and the list of binaries).
138
139### Get the output into a pipe / launching a program by arbitrary user input
140
141[GOTO](https://github.com/enkore/j4-dmenu-desktop/issues/39#issuecomment-177164865)
142
143### How much faster is it?
144
145 % time i3-dmenu-desktop --dmenu="cat"
146 [{"success":true}]
147 i3-dmenu-desktop --dmenu="cat" 0.37s user 0.02s system 96% cpu 0.404 total
148 % time ./j4-dmenu-desktop --dmenu=cat
149 ./j4-dmenu-desktop --dmenu=cat 0.01s user 0.01s system 107% cpu 0.015 total
150
151More than 25 times faster :)
152
153
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