Xfce Forum

rrice

Member

From: Cleveland, OH

Registered: 2012-09-30

Posts: 1

Website

Using Environment Variables in Launchers

Hi,

I am trying to use environment variables in a custom launcher.

I tried to use this command line as the command:

exo-open --working-directory $HOME/src --launch TerminalEmulator

but when I try to execute the launcher, I get this error message in a modal box:

----
Failed to launch preferred application for category "TerminalEmulator".

Failed to change to directory '$HOME/src' (No such file or directory).
----

I was expecting that environment variables are supported directly. The command specified does work in a bash shell as expected. The launcher fails even if "Run in terminal" is checked.

Is there a way that I can use environment variable in a launcher or is this a bug?

Thanks,
Ralph

----
System info:

ralph@goten:~$ xfce4-about --version
xfce4-about 4.8.3 (Xfce 4.8)

Copyright (c) 2008-2011
	The Xfce development team. All rights reserved.

Please report bugs to <[url]http://bugzilla.xfce.org[/url]>.
Translators list from 2011-09-18 00:00:09.
ralph@goten:~$ uname -a
Linux goten 3.2.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:16:45 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

----

EDIT:  I did find a workaround. It came to me when I realized that my command was not executed in a shell. So, I could wrap the entire command line in a shell call:

bash -c 'exec exo-open --working-directory $HOME/src --launch TerminalEmulator'

Additionally, I can even export more environment variables, too:

bash -c 'export NAME=rrice;exec exo-open --working-directory $HOME/src --launch TerminalEmulator'

It seems weird, but it works for now.

Last edited by rrice (2012-09-30 21:07:02)