[CMake] CPack: .desktop files with tar.gz maker?

[clinton at elemtech.com]

----- Original Message -----
> On 11/7/14, Clinton Stimpson <clinton at elemtech.com> wrote:
> > On Friday, November 07, 2014 03:50:32 PM Eric Wing wrote:
> >> I have a build and packaging system where I can distribute (mostly)
> >> standalone apps for Linux desktop. I am using the default CPack
> >> installer which creates .tar.gz, .Z, and .sh files.
> >>
> >> I like this opposed to the .deb/.rpm package systems because users
> >> don't need root access to install/use my stuff (and can place
> >> anywhere), and I only need a single package for all Linux desktops.
> >>
> >> But it's pretty plain-Jane and it would be nice to provide an icon or
> >> something. So I was wondering if anybody had
> >> suggestions/advice/strategies on supporting .desktop files. As far as
> >> I can tell, I need paths to the icon and the executable, which is
> >> completely variable based on where the user puts it. And I'm not sure
> >> where this file is supposed to be written to. (Remember that I don't
> >> use root access.)
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Eric
> >
> > Perhaps you can do this:
> >
> > Include the .desktop file in your installation.
> >
> > To add, your installer can call
> > xdg-desktop-menu install <install>/share/applications/MyApp.desktop
> >
> > To remove, your installer can call
> > xdg-desktop-menu uninstall <install>/share/applications/MyApp.desktop
> >
> > If xdg-desktop-menu is called as root, it'll copy the .desktop file to the
> > system location.  If it is called as a non-root user, it'll copy the file
> > to
> >
> > the user specific desktop area.  xdg-desktop-menu also takes care of
> > refreshing
> > the icons in the launcher.
> >
> > During uninstall, it'll remove the copy.
> >
> > By the way, we do .rpm and .deb, but also give instructions for users to
> > extract the files if they want their own installation directory.
> >
> > The above .desktop support can be put in a script and added to the postinst
> >
> > and prerm scripts for rpm and deb.
> >
> > This makes things more automatic for the majority of our users (basically
> > download-click-and-run).
> >
> > Clint
> >
> >
> 
> Thanks for the information. Based on that, I wrote a script that is
> bundled with the contents and when run, will generate the correct
> .desktop file with the correct absolute paths needed and invoke
> xdg-desktop-menu install.
> 
> I noticed that the CPack tarball generator also generates a
> self-extracting .sh ball. Is there anyway to hook into that to add a
> postinst like stage so I can invoke my script?
> 

You can copy CMake/Modules/CPack.STGZ_Header.sh.in, make your modifications, then set CPACK_STGZ_HEADER_FILE to point to it.

Clint