I have a one line command that encrypts a file
gpg -c /media/stickname/filename.ext, and it works just fine

BUT
please: What do I do to be able to drag and drop filename.ext onto it to have the same effect. In windoze it is "progname.exe %1".

I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is that there is an easy way to specify arguments in shell scripts, just as in batch files: in a batch file, you would use %1 to specify the first argument, in a shell script you use $1.

The bad news is that this feature doesn't extend to drag and drop. at least on the Gnome desktop that I'm currently using. Perhaps someone on KDE one of the other desktop environments can comment?

I put the file 'catme' on the desktop:

I made the file executable: chmod 755 ~/Desktop/catme

then dragged a text file over the desktop icon, and nothing fancy happened.

Just make a launcher for your command. In gnome, right-click on a blank space on the desktop, then select "Create Launcher" For type select "application" or "application in terminal" as appropriate. Fill in the command name, don't worry about assigning arguments like $1 or %1. When you drag and drop a file onto this launcher the DE will use the filename as the arg to the command. Incidentally, it is not obvious, but the icon used for the launcher can be changed by clicking on the icon picture in the dialog.

If you need to modify the launcher later, right click on it and select "Properties"

That's pretty slick. Couple more points:

• if you're setting up a command line application, make sure that you specify Type as 'Application in Terminal'
• The launcher its self is simply a text file, which seems to be in '.ini' format:
  Code:

  #!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
  
  [Desktop Entry]
  Encoding=UTF-8
  Version=1.0
  Type=Application
  Terminal=true
  Name[en_US]=test
  Exec=/home/tiger/Desktop/catme
  Name=test

Looks like interesting things could be learned about xdg-open...