RFC: deprecate and drop %suse_update_desktop_file

15 Jul 2024

      In 2003, the upstream desktop files translation had a bad quality, as
well as desktop tree menu. To prevent ugly and half translated desktop
menu, SuSE Linux (actually Novell Linux Desktop 9) introduced the
%suse_update_desktop_file macro. It was even mandatory many years ago,
and even now it is still recommended in the documentation.[1]

This macro does:
- Provides SUSE specific desktop translations that don't sync with the upstream.
- Provides SUSE specific modification of desktop Categories that don't
sync with the upstream.
- Provides SUSE specific modifications of Name, GenericName or Comment
that don't sync with the upstream.

Nowadays, upstream translations got another 20 years of development.
Also Desktop Categories specification[2] was updated, and the upstream
specification now covers all aspects of former X-SuSE -* Categories
extensions.

Additionally, the whole concept of %suse_update_desktop_file
completely contradicts our policy "Upstream first"[3].

Keeping things as they are, even introduces regressions of the menu
and its translation, as nobody updates these texts that diverged from
the upstream 20 years ago.

That is why I think that %suse_update_desktop_file is now completely
obsolete, and it just adds a huge amount of the downstream translation
work. We should either upstream it or drop it.

If it still brings improvement to the upstream desktop file, it should
be sent to the upstream. If it provides a regression, it should be
dropped. If it adds obsolete X-SuSE-* desktop Categories instead of
modern specification compliant ones, it should be dropped.

Current status:
%suse_update_desktop_files is used in Factory for 1052 desktop files
in 859 packages. It means 3156 strings translation and 1052 desktop
files that need to be checked. All of them introduce translatability
in the Weblate project [4], some of them modify Categories,
GenericName, Comment or even Name (i. e. the application has different
names in openSUSE and the upstream (for example: "GNU Image
Manipulation Program" is "GIMP" in openSUSE Leap).

In summary, it generates a huge amount of translators' work. 1,377,072
words to be translated in sum for supported languages! And most of
them just duplicate the upstream translation effort.

My plan:
1) Modify %suse_update_desktop_file:
  a) Whenever %suse_update_desktop_file performs a real change, the
user will be warned and asked to review it and send it to the
upstream.
  b) Whenever %suse_update_desktop_file adds obsolete Categories, the
user should be warned.
  c) Whenever %suse_update_desktop_file modifies existing upstream
data (Name, GenericName, Comment, existing translations), the user
should be warned.
2) Indicate packages, where %suse_update_desktop_file is the only way
to translate the desktop. It could be valid for some YaST packages and
maybe more. Change them to use the standard way to translate packages
in the upstream, e. g. translations as part of the code in the Git
repository. Or, if the desktop file is introduced in the spec file (e.
g. firefox), create a substitute for update-desktop-files.
3) Turn everything above into an error.
4) Remove %suse_update_desktop_file completely.
5) Drop update-desktop-files package[5] and desktop-file-translations
in Weblate[4]

References:
[1] https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Packaging_Conventions_RPM_Macros#%suse_upda...
[2] https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html
[3] https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Packaging_Patches_guidelines#When_to_send_t...
[4] https://l10n.opensuse.org/projects/desktop-file-translations/
[5] https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/openSUSE:Factory/update-desktop-file...

Stanislav Brabec

Matěj Cepl

Stanislav Brabec

Kristýna Streitová

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participants (3)