New shortcut on Linux

A shortcut makes an application easy to access without opening a terminal or navigating through several folders to find its executable every time you want to launch it.

Building the shortcut

To create a shortcut, follow these steps:

First, navigate to the .local/share/applications/ directory:

cd .local/share/applications/

The shortcut's configuration file will be stored in this directory.

Create a new file with this command:

touch <SHORTCUT_NAME>.desktop

Replace <SHORTCUT_NAME> with a name that identifies the application. Do not use spaces or special characters, and make sure the name is unique within .local/share/applications/.

Next, add the shortcut settings to the new file. There are several ways to edit it; the example below uses Vim:

vim <SHORTCUT_NAME>.desktop

After running that command, press i to enter insert mode and add the following information for the application you want to launch:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=<APPLICATION_NAME>
Exec="<APPLICATION_DIRECTORY>/<APPLICATION_EXECUTABLE>"
Icon=<APPLICATION_DIRECTORY>/<APPLICATION_ICON.png>
Categories=Application;

• <APPLICATION_NAME> ⇒ Replace this with the application's name. This is the name shown in the Linux application search. Spaces and special characters are allowed here.

• <APPLICATION_DIRECTORY> ⇒ Replace this with the application's location on Linux, such as /home/matt/app/Robo3T/bin/.

• <APPLICATION_EXECUTABLE> ⇒ Replace this with the name of the application's executable.

• <APPLICATION_ICON.png> ⇒ Replace this with the application's icon filename. If there is no icon, you can download an image and use it instead.

To save your changes in Vim, press Esc, type :wq, and press Enter.

The :wq command tells Vim to write (w) your changes and quit (q).

Example shortcut

Once configured, the file will look like the example below, which creates a shortcut for Robo 3T:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Robo 3T
Exec="/home/matt/app/Robo3T/bin/robo3t"
Icon=/home/matt/app/Robo3T/bin/robo3t.png
Categories=Application;

Shortcut

To check whether the shortcut works, search for it in the Linux application search, as shown below:

Note: If the icon does not appear, it means Linux did not find the application's executable.