Install desktop file with setup py

Question

I have a python application that is supposed to be launchable via GUI so it has to have a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/. The application only supports Linux. Normally, pip installs all files in one directory but it is possible to specify other locations (e.g. the .desktop file) in the setup.py using data_files=[].

Is this a good solution in this case or is this something that should only happen in a distribution specific package (like .rpm/.deb/.ebuild)? Can anyone help me with this?

Answer 1

This looks like a good approach but perhaps instead of placing the .desktop file in the system wide /usr/share/applications/ folder, you could place the file in the users applications folder at ~/.local/share/applications.

This would also not require elevated permissions to access the root owned /user directory and it's sub-directories.