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I want to use some applications shown on the Unity Launcher in a terminal, but I need to know the appropriate command to run them. How can I achieve that?

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Can you please describe your question little bit more! – Basharat Sial Apr 27 '12 at 16:27
Thru System Settings, I configured the launcher to auto-hide and to come back when mouse is in the left upper corner. But then I coudn't activate the launcher, and I needed to start the System Settings again to revert it, and I was with terminal open. But how is the command for System Settings (and other items in the launcher)? – Sony Santos Apr 27 '12 at 18:40

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Most default applications will have a .desktop file located in /usr/share/appliciations.

To find out about the corresponding terminal command that will be run when launching one of these applications open the file browser Nautilus and right click on the application's icon to select Properties in the context menu. This will give you all details you need (shown here for System Settings that will run gnome-control-center -overview)

enter image description here

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Oh, that's exactly what I want! Thank you! – Sony Santos Apr 28 '12 at 10:17
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First, open Synaptic by running synaptic in the terminal. Type the name of the app in the quick filter box. For an example, I'll use LibreOffice Writer. Type the name of the app in the Synaptic filter: enter image description here

It appears as the first installed result (little green box), with the full package name libreoffice-writer in the first column.

Now, try running libreoffice-writer in the terminal. Sometimes the package will run, but in this case it doesn't work: enter image description here

Now, if you look back at Synaptic, you will see that the very first result is the libreoffice package. You could just run libreoffice in the terminal, in which case you get this window: enter image description here

Or, you could type man libreoffice in the terminal. If you look at the these two screenshots: enter image description here enter image description here

You can see that to directly launch LibreOffice Writer, you can use one of two commands: lowriter or libreoffice --writer. Both work equally well.

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That's very interesting. Ubuntu 12.04 hasn't synaptic, but it has software-center (whose name I found using it itself). But I coudn't find the System Settings, which I discovered to be gnome-control-center thru the PS way. +1 anyway. – Sony Santos Apr 27 '12 at 18:59
Synaptic can be installed by running sudo apt-get install synaptic in terminal. It was removed at the 11.10 release. It is such a fantastic program, such a shame that they removed it from the official install. – Ryan McClure Apr 27 '12 at 19:19
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Can't you just start them from the launcher, then figure out with ps or top their name/path ? or did I misunderstand the question?

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This technique works when the launcher is available (I didn't mention it in my question, sorry :)). Anyway, I tested it and I found it useful to find the command with ps -AF and maximized terminal. +1. – Sony Santos Apr 27 '12 at 18:55
This way is more generic and easier to find what I want (according the question). Thank you! – Sony Santos Apr 27 '12 at 19:02

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