Rename a program systemwide - how?

[jsfarinet]

I'd like to send claw-mails *ALWAYS* through a proxy (by

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proxychains4 claws-mail

Now, how could that be done, systemwide (and upgrade proof)? I could change the lines in /usr/share/applications or $HOME/.local/ but that would be overwritten after any upgrade i presume ... (?) What i think of is something like a systemwide "equation" claws-mail = proxychains4 claws-mail. Does there exist such option?

TIA

[mimosa]

Salix is not a rolling release distribution, so you probably needn't worry about anything like that getting clobbered. As to how to do it, I'm not sure, but if you find you can't do it in the sort of way you indicate, there's nothing to stop you writing a little script and getting whatever menu item points to claws-mail to call that instead. The script could go in /usr/local/bin, which is on your $PATH.

[jsfarinet]

Yep, that's it. Thanks. (As for the update: I think any application update will overwrite /usr/share/applications/<prgrname> ... (?)

[DidierSpaier]

As for the update: I think any application update will overwrite /usr/share/applications/<prgrname> ... (?)

Yes. You can copy /usr/share/applications/claws-mail.desktop to ~/.local/share/applications and modify the Exec entry, but this will work only for one user and if you start the application from the menu. If you want to have that for each user that you will create afterwards you will need to copy the edited file to /etc/skel/.local/share/applications instead.

But as mimosa pointed out, Salix is not a rolling release, so that could be an overkill

[laprjns]

Not sure that it satifies your "system wide' requirment but you could use an alias in your users .bashrc file

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alias claws="proxychains4 claws-mail"

[laprjns]

You can create a new desktop file in /usr/share/application. Just copy the existing claw-mail.desktop file, rename it to something like proxy-claws-mail.desktop and edit the new file to change the Exec line to "proxychains4 claws-mail %u" It should look like this:

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Exec=proxychains4 claws-mail %u

Also change the Name line to something like this:

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Name=Proxy Claws Mail

[jsfarinet]

@laprjns Thanks a lot for your advice! Ithink a can use both ...

PS. In the alias statement for .bashrc, i think the original call for claws mail is 'claws-mail' and not 'claws'. So, should i simply right it or put it between ' ' ?

[mimosa]

It makes sense to use a different name, so you can still call the application in its vanilla form. But I think it works not to do so, for instance, I have

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mimosa[~]$ cat .bash_aliases
alias ls="ls --color"

[jsfarinet]

Btw, what' s the call in your bashrc to pull in the statements in .bash_aliases?

[mimosa]

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mimosa[~]$ cat .bashrc
export PS1='\u[\W]\$ '
export PAGER=/usr/bin/most
export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
        . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

I think this is the default .bashrc. But you can add those directly to .bashrc if you like, the effect is the same. This way is just tidier if you have a lot of customisations.