UPDATE-MENUS(1) General Commands Manual

UPDATE-MENUS(1)

NAME
update-menus - generate Debian menu system
SYNOPSIS
update-menus [-v] [-d] [-h|--help] [--version] [--menufilesdir <dir
>] [--menumethod <method>]
[--nodefaultdirs] [--stdout]
DESCRIPTION
Before the advent of update-menus, when the system administrators install
ed a package onto a Debian
system, they would need to edit various window manager configuration f
iles to make the new program
show up on, for example, fvwm's menus. The menus could easily become out
of sync with what programs
were actually available, with some menu items that didn't work, and other
programs that lacked a menu
entry. update-menus and Debian's menu package aim to solve this problem.
update-menus automatically generates menus of installed programs for wind
ow managers and other menu
programs. It should be run whenever a menufile(5) or menu-method file is
changed. update-menus will
be run automatically when Debian packages that contain menu files are ins
talled on or removed from
the system.
update-menus uses the package-supplied menu entry files (in /usr/sha
re/menu) for its information
about the menus (but this can be overruled by the system administrator/us
er; see below). If a menu
entry file is executable, update-menus executes the menu entry file, and
uses its stdout to generate
the menu database.

OPTIONS
-v Verbose output. Shows all arguments to the /etc/menu-methods progr
ams.
-d Debug output. Generates loads of unintelligible output.
-h, --help
Display usage help and exit.
--menufilesdir <dir>
Adds directory <dir> to the list of directories to search for menu
files in.
--menumethod <method>
Process only the menu method <method> instead of all the menu meth
ods found.
--nodefaultdirs
Disables the search of menu entries in system menu directories.
 --nodpkgcheck
Do not discard menu entries for packages that are not installed ac
cording to dpkg.
--remove
Remove the menus by calling the menu-methods with --remove.
--stdout
Output the menu list in a format suitable as input for install-men
u or a menu method file.
--version
Output version information and exit.
CONFIGURATION
There are several ways to tune the operation of update-menus:
per menu entry, in /etc/menu/$package
In these directories the system administrator or user can override
the default menu files (If
a file /etc/menu/$package exists, than the corresponding /usr/sh
are/menu/$package file isn't
read any more). Users who want to override the system wide def
aults put their files in
~/.menu. See also menufile(5)
per window-manager in /etc/menu-methods/$wm
In these configuration files, one can tune generated system.${wm}
rc files for each individual
window manager. For example, one can specify that the wm should i
gnore any icons that the
packages may supply, or set the default wrapper for text-only app
lications (usually, an xterm
is started to run a text-only application like vi). Users who want
to override the system wide
defaults put their files in ~/.menu-methods. For more info, see /u
sr/share/doc/menu/html.
globally, in /etc/menu-methods/translate_menus
This file contains translations that will be performed for all
menu entries and all window
managers. You can specify things like: `All sections that start wi
th "Games" should be mapped
to "Applications/Games"', or `menuentry "gnuplot" should have a t
itle of "GnuTeken"'. Look at
the default /etc/menu-methods/translate_menus for an example. User
s who want to override the
system default translate file, put one in ~/.menu-methods/transla
te_menus. Note: This should
not be used for a full translation of the menu. Use po files as ex
plained in the source pack
age.
error report configuring, in /etc/menu-methods/menu.config
This file contains general information for the overall behav
iour of update-menus. At the
moment you can only configure how verbose the output of update-men
us is, and where it sends
the output. The amount of information is specified by `verbosity
=VAL'. Use VAL=quiet to stop
update-menu from reporting anything but the most important errors
, VAL=normal, VAL=verbose,
 VAL=debug for progressively more output.
To specify where the output should go, use `method=stdout', `metho
d=stderr', or `method=syslog
facility priority'. `Facility' is one of auth, authpriv, authc
ron, authdaemon, authkern,
authlocal0, authlocal1, authlocal2, authlocal3, authlocal4, aut
hlocal5, authlocal6, authlo
cal7, authlpr, authmail, authnews, authsyslog, authuser, authuucp.
`priority' is one of emerg,
alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug.

FILES
Menu files: (Earlier listed directories override those listed later.)
~/.menu/*
Menu files added by the user. (Isn't read if root runs upda
te-menus)
/etc/menu/*
Menu files added by the system administrator.
/usr/lib/menu/*
Architecture-dependant menu files provided by other Debian
packages.
/usr/share/menu/*
Architecture-independant menu files provided by other Debia
n packages.
/usr/share/menu/default/*
Menu files provided by the menu package.
Menu methods:
/etc/menu-methods/
Executable configuration files that are added by window
managers and other menu pro
grams, these files are run by update-menus to generate menu
s for the different pro
grams. Also in this directory is the translate_menus file,
used for local configuration
of the shape of the menu trees.
~/.menu-methods/
For users to override the system-defaults of /etc/menu-me
thods. If this directory
exists, no files in /etc/menu-methods are read any more.
DISTRIBUTION
Distribution is subject to the GNU General Public License.
BUGS
update-menus may not work properly when run by a normal user, to genera
te menus for that user. This
is usually because the window manager doesn't expect the system.${wm}rc f
iles in the directory (usu
ally ~/.${wm}, configurable in /etc/menu-methods). If you see such a thi
ng, and you find a solution,
please mail <menu@packages.debian.org>. It should work OK for fvwm and f
vwm2: I usually test the
package first as an ordinary user.
AUTHORS
Joost Witteveen <joostje@debian.org>, original idea by Lars Wirzenius <li
w@iki.fi>. Now maintained by
Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>.
THANKS
To Joey Hess, for a lot of good ideas and pre-release testing, and to Tom
Lees for a update-menus in
pure C (of which I only used one function, but that's life).
Man page by Joey Hess, <joeyh@debian.org>
SEE ALSO
menufile(5), /usr/share/doc/menu/html

DEBIAN Debian Utilities

UPDATE-MENUS(1)