Custom Linux Desktop Launcher Actions

On many Linux environments, you can add custom entries to its launcher by modifying the .desktop file. For Canonical's Unity documentation, see Adding Shortcuts to a Launcher. For details on a more generic implementation, see the freedesktop.org Specification.

Launcher shortcuts of Audacious:

Generally speaking, shortcuts are added by providing a Name and Exec property for each entry in the shortcuts menu. Unity will execute the Exec field once clicked by the user. The format is as follows:

Actions=PlayPause;Next;Previous
  
  [Desktop Action PlayPause]
  Name=Play-Pause
  Exec=audacious -t
  OnlyShowIn=Unity;
  
  [Desktop Action Next]
  Name=Next
  Exec=audacious -f
  OnlyShowIn=Unity;
  
  [Desktop Action Previous]
  Name=Previous
  Exec=audacious -r
  OnlyShowIn=Unity;

Unity's preferred way of telling your application what to do is to use parameters. You can find these in your app in the global variable process.argv.