Add --install-desktop to install a desktop entry

Detects an installed terminal emulator (kitty, alacritty, wezterm, foot,
ghostty, gnome-terminal, konsole, xfce4-terminal, tilix,
x-terminal-emulator, xterm) and bakes an explicit launch command into
the entry, since Terminal=true is unreliable on modern desktops.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <[email protected]>

assets/emby-client.desktop

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[Desktop Entry]
+Type=Application
+Name=Emby Client
+GenericName=Emby TUI Client
+Comment=TUI Emby client with libmpv playback
+Exec={EXEC}
+Terminal={TERMINAL}
+Categories=AudioVideo;Player;
+Keywords=emby;media;player;tui;

src/config.rs

@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ pub struct CliArgs {
     /// Path to config file. Defaults: ./config.toml then $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emby-client/config.toml
     #[arg(short, long)]
     pub config: Option<PathBuf>,
+
+    /// Install a desktop entry for the current executable and exit
+    #[arg(long)]
+    pub install_desktop: bool,
 }
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Default, Serialize, Deserialize)]

src/install.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+use anyhow::{Context, Result};
+use directories::BaseDirs;
+use std::env;
+use std::fs;
+use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+const DESKTOP_TEMPLATE: &str = include_str!("../assets/emby-client.desktop");
+
+/// A terminal emulator we know how to invoke. `args` are the tokens placed
+/// between the terminal binary and the command to run.
+struct TerminalSpec {
+    bin: &'static str,
+    args: &'static [&'static str],
+}
+
+const TERMINALS: &[TerminalSpec] = &[
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "kitty",               args: &[] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "alacritty",           args: &["-e"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "wezterm",             args: &["start", "--"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "foot",                args: &[] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "ghostty",             args: &["-e"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "gnome-terminal",      args: &["--"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "konsole",             args: &["-e"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "xfce4-terminal",      args: &["-x"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "tilix",               args: &["-e"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "x-terminal-emulator", args: &["-e"] },
+    TerminalSpec { bin: "xterm",               args: &["-e"] },
+];
+
+fn which(bin: &str) -> Option<PathBuf> {
+    let path = env::var_os("PATH")?;
+    for dir in env::split_paths(&path) {
+        let candidate = dir.join(bin);
+        if candidate.is_file() {
+            return Some(candidate);
+        }
+    }
+    None
+}
+
+fn find_terminal() -> Option<(PathBuf, &'static [&'static str])> {
+    // Honor $TERMINAL if it matches a spec we know.
+    if let Ok(t) = env::var("TERMINAL")
+        && let Some(spec) = TERMINALS.iter().find(|s| s.bin == t)
+        && let Some(p) = which(spec.bin)
+    {
+        return Some((p, spec.args));
+    }
+    for spec in TERMINALS {
+        if let Some(p) = which(spec.bin) {
+            return Some((p, spec.args));
+        }
+    }
+    None
+}
+
+/// Quote a token for a `.desktop` Exec line per the freedesktop spec.
+fn quote_desktop(s: &str) -> String {
+    let needs_quote = s.is_empty()
+        || s.chars().any(|c| {
+            c.is_whitespace()
+                || matches!(
+                    c,
+                    '"' | '\\' | '$' | '`' | '\'' | '|' | '&' | ';' | '<' | '>'
+                    | '(' | ')' | '#' | '~' | '*' | '?'
+                )
+        });
+    if !needs_quote {
+        return s.to_string();
+    }
+    let mut out = String::with_capacity(s.len() + 2);
+    out.push('"');
+    for c in s.chars() {
+        if matches!(c, '"' | '\\' | '$' | '`') {
+            out.push('\\');
+        }
+        out.push(c);
+    }
+    out.push('"');
+    out
+}
+
+/// Write a `.desktop` entry for the current executable to
+/// `$XDG_DATA_HOME/applications/emby-client.desktop` (typically
+/// `~/.local/share/applications/`). Returns the path it was written to.
+pub fn install_desktop_entry() -> Result<PathBuf> {
+    let exe = env::current_exe().context("failed to locate current executable")?;
+    let exe = exe.canonicalize().unwrap_or(exe);
+    let exe_str = exe.to_string_lossy().into_owned();
+
+    let (exec_line, terminal_flag) = match find_terminal() {
+        Some((term, args)) => {
+            let mut parts: Vec<String> = Vec::with_capacity(2 + args.len());
+            parts.push(quote_desktop(&term.to_string_lossy()));
+            for a in args {
+                parts.push(quote_desktop(a));
+            }
+            parts.push(quote_desktop(&exe_str));
+            (parts.join(" "), "false")
+        }
+        None => (quote_desktop(&exe_str), "true"),
+    };
+
+    let content = DESKTOP_TEMPLATE
+        .replace("{EXEC}", &exec_line)
+        .replace("{TERMINAL}", terminal_flag);
+
+    let dirs = BaseDirs::new().context("could not determine user data directory")?;
+    let dir = dirs.data_dir().join("applications");
+    fs::create_dir_all(&dir)
+        .with_context(|| format!("failed to create {}", dir.display()))?;
+
+    let target = dir.join("emby-client.desktop");
+    fs::write(&target, content)
+        .with_context(|| format!("failed to write {}", target.display()))?;
+    Ok(target)
+}

src/main.rs

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 mod app;
 mod config;
 mod emby;
+mod install;
 mod login;
 mod player;
 mod ui;
@@ -11,6 +12,13 @@ use clap::Parser;
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let args = config::CliArgs::parse();
+
+    if args.install_desktop {
+        let path = install::install_desktop_entry()?;
+        println!("Installed desktop entry: {}", path.display());
+        return Ok(());
+    }
+
     let (cfg, save_target) = config::load(&args)?;
 
     let cfg = match cfg {