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How do you create a custom application launcher in Gnome Shell?

I have a local Eclipse installation that I'd like to be to quickly launch. So I created a symlink to the eclipse binary and placed it on my desktop. If I open a terminal, cd to ~/Desktop and run ./eclipse it starts Eclipse perfectly. However, if I click the Eclipse icon on my desktop, and choose run, nothing happens.

Alternatively, I wouldn't mind being able to search for Eclipse on the "Activities" screen, but I can't find any documentation on adding or registering custom applications.

pomsky
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Cerin
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7 Answers7

133

Try to create a eclipse.desktop file under /usr/share/applications (or ~/.local/share/applications or directly in ~/Desktop) with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse IDE
Exec=/path/to/eclipse/executable
Icon=/path/to/eclipse/icon
Type=Application
Categories=Development;

You can choose another category, too. For additional information: categories available.

Line
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tohuwawohu
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    Thanks. The only problem I ran into, which the docs don't mention, is that the file has to be executable if you place it in ~/Desktop. Otherwise it just shows up as an ordinary text file and isn't launchable or rendered with the right icon. – Cerin Mar 12 '12 at 17:35
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    You might find that you need to restart gnome3 for this to take effect, especially the icon. If so, run Alt+F2, type r in the box, and press enter. – mlissner Nov 18 '15 at 23:33
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    Your application may require a working directory, use Path=/path/to/eclipse/working-dir. – psiphi75 Apr 18 '17 at 04:39
  • it seems like the executable path (when the file is under ~/.local) can be relative (to home directory), but the icon path must be absolute.. – Line Apr 04 '24 at 11:09
20

Although creating your own launcher by hand is a valid solution, my preferred one is to go through alacarte and create a new entry on the menus, then it will appear as a launcher.

m0skit0
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    Thanks, I could not believe my eyes that to add a simple entry in my modern Desktop environment, i needed to create a 10-lines text file in a hidden directory in my home folder, by hand. This should be the winning answer. – Luis Muñiz Jul 06 '17 at 22:45
  • Once you've created a new launcher in the menu, you can search for it in the activities screen and then drag it to your panel. – MathKid Jul 29 '17 at 16:00
  • @CodeKid Yeah that's what I meant :) – m0skit0 Jul 31 '17 at 08:39
  • I've added a blog post on what is the exact name and how to use it. – kissu Nov 18 '21 at 12:31
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    The link in this is dead and takes you to Lifewire's home page. Suggest removing or updating the link, it looks sus. – Bob Liberatore Nov 25 '23 at 21:11
4

In newer Gnome versions Comment and Terminal sections become mandatory so minimal .desktop file is now:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Sample Application Name
Comment=A sample application
Exec=application
Icon=application.png
Terminal=false
Matěj Mihal
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3

The easiest way I have found to create launchers using a full-featured GUI is vie MenuLibre, which is in the Ubuntu repositories. It will hold your hand through the process and allow you to create a custom launcher in a fast and straightforward manner, as long as you know where your resources reside (binary location, icon location, working directories, etc). Alacarte does not work reliably for me.

ethan
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2

If you want a list of custom launchers you can access from the panel you could use the MyLauncher extension. MyLauncher Gnome Shell Extension

mark
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1

If you want proper shortcut, then do following:

  1. go to /usr/share/applications
  2. coppy one of the *.desktop files to this location with the name you intend to use as application name;
  3. adjust the executable path
  4. adjust the icon path 5! check carefully for all the places in this file where old references are, and edit them to your needs.
Pauls Bebris
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0

After having some trouble with an executable path that contained spaces and no satisfactory answer nearby, I try to summarize everything once again in 2025. Works for me on GNOME Shell 48.4.

Basic structure

Create a file named your-program.desktop in folder ~/.local/share/applications with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Categories=Development;Graphics
Name=Your Program
Comment=A possibly longer comment describing what Your Program is good fore
Exec=your-executable
Icon=/full/path/to-image.png
Terminal=false

You need to change the following fields:

Categories

Pick one or multiple of the main categories Audio, AudioVideo, Development, Education, Game, Graphics, Network, Office, Science, Settings, System, Utility, Video, separated by ;. You may go overboard and add some of the numerous additional categories as well.

Name & Comment

Just a bare single-line string, no quoting needed.

Exec

Typical cases here are:

  • A bare exec-name if it is found in $PATH (e.g. gimp)
  • Full path to an executable (e.g. /usr/bin/vlc)
  • One of the above but with arguments (e.g. /usr/bin/vlc --started-from-file %U), split by whitespace
  • If the executable path/filename or one of the arguments contains whitespace that needs preserving, you can quote them with single (not double) quotes: '/home/ojdo/bin/Some App With Spaces.AppImage'.
  • Further rules on escaping, quoting and defined variables like %F and %U can be found in the official Exec key specification.

Changes to this file are picked up automatically after some seconds. When in doubt, change the Icon field to a different picture to see when the update has caught on.

ojdo
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