Editing firefox.desktop

[Brian Cluff]

Under debian based distros, overriding an overwrite of ANY installed 
file is easily done.
There's a really cool tool called dpkg-divert that the system uses to 
take whatever files would normally be installed and steer them into a 
different place so that you can put your own version of the file in the 
same place without fear of it going away on the next update.

Just do:
dpkg-divert --add --rename /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

In this case, that would be the overkill and less correct way of handing 
the problem.  A better way would be to put your own version of the 
firefox.desktop into certain directories and that cause it to override 
the system version of the config.  Put them in 
~/.local/share/applications/ to change an individual user and|| 
/usr/local/share/applications/ to effect every user on the system.

Brian Cluff

On 12/25/20 12:23 PM, John Seberg via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> Some thoughts that occur to me:
>
> 1) Keep your own .desktop file, like myFirefox.desktop, separate from firefox.desktop.
>
> 2) Create a patch routine for the existing firefox.desktop - lots of info. out there on the concept of patching a text file using classic utilities. This might be a good skill to develop, if you haven't.
>
> 3) It might be nice to know how to query the diff history of the firefox.desktop file in the official package for the occasion where something goes wrong.
>
> 4) The seemingly *daily* updates to Firefox are kind of annoying. :^)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Friday, December 25, 2020, 11:51:01 AM MST, Steve B via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks to all. I'd forgotten that the file would be overridden with each update of Firefox. For the moment I've written a quick shortcut into my bash aliases file, but you got me looking at some ideas to create another firefox.desktop file that I can use to launch the application with the firejail parameters.
>
> On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 7:02 PM Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>> Agreed customizations to firefox launchers will break with every update.  I run into this with arch and firefox that I add a custom command to add a menu for starting with profile chooser, and have to add the file back every time I update annoyingly.
>>
>> -mb
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 4:56 PM Matt Graham via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>> On 2020-12-23 16:39, Steve B via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>>> Is it possible to edit the firefox.desktop file such that I can
>>>> invoke "firejail --apparmor firefox -no-remote" as the default manner
>>>> in which the application starts? If so can someone point me to a guide
>>>> or provide me with an example? I'm having some difficulty finding a
>>>> resource through Google.
>>> KDE:  right-click on the application menu, "Edit Applications",
>>> Internet->Mozilla Firefox, edit the Command: entry so that it executes
>>> what you want instead of the default "firefox %u" command.
>>>
>>> Everything:  Just find whatever .desktop file is being used by your
>>> desktop environment with "locate \*desktop | grep firefox" (there may be
>>> a few of them.)  Then edit the Exec= line so that it invokes the command
>>> line you want instead of the default "firefox %u".  This will almost
>>> certainly break every time firefox gets updated though.
>>>
>>> Alternatively, copy the default .desktop file to wherever your Desktop
>>> directory is, then edit that, and always launch your firefox from that
>>> icon/whatever instead of the system menu.  That will get rid of the
>>> "menu entry goes back to default after update" problem.
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Crow202 Blog: http://crow202.org/wordpress
>>> There is no Darkness in Eternity
>>> But only Light too dim for us to see.
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.phxlinux.org/pipermail/plug-discuss/attachments/20201225/cbba1b4c/attachment.html>