Pyshortcuts helps Python developers and users create shortcuts that will run python scripts and other applications. The shortcuts created can go onto the users desktop or into the Start Menu (for systems with Start Menus) or both.
Pyshortcuts works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux in the way that is most natural for each OS. On Windows, a Shortcut Link is created and placed on the users Desktop and in the Start Menu. On MacOS, a minimal but complete Application is created and placed on the users Desktop. On Linux a ".desktop" file is created and placed on the users Desktop (if that exists) and in $HOME/.local/share/applications (if that exists), which will often get presented in a Start Menu for windowing desktop themes that use a one. On all platforms, the shortcuts created on the Deskop or Start Menu can be put either directly onto the Desktop / Start Menu or in a sub-folder of the Desktop / Start Menu.
Special attention is given to Anaconda Python. On Windows, this means the
program linked to by the shortcut will be run in an Anaconda environment,
explicitly selecting the "base" environment even if that has not been
explicitly set. On MacOS, the shortcut will make sure to use the
python.app
application so that GUI programs will be able to draw to
properly draw to the screen.
By writing only to the users Desktop or application folder that gets read
by the Start Menu, there is no need for elevated permission and no writing
to system-level files (registry entries, /Applications, /usr/bin, etc).
After the shortcut has been created, the user has complete control to
rename, move, or delete it. Shortcuts can have a custom icon (.ico
files
on Windows or Linux, or .icns
files on MacOS) specified, defaulting to a
Python icon included with pyshortcuts.
Pyshortcuts is pure python, small, easy to install, and easy to use from a python script. This means that Pyshortcuts can be made part of an installation (or post-installation process) process for larger packages.
To install pyshortcuts
, use
pip install pyshortcuts
On Windows, pyshortcuts requires the pywin32 package and will be installed automatically if needed.
In order to use the pyshortcut GUI, the wxPython package is required.
Shortcuts can be created from a Python script with
from pyshortcuts import make_shortcut
make_shortcut('/home/user/bin/myapp.py', name='MyApp', icon='/home/user/icons/myicon.ico')
The arguments to the make_shortcut
function are:
script
(str) command to script to run. This can include command-line argumentsname
(str or None) name to use for shortcut [defaults to script name]description
(str or None) longer description of script [defaults toname
]icon
(str or None) path to icon file [defaults to python icon]folder
(str or None) folder on Desktop to put shortcut [defaults to Desktop]terminal
(bool) whether to run in a Terminal [True]desktop
((bool) whether to add shortcut to Desktop [True]startmenu
(bool) whether to add shortcut to Start Menu [True]executable
(str or None) name of executable to use [this Python]
Note that the Start Menu does not exist for MacOSX.
The executable
defaults to the version of Python executable used to make shortcut.
pyshortcuts also installs a pyshortcut
command-line program for creating a shortcut.
From a shell or Command window with PATH set to include python programs and scripts,
a command to create a shortcut might look like:
~> pyshortcut -n MyApp -i /home/user/icons/myicon.icns /home/user/bin/myapp.py
To include command-line options for the script, put them in double quotes
~> pyshortcut -n MyApp -i /home/user/icons/myicon.icns "/home/user/bin/myapp.py -t 10"
The pyshortcut
command line program has a form of
pyshortcut [-h] [-v] [-n NAME] [-i ICON] [-f FOLDER] [-e EXE] [-t] [-g] [-d] [-s] [-w] [scriptname]
where scriptname
is the name of the script. To include arguments to that
script, enclose the script name and arguments in quotes (double quotes on
Windows).
There are several optional arguments:
-
-h
,--help
show help message and exit -
-v
,--version
show program's version number and exit -
-n NAME
,--name=NAME
name for shortcut -
-i ICON
,--icon=ICON
name of icon file -
-f FOLDER
,--folder=Folder
subfolder on desktop to put icon -
-e EXE
,--executable EXE
name of executable to use (python) -
-t
,--terminal
run script in a Terminal Window [True] -
-g
,--gui
run script as a GUI, with no Terminal Window [False] -
-d
,--desktop
create desktop shortcut [True] -
-s
,--startmenu
create Start Menu shortcut [True] -
-w
,--wxgui
run GUI version of pyshortcut -
-b
,--bootstrap
create a desktop shortcut to run GUI version of pyshortcut
Note that running in the Terminal is True by default, which means that each
time the shortcut is used to lauch the program, a new Terminal or Command
window will be created for it. For many command-line applications, this is
appropriate. The extra Terminal or Command window may be unwanted for some GUI
applications, and can be disabled with the -g
or --gui
option.
In addition to the pyshortcut
command-line program, there is a small GUI
application that provides a simple form to help the user browse for script
and icons, and set options before creating a shortcut or generating an
example Python script to create the shortcut.
This requires the wxPython
package which can be installed using pip
or
conda
but is not automatically installed when installing pyshortcuts
.
This application can be launched from the command line with
~> pyshortcut --wxgui
Of course, that command might be the sort of command you might want to be able to launch by clicking on a desktop shortcut. We have just the tool for that! Doing
~> pyshortcut --bootstrap
will create a desktop shortcut with an icon of a ladder that will launch the pyshortcut GUI. This essentially runs
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
from pyshortcuts import make_shortcut, platform
bindir = 'Scripts' if platform.startswith('win') else 'bin'
pyshortcut = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(sys.prefix, bindir, 'pyshortcut'))
scut = make_shortcut(f"{pyshortcut:s} --wxgui", name='PyShortcut', terminal=False)
The ladder icon was made by Left Martinez, and downloaded from (https://www.iconfinder.com/iconsets/free-construction-tools)