Why we can't run commands with gnome shortcuts?

Question

When I make a custom shortcut with gnome (gnome-control-center keyboard) I can't set it to a command. Why?

Example: I can't set a shortcut for sudo apt-get update. Instead I must first invoke a graphical terminal, then bash, then execute the command (something like: gnome-terminal -e "bash -c \"sudo apt-get update ; exec bash\""

Also is there another (better) workaround?

Answer 1

You can. You've just shown you can! You can even simplify it a little:

gnome-terminal -x bash -c "sudo apt-get update"

It needs a terminal because it's interactive (because of sudo). If you just want to suppress the password request, you could edit your /etc/sudoers file so it doesn't require a password for apt-get. In my opinion, this isn't great because it might be abused.

For this command there is another option: Aptdaemon. This is what the Software Centre and Update Manager now use for permissions (it uses PolicyKit and it's designed on PackageKit). To update apt, just run:

aptdcon -c

That shouldn't require a password and if it does, it should be able to pop up a PolicyKit box without needing a terminal to be spawned.