xdg-terminal-exec

Proposal for XDG terminal execution utility and default terminal specification.

The configuration spec is crafted in image of mime-apps-spec using different names in similar structure, governed by basedir-spec.

Terminal emulators with their exec arguments are be described by desktop entries placed in directories named xdg-terminals provided via XDG_DATA hierarchy.

Preferred terminal is configured in config files named xdg-terminals.list provided via XDG_CONFIG hierarchy. Format for config file is a a simple newline-separated list of desktop entries. #Comments, dangling whitespaces are trimmed.

Default paths are resolved into:

• configs
  • $HOME/.config/$desktop-xdg-terminals.list
  • $HOME/.config/xdg-terminals.list
  • /etc/xdg/$desktop-xdg-terminals.list
  • /etc/xdg/xdg-terminals.list
  • /usr/etc/xdg/$desktop-xdg-terminals.list
  • /usr/etc/xdg/xdg-terminals.list
• data
  • $HOME/.local/share/xdg-terminals/
  • /usr/local/share/xdg-terminals
  • /usr/share/xdg-terminals

where $desktop is lowercase list of colon-separated names of current DE.

Priority of selecting entry:

• Read configs throughout XDG_CONFIG hierarchy.
  • in each tier $desktop-xdg-terminals.list gets first priority, xdg-terminals.list gets second priority
  • each entry found in configs is checked for applicability (same rules as in Desktop Entry Spec) and is skipped on failure.
• If no valid entries were found among those marked in configs, every entry found in XDG_DATA hierarchy is checked in a row. First applicable will be used.
• If all of the above fails, xterm and -e are used.

Desktop entry for terminal

For defining terminals usual desktop entries may be used. The only addition is the key X-ExecArg which defines the exection argument for the terminal emulator. It defaults to -e if unset, but may be specifically set to an empty string. With this behavior stock entries for terminals that use -e as execution argument may be used unaltered.

syntax

xdg-terminal-exec [command [arguments]]

If run without any arguments, only the terminal itself (value of Exec=) will be launched. If command and its arguments are given, then values of both Exec= and X-ExecArg= will be used. Run with DEBUG=1 to see verbose messages to stderr.

limitations

There is no mechanism for handling special quoting and arguments/strings that may be required for some terminals. Argument array is transmitted as is.

At least when using xterm, command:

xdg-terminal-exec nano "some file with spaces"\ and\ unquoted\ spaces second\ file

launches nano editing two files named some file with spaces and unquoted spaces and second file. And IMHO that is the golden standard, any terminal that fails to do so should be bugreported.