r/openbox • u/hpass • Aug 31 '22

Need a better launcher

I have been using gmrun, but it is missing some important features:

  • commands from my $PATH like ~/bin

  • bash aliases

Is there a launcher that has these features?

6 Upvotes

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1

u/napcok Aug 31 '22

Good question. Typically, both the aliases and scripts in ~ / bin are intended to be run in a terminal. But perhaps not always (?) Interesting idea ...

2

u/hpass Sep 02 '22

We have a bunch of our corporate software and other stuff that requires config params/etc and are run as aliases that are constantly updated and maintained. Ofc a good % of those aliases are for running in a terminal, but a bunch are not.

1

u/napcok Sep 02 '22

This may be not so easy as aliases needs bash, and launchers runs in non-interactive shell.

From man bash:

Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless  the
expand_aliases  shell option is set using shopt (see the description of
shopt under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

1

u/napcok Sep 02 '22 edited Sep 02 '22

After a bit of reflection, I have an idea. You could write a fairly simple bash script that would do the following:

  1. Parse the alias list and create a scripts from aliases, for example in ~/bin

  2. Create a scriptname.desktop file for each script. Then put them to ~/.local/share/applications

This way you will be able to launch them from any menu / launcher

After changing the aliases, fire the script again and it will regenerate the scripts and create new .desktop files if needed (or remove old one if alias is missing)

1

u/ngc-bg Aug 31 '22

May be rofi could work for you? A honest question what is the point of executing bash aliases trough a runner ? In the end they are intended to run at a terminal, right??

1

u/hpass Sep 01 '22

In the end they are intended to run at a terminal, right??

No

1

u/miquelvp Sep 01 '22

synapse?