"Find Target" for Any Linux Window Manager

When setting up computers for people or even just installing a few applications it can be very useful to right-click on a desktop icon and choose "find target" to immediately browse to the folder containing the application, for editing configuration files or to create launcher scripts. The script on this page can be saved in the /bin folder and given a name such as findtarget.sh and be sure to make it executable with chmod +x. If the window manager has a right-click open-with dialog, try and use that to open the icon with findtarget.sh and have it automatically browse to the installation folder. If not, simply put the desktop launcher on a desktop, preferably not right next to the trash, and drag and drop icons there.

Find Target Script (Put somewhere in $PATH, like /usr/bin)

#!/bin/bash
# findtarget.sh by Henry Kroll III www.thenerdshow.com
cmdline=$(awk '$1 ~/^Exec/{if($3=="wine"){xx=$2; sub(".* wine ",""); \
system(xx" winepath "$0)}else{sub("Exec=","");print $0}}' "$1")
if [ ${cmdline:0:1} == '/' ]; then
    folder=$(dirname "$cmdline")
else
    folder=$(dirname "`which $cmdline`")
fi
sel=`basename "$cmdline"`
#xterm -hold -e echo $1 $cmdline X $folder X $execu
#exit
case "$DESKTOP_SESSION" in
    kde)      konqueror --select "$folder/$sel";;
    gnome)    nautilus --browser --no-desktop "$folder";;
    xfce)     thunar "$folder";;
    *)        xterm -hold -e mc "$folder";;
esac

Desktop Launcher (Save as findtarget.desktop and then Drag and Drop icons onto it)

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Find Target
Comment=View icon target folder
GenericName=View icon target folder
Type=Application
Exec=findtarget.sh %F
Icon=/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/96x96/mimetypes/folder-apps.png
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Categories=TextEditor;Development;GTK;
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.14

This page edited using the CMS I wrote for the Anchorage Net Community Hosting project.