Is there a way to retrieve the name of the Desktop Environment? [duplicate]

Question

Is there a way to retrieve the desktop environment name (e.g. Gnome, Unity, XFCE, LXDE, KDE...) from the command line or using Python?

ВелоКастръ · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-26 13:47:06Z

10

In a Terminal input:

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION

if it does not help (it may be equal 'default'), try

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

1831 silver badge6 bronze badges

answered Aug 25, 2012 at 13:46

user8779

6

Note that this will not always work as sometimes DESKTOP_SESSION is set to "Default" or in some cases not set at all (I think it's gdm/kdm that set this variable). A better approach would be to check for the running session process.
– don_crissti
Commented Aug 25, 2012 at 17:39
I noticed there's also a varable XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="LXDE" (or "Unity", in my two desktops), do you think it's reliable?
– giuspen
Commented Aug 26, 2012 at 8:58
1

@giuspen - discussed also here link. XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP is just a proposal, it's not part of the XDG spec and is discussed on various mailing lists, e.g. link. FIY I am on Gnome3/Arch64bit, I have all the xdg-* packages installed and this variable is unset.
– don_crissti
Commented Aug 26, 2012 at 13:11
@don_crissti - thanks I read in the other discussion that you linked that XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP is deprecated. I will try to look at the running processes.
– giuspen
Commented Aug 26, 2012 at 14:50
@giuspen: On Xubuntu 13.04, I get xubuntu for $DESKTOP_SESSION and XFCE for $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP.
– Alix Axel
Commented May 30, 2013 at 7:19

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1