xfce4-clipman autostart config does not work out-of-the-box outside full desktop environments
The current autostart file for xfce4-clipman
is only configured to work within XFCE and Cinnamon:
% cat /etc/xdg/autostart/xfce4-clipman-plugin-autostart.desktop | grep OnlyShowIn
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;X-Cinnamon;
Previously, only XFCE was supported. Cinnamon supported was added circa 2020 thanks to https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14058.
When using a tiling window manager without a full desktop environment, e.g. i3wm.org, a popular way to autostart applications configured in /etc/xdg
is by using dex1. For example, in my system, dex
in dry-run mode outputs:
% dex -ad
Executing command: /usr/lib/at-spi-bus-launcher --launch-immediately
Executing command: pasystray
Executing command: start-pulseaudio-x11
Expected behavior: xfce4-clipman
should have shown up in the above output.
Observed behavior: xfce4-clipman
doesn't show up in the above output. Therefore it doesn't start up automatically.
One way to resolve this is by changing Hidden=true
to Hidden=false
in the autostart desktop file for xfce4-clipman. Then it works as expected:
% dex -ad
Executing command: /usr/lib/at-spi-bus-launcher --launch-immediately
Executing command: pasystray
Executing command: start-pulseaudio-x11
Executing command: xfce4-clipman
Feature request: Can we remove Hidden=true
from the autostart file?
Rationale: Clipman is very modular and works very well even if it is used stand-alone, outside XFCE and Cinnamon, for example from within a tiling window manager that supports system tray. As such, we shouldn't be hard-coding the list of every supported desktop environment within OnlyShowIn=
. Instead, xfce4-clipman
should be able allowed to auto start if it is installed in the system, even if the user is not running XFCE or Cinnamon (or GNOME).
More context: Tested on Arch Linux, on 2021-05-16, from within i3 4.19.2 and dex 0.9.0.
This post2 may also be relevant as context. Ideally, the user shouldn't have to duplicate the autostart file in ~/.config/autostart
.