How to set my application's desktop icon for Linux: KDE, Gnome etc?

KPexEA picture KPexEA · Sep 23, 2008 · Viewed 14.6k times · Source

I have a cross platform program that runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh. My windows version has an Icon but I don't know how to make have one for my Linux build. Is there a standard format for KDE, Gnome etc. or will I have to do something special for each one?

My app is in c++ and distributed as source so the end user will compile it with gcc.

If I can have the icon embedded directly inside my exe binary that would be the best.

Answer

Jurassic_C picture Jurassic_C · Sep 23, 2008

For Gnome and Kde, you would probably want to include a desktop file with your app that defines how it will be launched. The specification can be found here. If you have an installer included with your app, you would probably want to have it generate this desktop file and put it in the right places to make menu entries and whatnot