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Local Startup

by Alejandro Liu

Updated: 2023-10-01

in 2023

tagged application, config, configuration, desktop, directory, editor, linux

This is a method to control start-up of applications in a Linux Desktop session that are run by a local default configuration, but can also be overriden by the user.

This is unlike the /etc/xdg/autostart which is mostly under the control of the distro packager.

Aslo unlike the /etc/X11/profile.d directory, this runs inside the Desktop Session. /etc/X11/profile.d gets started before the Desktop session is available.

There is a configuration /etc/xdg/local-startup.cfg, which contains the local configuration. It is a text file:

# comments start with #
#
delay 3000 # Number of seconds to wait before starting applications
application1.desktop  enable # Enable the application
application2.dekstop  disable # disable this application

Applications that can be auto started are defined either in /usr/share/applications or in $HOME/.local/share/applications as .desktop files.

Adding a enabled application global config, will start the application by default.

Adding a disabled application to the global config, will not start the application by default, but it makes it possible for the user to override this setting in their $HOME/.config/local-startup.cfg file.

Files: