making .desktop files executable [LWN.net]

making .desktop files executable

Posted Feb 13, 2009 12:36 UTC (Fri) by bluss (guest, #47454)
In reply to: making .desktop files executable by DeletedUser32991
Parent article: Follow up: How to write a Linux virus

That's not bad news, that's GOOD NEWS!

If # are comments in the spec, that means we can introduce a format upgrade where a shebang line (#!/usr/bin/desktop-launcher) is required, and older implementations will treat it as a comment. Then slowly distributions can enforce the executable + shebang requirement.

It is actually very easy: Introduce the new format, and require it. Then handle backward-compatibility by throwing a warning when double-clicking old-style desktop files, with the option to mark it executable and add the shebang ("Do you truth this launcher? Items downloaded from iternet... It will run '/bin/binary'..", "[ ] don't ask me again", "Cancel", "Launch")

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making .desktop files executable

Posted Feb 13, 2009 13:01 UTC (Fri) by madscientist (subscriber, #16861) [Link] (1 responses)

You and dlang are not reading carefully enough. tv said that the spec requires comment lines to start with "# " (that is, sharp-space) not just "#". I haven't read the spec so I can't say myself that's right, but if the latter, you win; if the former, you lose.

making .desktop files executable

Posted Feb 13, 2009 14:26 UTC (Fri) by DeletedUser32991 ((unknown), #32991) [Link]

But I was wrong. Sorry.