How to associate an icon with a shell script? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Apply icons to bash scripts

Environment: Ubuntu 11.10

I have a Java application as a jar file. I have created a batch file that contains the following line:

java -jar ~/MyApp.jar

When I execute this batch file, the Java application works as expected.

To create a desktop link, I copied this batch file into my "Desktop" folder. This results in an icon appearing on the desktop. However, the icon shows "Java" on it. I would like to associate a different icon to this desktop link. Would appreciate it if someone can point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

Try modifying your .desktop file. Look for the [Desktop Entry] for your java file and change the Icon value.

Making a "launcher" that will run your script will let you do this. Make a file called MyApp.desktop then edit it with a text editor like gedit.

Next paste this code into the file, changing the values for your program-

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=MyApp
Terminal=true
Exec=/usr/bin/MyApp.sh
Icon=/usr/share/icons/icon.icon

For Exec= put the path and name of your script file, for Icon put the location and name of the icon you want. For Terminal= put true or false if you want it to show the terminal or not.

This will give you a file that you can put anywhere, in the unity launcher, or on the desktop that you can run the script and it will have the icon you want.

On The newer versions of Ubuntu you will need to right click the file and select "allow launching".