How to pass argument in .desktop file

Question

When launching an application through the command line I successfully use:

gourmet --gourmet-directory $HOME/my/custom/path/

But it does not work when trying to replicate this behaviour on a .desktop file with:

Exec=gourmet --gourmet-directory $HOME/my/custom/path/ %F

I am probably missing something very basic here, but I cannot get my head around this. Any help would be much appreciated.

Can you clarify why you are using %F ? should the application open a list of files or it is just an application launcher, then you can open the files from the GUI — lese, Oct 25 '15 at 21:57
You can make separate script-file with full command like gourmet --gourmet-directory $HOME/my/custom/path/ than put into .desktop full path to the script. — Costas, Oct 25 '15 at 22:05
@lese, good point I actually realised %F was not required. Jodka Lemon's solution worked both with and without it. — castaway, Oct 25 '15 at 23:20

Jodka Lemon · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-25 22:44:05Z

10

Only command line options with one hyphen are possible in the Exec field.

Exec=sh -c "gourmet --gourmet-directory $HOME/my/custom/path/ %F"

should work.

answered Oct 25 '15 at 22:44

Jodka Lemon

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What? This is the only possibility?? Looks like a hack. – erik Jan 7 '17 at 15:42
Just tried today and -g=4536+76 and --geometry=4536+76 both worked equally well as arguments in .desktop exec line with or without sh -c wrapper in Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS Unity Desktop. – WinEunuuchs2Unix May 10 '20 at 15:34
Wrapping command in sh -c worked. I wanted to execute this sudo rogauracore initialize_keyboard; sudo rogauracore black. I executed it this way -- Exec=sh -c "sudo rogauracore initialize_keyboard; sudo rogauracore black" – Mohit Atray Feb 16 at 12:13

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