Where does MATE keep the contents of its application drop down?

Question

• Fedora 34
• Xfce 4.12
• mate-desktop-1.26.0-1.fc34.x86_64

I have both Xfce and MATE installed on my desktop. I choose which one I want at logon.

I have a ton of intellectual property in Xfce's panel 0 and panel 1 popups. I know were to find them. I would like to create a Raku program to transfer them over to MATE. But I can not find where MATE stores its stuff in its Applications drop down.

Anyone know where MATE stores such? (I am not finding them in dconf.)

Answer 1

The menu items in application menu can be kept in ~/.local/share/applications/. It's the standard directory where all user level .desktop launchers are kept.

Answer 2

Generally the MATE menu displays all .desktop app launchers in these directories:

/usr/share/applications/
/home/$USER/.local/share/applications/

the configuration file for hiding specific apps is in

/home/$USER/.config/menus/mate-applications.menu

On my machine it currently looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE Menu
  PUBLIC '-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN'
  'http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/menu-1.0.dtd'>
<Menu>
    <Name>Applications</Name>
    <MergeFile type="parent">/etc/xdg/menus/mate-applications.menu</MergeFile>
    <Menu>
        <Name>Accessories</Name>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>hplip.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <AppDir>/home/kunruh/.local/share/applications</AppDir>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>kvantummanager.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>manjaro-documentation.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>plank.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>stoken-gui.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>stoken-gui-small.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>redshift-gtk.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
    </Menu>
    <Menu>
        <Name>Internet</Name>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>bssh.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <AppDir>/home/kunruh/.local/share/applications</AppDir>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>bvnc.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
    </Menu>
    <Menu>
        <Name>Other</Name>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>hp-uiscan.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <AppDir>/home/kunruh/.local/share/applications</AppDir>
    </Menu>
    <Menu>
        <Name>Multimedia</Name>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>mpv.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <AppDir>/home/kunruh/.local/share/applications</AppDir>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>qv4l2.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>qvidcap.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
    </Menu>
    <Menu>
        <Name>System</Name>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>avahi-discover.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <AppDir>/home/kunruh/.local/share/applications</AppDir>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>lstopo.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>uxterm.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>xterm.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
    </Menu>
    <Menu>
        <Name>Development</Name>
        <Exclude>
            <Filename>yad-icon-browser.desktop</Filename>
        </Exclude>
        <AppDir>/home/kunruh/.local/share/applications</AppDir>
    </Menu>
</Menu>

Otherwise if you want to add menu entries you simply have to create a .desktop file and put it in the right locations. I made a post-installation script for Manjaro to fit my needs, maybe you find things you also wanted to customize :)

freedesktop specifications

Answer 3

Try grep -r '\.desktop' /etc/* That will show you everywhere .desktop files are used, which is what menu entries are in most cases. But certain desktops do not observe the convention to put configurations in /etc so you ca also search home like so: grep -r '\.desktop' /home/user/.?*

But the output may be a bit sloppy/