[SOLVED] How do I write a .desktop file with a reserved character in the Exec key correctly?

reggie-man · 12-20-2014, 12:41 AM

I'm trying to make a .desktop file for Minecraft. Nothing appears to happen upon executing the file. I've tried assigning the Exec key as follows:

Code:

java -jar "~/.minecraft/Minecraft.jar"

Code:

java -jar "$HOME/.minecraft/Minecraft.jar"

But I'm not sure how to put in the reserved characters (~ and $) correctly. According to Freedesktop's Desktop Entry Specification:

Quote:

If an argument contains a reserved character the argument must be quoted.

and

Quote:

Quoting must be done by enclosing the argument between double quotes and escaping the double quote character, backtick character ("`"), dollar sign ("$") and backslash character ("\") by preceding it with an additional backslash character. Implementations must undo quoting before expanding field codes and before passing the argument to the executable program.

But that's very confusing to me.

I asked the same question here on the Unix & Linux Stack Exchange.

reggie-man · 12-20-2014, 08:00 PM

reggie-man · 12-20-2014, 08:38 PM

I have received answers here on the Unix & Linux Stack Exchange.

I used this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by janos

It seems a common workaround to execute sh, which will resolve the special symbols and variables correctly:

Code:

Exec=sh -c "java -jar ~/.minecraft/Minecraft.jar"