Score:2

Ubuntu

How can I find out where an executable on my favorites bar is located?

Sean McGhee

12/15/23, 8:40 PM

On Windows the shortcuts can be right clicked and when properties is selected it will show you a window which tells you where the executable target is located.

I have a favorites bar which has a program on it that has at least 3 possible locations (don't ask - it's a mess) and I'd like to know which one the icon is pointing to. I tried the "details" item on the right-click menu and it shows nothing but "no application found".

How can I find out where the link is pointing?

Thanks! Sean

636

1 + 4

unity

favorites

pLumo

12/15/23, 9:50 PM

Check out `alacarte` (might need to install it). It will show you all your desktop shortcuts and you can see for each icon "Properties" -> "command".

Sean McGhee

12/16/23, 12:25 AM

@pLumo - thanks for that. I installed it but I found it did not present me with the favorites bar but it was a bit of a long shot. It DOES have a wealth of info which indirectly led me to the actual item I was interested in :-) Much appreciated!

pLumo

12/16/23, 11:40 AM

I wrote an answer with some more information, glad that it was helpful

Sean McGhee

12/16/23, 2:08 PM

@pLumo - got it and see below...

Score:1

Ubuntu

pLumo

12/16/23, 11:40 AM

The favorite apps are saved as dconf setting, you can read it with:

dconf read "/org/gnome/shell/favorite-apps"

This will print out a list of ".desktop" files, e.g.

['nemo.desktop', 'firefox_firefox.desktop', 'thunderbird.desktop', 'some-program.desktop']

To find the real location of your some-program.desktop, try

locate "some-program.desktop"

or search in the following locations, if locate can not find it or is not installed:

~/.local/share/applications
/usr/share/applications
/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications

To find the command to your icon, grep for Exec or use cat.

locate "some-program.desktop" | xargs grep ^Exec

GUI only alternative

Run dconf Editor, find /org/gnome/shell/favorite-apps and check out the name of your .desktop file. Then, run alacarte ("Main Menu") (might need to install) and find that icon, right-click -> "Properties" will show you the command.

+ 5

Sean McGhee

12/16/23, 2:07 PM

thanks again! I have not tried the GUI version but the command line version worked like a charm!

Sean McGhee

12/16/23, 3:12 PM

oh, and since I'm new here, I can't formally upvote your answers so consider it done :-)

vanadium

12/17/23, 11:56 AM

@SeanMcGhee you may not be able to upvote, but as the question asker, you can do something more important: "accept" the question: click the checkmark on the left of the question. This shows other users a helpful answer can be found here.

vanadium

12/17/23, 11:59 AM

`locate` is not anymore by default installed on Ubuntu. You may also mention that there is a priority in the locations: if `.desktop` files with the same name exist in multiple places, the one found in the first searched directory will be used

Sean McGhee

12/18/23, 12:33 PM

@vanadium - accepted!

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How can I find out where an executable on my favorites bar is located?

Post an answer

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