Introduction
Most Linux desktops (Gnome, KDE, etc.) adhere to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), which dictates were information should be found. That means that we can use a common approach to integrate VASSAL into most Linux desktop.
Linux desktops categorises files based on mime-types and applications are declared as Desktop applications that act on these mime-types. That means, that for VASSAL modules (.vmod), saves (.vsav), and logs (.vlog), we need to define VASSAL mime-types and associate the a VASSAL desktop application with these types.
More on the shared mime information can be found here
Below, we will assume that your VASSAL installation is in /opt/vassal/current (which could be a symlink to f.ex., /opt/vassal/3.7.12 for example).
The semi-automatic way
Change directory to your VASSAL installation directory
cd /opt/vassal/current
Download the integration script and make it executable
wget "https://gitlab.com/wargames_tex/vassal_my_contrib/-/raw/master/common/integration.sh?ref_type=heads&inline=false" -O integration.sh
chmod a+x integration.sh
Run the integration script
./integration.sh
Voila, that should be it.
By default, the Desktop integration is set up for the current user only. If you want to make the Desktop integration system wide, i.e., for all users, then run
./integration.sh -s
If you cannot write to the VASSAL installation directory, you can specify that directory with the option -v, e.g.,
./integration.sh -v /opt/vassal/current
There are many more options for the integration script. Run
./integration.sh -h
to see them all
Step-by-step instructions
If you’d rather do the integration by hand, then you can follow the steps below.
We will assume that VASSAL is installed in /opt/vassal/current, so we define the environment variable VASSAL_DIR to point there
export VASSAL_DIR=/opt/vassal/current
Replace the value with what is appropriate for your system. We only need that variable while we do the integration. Later on it needn’t be set.
Also, we will assume the Desktop integration is done for a single user. That means all integration files should live under ~/.local'. We set the variable prefix` to point there
export prefix=${HOME}/.local
If we are to do the integration system wide, then we should set prefix to /usr. In that case, we need super user privileges in the following (sudo). We only need that variable while we do the integration. Later on it needn’t be set.
Create desktop icon
-
Create the directory to store the icon in
mkdir -p ${prefix}/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/mimetypes -
Copy the VASSAL SVG icon image there
cp $VASSAL_DIR/VASSAL.svg ${prefix}/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-vassal.svg
Create mime data
-
Create the directory to store the mime data in
mkdir -p ${prefix}/share/mime/packages -
Change directory to that directory
cd ${prefix}/share/mime/packages -
Create the file
application-x-vassal.xmlwith the contentcat <<EOF > application-x-vassal.xml <?xml version="1.0"?> <mime-info xmlns='http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info'> <mime-type type="application/x-vassal-module"> <comment>VASSAL module file</comment> <glob pattern="*.vmod"/> <generic-icon name="application-x-vassal"/> <sub-class-of type="application/zip"/> </mime-type> <mime-type type="application/x-vassal-log"> <comment>VASSAL log file</comment> <glob pattern="*.vlog"/> <generic-icon name="application-x-vassal"/> <sub-class-of type="application/zip"/> </mime-type> <mime-type type="application/x-vassal-save"> <comment>VASSAL save file</comment> <glob pattern="*.vsav"/> <generic-icon name="application-x-vassal"/> <sub-class-of type="application/zip"/> </mime-type> </mime-info> EOF -
Update the mime database
update-mime-database ${prefix}/share/mime
Create Desktop application
-
Create the directory to store the desktop entry in
mkdir -p ${prefix}/share/applications -
Change directory to that directory
cd ${prefix}/share/applications -
Create the desktop entry
cat <<EOF > application-x-vassal.desktop [Desktop Entry] Type=Application MimeType=application/x-vassal-module;application/x-vassal-log;application/x-vassal-save Name=VASSAL Exec=${VASSAL_DIR}/VASSAL.sh Icon=application-x-vassal Actions=Run;Edit; Categories=Games [Desktop Action Run] Name=Run Exec=${VASSAL_DIR}/VASSAL.sh -l %f [Desktop Action Edit] Name=Edit Exec=${VASSAL_DIR}/VASSAL.sh -e %f EOF -
Update the application database
update-desktop-database ${prefix}/share/applications
(Optionally) Add a launcher to the Desktop
-
Copy desktop entry to desktop directory
cp ${prefix}/share/applications/application-x-vassal.desktop ~/Desktop
Summary
After having done the above, you can now double-click any VASSAL file to open that file in VASSAL.
N.B.: If you open a save (.vsav) or log (.vlog), then VASSAL must know the corresponding module. Thus, you should have opened the corresponding module, at least once, in VASSAL before trying to open a save or log file from that module.
You do not need to do this integration if you upgrade VASSAL as long as the installation directory stays the same. This is why it is a good idea to unpack VASSAL in some directory and then have a symbolic link, with a fixed name a la current, point to the currently used version of VASSAL.
N.B.: The above sets up the VASSAL file types to be sub-classes of the ZIP file type, which means you should be able to easily extract or browse the content of the files with your default ZIP application.
System-wide