Bug 465961

Summary:	KRunner can no longer find apps by their executable name
Product:	[Plasma] krunner	Reporter:	equeim
Component:	general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	normal	CC:	alexander.lohnau, david.cortes.rivera, mikel5764, nate, noahadvs, ydz
Priority:	NOR
Version:	5.27.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Fedora RPMs
OS:	Linux
URL:	https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2423
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description equeim 2023-02-17 20:15:39 UTC

SUMMARY
When searching for applications in applications menu, Plasma can no longer find them by their executable name (relevant in case executable name and Name key in app's desktop entry are not the same).

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Have system language set to one for which KSysGuard's desktop entry's Name key is not "KSysGuard" (such as Polish)
2. Type ksysguard in application menu search

OBSERVED RESULT
There is no search result for KSysGuard application.

EXPECTED RESULT
KSysGuard application is in the list of search results.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Fedora Linux 37
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This issue was not present in Plasma 5.26.2

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2023-02-21 23:33:22 UTC

I'm afraid this was an intentional change in Plasma 5.27. The feature produced tons of false positives and made people complain about the search results being weird. We ended up adding so many exceptions to it to fix those bugs that we realized the feature itself was flawed by design.

Comment 2 equeim 2023-02-23 18:28:25 UTC

Well. In that case I think that application names in their desktop entries not matching their actual names (for some of them it also depends on locale) should be treated as a bug.

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2023-02-23 21:08:17 UTC

What we've been doing on a case-by-case basis is adding the executable name into the app's list of keywords. We've now done for a few projects I can think of, including Info Center (kinfocenter) and Clock (kclock).

This is really easy to do, so when you encounter a case where this would be useful, please feel free to file a bug report for the app in question, or even better, a merge request. Adding a keyword to a .desktop file is something anyone can do. :) Could be a good contribution opportunity! I'd be happy to help you through the process of doing it for the first time, if you'd like.

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2023-04-04 20:12:10 UTC

*** Bug 467420 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5 Nate Graham 2023-04-04 20:29:27 UTC

*** Bug 467520 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***