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Chapter 3. Menu Editing and Configuration

Directory Entry (

*.directory

) Files

The

*.directory

files provide data about a menu such as its name, tooltip, and icon, and

are located in

/usr/share/desktop directories/

. Refer to the GNOME Desktop System

Administration Guide for more information on directory entry files.

Desktop Entry (

*.desktop

) Files

The

*.desktop

files provide data about a menu item such as its name, command to run,

and its icon. The desktop entry files also contain keywords that determine the location

of the menu item in the menu hierarchy. The system desktop entry files are located in

/usr/share/applications/

. Refer to the GNOME Desktop System Administration Guide

for more information on desktop entry files.

User specific desktop entry files are located in

$HOME/.local/share/applications/

and

can be used to add applications to the "Open With =>" submenu that appears when right 

clicking on a file. The

$HOME/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

contains

MIME type information associating the

$HOME/.local/share/applications/*.desktop

applications with the file types specified in the

*.desktop

files.

3.2. Removing Menu Items for Individual Users

The menu configuration files for a given user are located in the

$HOME/.config/menus/

directory.

The

*.menu

files are XML configuration files that allow you to override the system menu defaults.

For example, to remove the Calculator menu item from the Accessories submenu, edit the

applications.menu

file in the

$HOME/.config/menus/

directory, adding a new 

section using the  element as shown: