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Flimm
Asked: 2025-01-29 22:13:45 +0800 CST

How do I get the localized title of a package? eg: "LibreOffice Writer", not "libreoffice-writer"

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I want to get the pretty localized names of APT packages, such as "LibreOffice Writer" (and not libreoffice-writer). I'm writing a script that needs this information.

I can get the localized description of a package using a command like apt show libreoffice-writer. However, it does not show the localized title of the package. I can only find libreoffice-writer as a name, I can't find LibreOffice Writer in any of the fields that apt show prints.

I know that this localized name is stored somewhere. Ubuntu's Update Manager is retrieving this name from somewhere, as you can see in this screenshot:

Screenshot

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I found the code in Update Manager that retrieves the title of a package. It turns out, it tries to find a corresponding .desktop file for a package, in order to find the localized title of the package.

    Here's how I proved it to myself. I edited the libreoffice-writer.desktop file to change its name, like this:

    sudo desktop-file-edit --set-name 'LibreOffice Writer Foobar' /usr/share/applications/libreoffice-writer.desktop

    Now, when I open the update manager, I can see that the name it uses has been modified to the name I chose ("LibreOffice Writer Foobar"):

    Screenshot of Update Manager

    You can find this code in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UpdateManager/Core/UpdateList.py .

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