pyshortcuts

Pyshortcuts helps Python developers and users create shortcuts that will run python scripts and other applications. The shortcuts created can go onto the users desktop or into the Start Menu (for systems with Start Menus) or both.

Pyshortcuts works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux in the way that is most natural for each OS. That is, on Windows, a Shortcut Link is created and placed on the users Desktop and in the Start Menu. On MacOS, a minimal but complete Application is created and placed on the users Desktop. On Linux a ".desktop" file is created and placed on the users Desktop (if that exists) and in $HOME/.local/share/applications (if that exists), which will often get presented in a Start Menu for windowing desktop themes that use a Start Menu. On all platforms, the shortcuts created on the Deskop or Start Menu can be put either directly on the Desktop / Start Menu or in a folder on the Desktop / Start Menu.

Special attention is given to Anaconda Python. On Windows, this means the program linked to by the shortcut will be run in an Anaconda environment, explicitly selecting the "base" environment even if that has not been explicitly set. On MacOS, the shortcut will make sure to use the python.app application so that GUI programs will be able to draw to properly draw to the screen.

By writing only to the users Desktop or application folder that gets read by the Start Menu, there is no need for elevated permission and no writing to system-level files (registry entries, /Applications, /usr/bin, etc). After the shortcut has been created, the user has complete control to rename, move, or delete it. Shortcuts can have a custom icon (.ico files on Windows or Linux, or .icns files on MacOS) specified, defaulting to a Python icon included with pyshortcuts.

Pyshortcuts is pure python, small, easy to install, and easy to use from a python script. This means that Pyshortcuts can be made part of an installation (or post-installation process) process for larger packages.

installation

To install pyshortcuts, use

pip install pyshortcuts

or

conda install -c gsecars pyshortcuts

On Windows, pyshortcuts requires the pywin32 package. This should be installed automatically with either of the above install methods.

In order to use the pyshortcut GUI, the wxPython package is required.

usage from Python

Shortcuts can be created from a Python script with

from pyshortcuts import make_shortcut

make_shortcut('/home/user/bin/myapp.py', name='MyApp',
                        icon='/home/user/icons/myicon.ico')

The arguments to the make_shortcut function are:

• script (str) command to script to run. This can include command-line arguments
• name (str or None) name to use for shortcut [defaults to script name]
• description (str or None) longer description of script [defaults to name]
• icon (str or None) path to icon file [defaults to python icon]
• folder (str or None) folder on Desktop to put shortcut [defaults to Desktop]
• terminal (bool) whether to run in a Terminal [True]
• desktop ((bool) whether to add shortcut to Desktop [True]
• startmenu (bool) whether to add shortcut to Start Menu [True]
• executable (str or None) name of executable to use [this Python]

Note that the Start Menu does not exist for MacOSX.

The executable defaults to the version of Python executable used to make shortcut.

pyshortcut command-line program

pyshortcuts also installs a pyshortcut command-line program for creating a shortcut. From a shell or Command window with PATH set to include python programs and scripts, a command to create a shortcut might look like:

~> pyshortcut -n MyApp -i /home/user/icons/myicon.icns  /home/user/bin/myapp.py

To include command-line options for the script, put them in double quotes

~> pyshortcut -n MyApp -i /home/user/icons/myicon.icns "/home/user/bin/myapp.py  -t 10"

The pyshortcut command line program has a form of

pyshortcut [-h] [-v] [-n NAME] [-i ICON] [-f FOLDER] [-e EXE] [-t] [-g] [-d] [-s] [-w] [scriptname]

where scriptname is the name of the script. To include arguments to that script, enclose the script name and arguments in quotes (double quotes on Windows).

There are several optional arguments:

with the following optional arguments:

• -h, --help show help message and exit

• -v, --version show program's version number and exit

• -n NAME, --name=NAME name for shortcut

• -i ICON, --icon=ICON name of icon file

• -f FOLDER, --folder=Folder subfolder on desktop to put icon

• -e EXE, --executable EXE name of executable to use (python)

• -t, --terminal run script in a Terminal Window [True]

• -g, --gui run script as a GUI, with no Terminal Window [False]

• -d, --desktop create desktop shortcut [True]

• -s, --startmenu create Start Menu shortcut [True]

• -w, --wxgui run GUI version of pyshortcut

Note that running in the Terminal is True by default, which means that each time the shortcut is used to lauch the program, a new Terminal or Command window will be created for it. For many command-line applications, this is approprate. The extra Terminal or Command window may be unwanted for some GUI applications, and can be disabled with the -g or --gui option.

pyshortcut GUI

In addition to the pyshortcut command-line program, there is a GUI that provides a simple form to help the user browse for script and icons, and set options before creating a shortcut or generating an example Python script to create the shortcut.

This can be launched from the command line with

~> pyshortcut --wxgui

Of course, that command might be the sort of command you might want to be able to launch by clicking on a desktop shortcut. We have just the tool for that. This script (included as gui_bootstrap.py in the examples folder) will create a desktop shortcut that launches the pyshortcut GUI:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
from pyshortcuts import make_shortcut, platform

bindir = 'bin'
if platform.startswith('win'):
    bindir = 'Scripts'

scut = make_shortcut(
    "%s --wxgui" % os.path.join(sys.prefix, bindir, 'pyshortcut'),
    name='PyShortcut', terminal=False
)

print("pyshortcuts GUI: %s" % scut.target)

That is, running

~> python setup.py install
~> python examples/gui_bootstrap.py

will give you a desktop shortcut that launches a GUI application for turning Python scripts into desktop shortcuts.