Re: Executable bit on .desktop files: necessary or unwanted?

[Mark Davies <mark%ecs.vuw.ac.nz@localhost>]

On 18/02/2025 09:08, David H. Gutteridge wrote:
> On a Fedora 41 machine with a variety of DEs installed from Fedora
> packaging (current GNOME, KDE, Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon), I have 650
> .desktop files found in /usr/share/applications. Of these only 12 have
> the execute bit set (all are KDE, but the vast majority of KDE-related
> apps do not have it set, either). So the current common practice of
> (system-wide) .desktop file installations would seem to be not to mark
> them as executable. (Only one out of the 650 files in my installation
> has a shebang line, and it is not marked executable!)

On our ArchLinux machines 163 of the 362 .desktop files in
/usr/share/applications are executable (and none of 
/usr/pkg/share/applications) while my NetBSD development machine has 215 
out of 345 in /usr/pkg/share/applications.  All the executable ones are 
KDE related, but again there are lots of KDE related ones that are not 
executable.

I don't know how or if KDE treats them differently.  I certainly haven't 
noticed any difference.

cheers
mark