Ubuntu – ‘.desktop’ file doesn’t show up in ‘ls’ command list

17.10desktopiconspermissions

I installed Visual Studio but it doesn't show the icon of the app. So I was following this to set an icon.

When I go into /usr/share/applications I see the .desktop file of Visual Studio Code . But as I don't have access I can't edit it. So I opened terminal and tried to open it with sudo gedit. So for that first I tried to check the name with ls. But it doesn't list down the icon.
Visual Studio Code in /usr/share/applications
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Why is that? How can I edit .desktop of vscode to set the icon?

Best Answer

Instead of editing the .desktop file located at /usr/share/applications/ (can cause many issues, will be overridden after an upgrade of the associated package) you can first copy the file and paste at ~/.local/share/applications/. Then edit the copied file using gedit, sudo is not required.

Why ls doesn't list down the file:
ls lists the actual filename.desktop whereas Nautilus shows the name of the application as per the Name= field in filename.desktop. These two can be different. Here in this case Name=Visual Studio Code in the filename.desktop, but filename may be something completely different.

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