Desktop app maintainers: Please check for StartupNotify=true

[Colin Walters]

Hi,

For GNOME 3 to more reliably do application tracking, we will be
associating through startup-notification.  Some background here:

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2010-February/011321.html

However for startup notification to work, for compatibility reasons,
the upstream .desktop file must have StartupNotify=true.  It's come to
my attention that a lot of .desktop files are missing this, even
though they use GTK+.  I've written a quick script which heuristically
examines installed apps (attached); if someone writes the script which
checks the whole repository, that'd be cool.

If you maintain a desktop app, please check for StartupNotify=true,
and if your app uses GTK+ or Qt, then please submit a patch *upstream*
to add it, and at your option apply that patch in Fedora.

Here's sample output from the script on my workstation, which shows a
vast swath of system-config-* missing it; others of these are false
positives since they're not user-visible apps.

[walters@megatron gtk+ (master)]$ ~/bin/verify-startupnotify.py
'/usr/share/applications/system-config-date.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/nm-pptp.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/emacs.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/nm-openvpn.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/system-config-boot.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-userinfo.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/livna-config-display.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-authconfig.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/mount-archive.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/fedora-liveusb-creator.desktop' probably
needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/virt-manager.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/mutter.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/palimpsest.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-userpasswd.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/gnome-shell.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/spring-installer.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-system-control-network.desktop'
probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/fedora-empathy.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/ca-installer.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/jpackage-logfactor5.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-email.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/paperbox.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/fedora-vagalume.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/javaws.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-web.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/my-default-printer.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/system-config-users.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/transmission.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/nvidia-settings.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/springlobby.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-system-config-network.desktop'
probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/metacity.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/qt4-qtconfig.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/gnome-glade-2.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/spring.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/compiz-gtk.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/jpackage-chainsaw.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/mozilla-thunderbird.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/nm-connection-editor.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/alacarte.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/nm-vpnc.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/redhat-usermount.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/defaults.list' probably needs StartupNotify=true
'/usr/share/applications/manage-print-jobs.desktop' probably needs
StartupNotify=true
[walters@megatron gtk+ (master)]$

[Michael Schwendt]

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:37:24 -0400, Colin wrote:

>  However for startup notification to work, for compatibility reasons,
>  the upstream .desktop file must have StartupNotify=true.  It's come to
>  my attention that a lot of .desktop files are missing this, even
>  though they use GTK+.  
Hmmm, I'm certain we've had this in the guidelines (or in the Wiki or in
the old QA Checklist) several years ago, including help on how to
determine the StartupWMClass= name if necessary.

Currently can only find:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Desktop_files

| Installed .desktop files MUST follow the desktop-entry-spec , paying
| particular attention to validating correct usage of Name, GenericName,
| Categories , StartupNotify entries.

[Ville Skyttä]

On Sunday 14 March 2010, Colin Walters wrote:

>  If you maintain a desktop app, please check for StartupNotify=true,
>  and if your app uses GTK+ or Qt, then please submit a patch *upstream*
>  to add it, and at your option apply that patch in Fedora. 
If an app uses GTK+ or Qt, does that alone always imply that it satisfies the 
desktop entry spec's requirements for StartupNotify=true, i.e. no further 
examination of the app's behavior is necessary?

http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s05.html

"If true, it is KNOWN that the application will send a "remove" message
when 
started with the DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID environment variable set."

[Victor Vasilyev]

Michael Schwendt wrote:
>  On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:37:24 -0400, Colin wrote:
>
>  Currently can only find:
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Desktop_files
>
>  | Installed .desktop files MUST follow the desktop-entry-spec , paying
>  | particular attention to validating correct usage of Name, GenericName,
>  | Categories , StartupNotify entries.
>     
Explanation for the StartupNotify entry usage in the desktop-entry-spec 
[1] that is linked in the guidelines. Also, there are important details 
in the Startup Notification Protocol Specification [2].

[1] 
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-la...
[2] 
http://standards.freedesktop.org/startup-notification-spec/startup-notifi...

FYI When the StartupNotify=true was specified in the desktop file of the 
NetBeans I've seen bugs in launching of the NetBeans' child processes 
(e.g FireFox [3]) due to the DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID environment variable. It 
was fixed in the NetBeans launcher by a patch [4] according to 
recommendations of the Startup Notification Protocol Specification.

[3] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=467546
[4] 
http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewvc/rpms/netbeans/F-13/netbeans-6.8~40-id...

Cheers,
Victor

[Colin Walters]

On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 6:35 PM, Victor Vasilyev
<Victor.Vasilyev(a)sun.com&gt; wrote:
>  FYI When the StartupNotify=true was specified in the desktop file of the
>  NetBeans I've seen bugs in launching of the NetBeans' child processes
>  (e.g FireFox [3]) due to the DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID environment variable. It
>  was fixed in the NetBeans launcher by a patch [4] according to
>  recommendations of the Startup Notification Protocol Specification. 
Swing needs to clear the environment variable.  See:
http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/tree/gdk/x11/gdkdisplay-x11.c#n1015

[Colin Walters]

On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 5:40 PM, Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta(a)iki.fi&gt; wrote:
>  If an app uses GTK+ or Qt, does that alone always imply that it satisfies the
>  desktop entry spec's requirements for StartupNotify=true, i.e. no further
>  examination of the app's behavior is necessary? 
The main tricky situation comes when the app implements
single-instance behavior internally, and does some sort of IPC (dbus,
whatever) to talk to an existing instance.  In GNOME 3 this doesn't
matter as much because we do single-instance by default, but otherwise
it's definitely possible to get the stale "Starting foo..." until it
times out.   Actually handling this correctly is tricky[1], and I just
noticed one of my apps doesn't.  Maybe I should really take the plunge
and backport app tracking to GNOME 2 which would obviate this.

But as a general rule: add it.  Even for the IPC case, it only occurs
if the user tries to relaunch an existing app, which (albeit without
data, but with some educated background) is unusual.  Without IPC,
having it has a 99.9% chance of being correct.

[1] libunique handles this, but see also my fix for my app here:
http://git.gnome.org/browse/hotssh/commit/?id=57c43b39413c5128983286f5c09...

We have plans to basically make all this work out of the box when
using GTK+ but it blocks on gdbus.

[Colin Walters]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 10:44 AM, Chen Lei <supercyper(a)163.com&gt; wrote:
>  Should we also add  StartupWMClass=someting if StartupNotify=true
> doesn't
>  work? 
You're going to need to elaborate on "doesn't work".

* You don't see a "Starting..." notification in the tasklist in GNOME 2?
* You do, but it times out instead of disappearing when the app window comes up?
* Something else?

[Mary Ellen Foster]

On 15 March 2010 15:07, Colin Walters <walters(a)verbum.org&gt; wrote:
>  On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 10:44 AM, Chen Lei <supercyper(a)163.com&gt;
> wrote:
> > Should we also add  StartupWMClass=someting if StartupNotify=true doesn't
> > work?
>
>  You're going to need to elaborate on "doesn't work".
>
>  * You don't see a "Starting..." notification in the tasklist in GNOME 2?
>  * You do, but it times out instead of disappearing when the app window comes up?
>  * Something else? 
Well, for Firefox at least, it's option 2 and has been for a while (at
least under KDE):
    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=445543

:),

MEF

-- 
Mary Ellen Foster -- http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~mef3/
Interaction Lab -- http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/InteractionLab
School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University

Heriot-Watt University is a Scottish charity registered under charity
number SC000278

[Rajeesh K V]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:07 AM, Colin Walters <walters(a)verbum.org&gt; wrote:
>  Hi,
>
>  For GNOME 3 to more reliably do application tracking, we will be
>  associating through startup-notification.  Some background here:
>
>  http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2010-February/011321.html
>
>  However for startup notification to work, for compatibility reasons,
>  the upstream .desktop file must have StartupNotify=true.  It's come to
>  my attention that a lot of .desktop files are missing this, even
>  though they use GTK+.  I've written a quick script which heuristically
>  examines installed apps (attached); if someone writes the script which
>  checks the whole repository, that'd be cool.
>
>  If you maintain a desktop app, please check for StartupNotify=true,
>  and if your app uses GTK+ or Qt, then please submit a patch *upstream*
>  to add it, and at your option apply that patch in Fedora.
>
>  Here's sample output from the script on my workstation, which shows a
>  vast swath of system-config-* missing it; others of these are false
>  positives since they're not user-visible apps. 
Upstream just accepted the patch for Meiga :
http://git.igalia.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=meiga.git;a=commitdiff;h=5359f...

>  [walters@megatron gtk+ (master)]$ ~/bin/verify-startupnotify.py
>  '/usr/share/applications/system-config-date.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/nm-pptp.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/emacs.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/nm-openvpn.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/system-config-boot.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-userinfo.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/livna-config-display.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-authconfig.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/mount-archive.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/fedora-liveusb-creator.desktop' probably
>  needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/virt-manager.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/mutter.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/palimpsest.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-userpasswd.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/gnome-shell.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/spring-installer.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-system-control-network.desktop'
>  probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/fedora-empathy.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/ca-installer.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/jpackage-logfactor5.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-email.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/paperbox.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/fedora-vagalume.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/javaws.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-web.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/my-default-printer.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/system-config-users.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/transmission.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/nvidia-settings.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/springlobby.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-system-config-network.desktop'
>  probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/metacity.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/qt4-qtconfig.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/gnome-glade-2.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/spring.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/compiz-gtk.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/jpackage-chainsaw.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/mozilla-thunderbird.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/nm-connection-editor.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/alacarte.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/nm-vpnc.desktop' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/redhat-usermount.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/defaults.list' probably needs StartupNotify=true
>  '/usr/share/applications/manage-print-jobs.desktop' probably needs
>  StartupNotify=true
>  [walters@megatron gtk+ (master)]$
>
>  --
>  devel mailing list
>  devel(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
>  


-- 
Cheers,
Rajeesh
http://rajeeshknambiar.wordpress.com

[Colin Walters]

Hi Mary,

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Mary Ellen Foster <mefoster(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  Well, for Firefox at least, it's option 2 and has been for a while (at
>  least under KDE):
>     https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=445543 
I guess I should take some time to fix the most important app, yes.
This turned out to be a Fedora bug; we had a BuildRequires on
libstartup-notification, but didn't enable it in our mozconfig.  The
attached patch works for me, I'll add it to the bug too.

[Chen Lei]

Should we also add  StartupWMClass=someting if StartupNotify=true doesn't work?



在2010-03-15 22:33:58，"Colin Walters" <walters(a)verbum.org&gt; 写道：
> On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 5:40 PM, Ville Skyttä
> <ville.skytta(a)iki.fi&gt; wrote:
> >
> > If an app uses GTK+ or Qt, does that alone always imply that it satisfies the
> > desktop entry spec's requirements for StartupNotify=true, i.e. no further
> > examination of the app's behavior is necessary?
>
> The main tricky situation comes when the app implements
> single-instance behavior internally, and does some sort of IPC (dbus,
> whatever) to talk to an existing instance.  In GNOME 3 this doesn't
> matter as much because we do single-instance by default, but otherwise
> it's definitely possible to get the stale "Starting foo..." until it
> times out.   Actually handling this correctly is tricky[1], and I just
> noticed one of my apps doesn't.  Maybe I should really take the plunge
> and backport app tracking to GNOME 2 which would obviate this.
>
> But as a general rule: add it.  Even for the IPC case, it only occurs
> if the user tries to relaunch an existing app, which (albeit without
> data, but with some educated background) is unusual.  Without IPC,
> having it has a 99.9% chance of being correct.
>
> [1] libunique handles this, but see also my fix for my app here:
> http://git.gnome.org/browse/hotssh/commit/?id=57c43b39413c5128983286f5c09...
>
> We have plans to basically make all this work out of the box when
> using GTK+ but it blocks on gdbus.
> -- 
> devel mailing list
> devel(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel

[Kevin Kofler]

Colin Walters wrote:
>  The main tricky situation comes when the app implements
>  single-instance behavior internally, and does some sort of IPC (dbus,
>  whatever) to talk to an existing instance.  In GNOME 3 this doesn't
>  matter as much because we do single-instance by default, but otherwise
>  it's definitely possible to get the stale "Starting foo..." until it
>  times out.   Actually handling this correctly is tricky[1], and I just
>  noticed one of my apps doesn't.  Maybe I should really take the plunge
>  and backport app tracking to GNOME 2 which would obviate this. 
Single-instance apps should really use something like libunique or KDE's 
KUniqueApplication instead of reinventing the wheel.

        Kevin Kofler

[Chen Lei]

Could you help me to fix qtiplot? After I add StartupNotify=true to qtiplot.desktop, it
times out instead of disappearing when the app window comes up under gnome2.

Regards,
Chen Lei

On 2010-03-15 23:07:02，"Colin Walters" <walters(a)verbum.org&gt;  wrote：
> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 10:44 AM, Chen Lei <supercyper(a)163.com&gt;
> wrote:
> > Should we also add  StartupWMClass=someting if StartupNotify=true doesn't
> > work?
>
> You're going to need to elaborate on "doesn't work".
>
> * You don't see a "Starting..." notification in the tasklist in GNOME 2?
> * You do, but it times out instead of disappearing when the app window comes up?
> * Something else?
> -- 
> devel mailing list
> devel(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel