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["Stephen M. Webb" <stephen.webb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, when you ran the manually-installed version of Eclipse from within
Unity, a local .desktop file was created automatically.  This is a
requirement of being able to lock the application to the Launcher and
was implemented as a much-demanded feature.

When you manually removed that version of Eclipse, you did not manually
remove the automatically-created custom .desktop file.

When you launched the packaged version of Eclipse, it found the
automatically-created .desktop file and used that.  It would be a
serious error if the system were to automatically overwrite user-created
configuration files, so it did not do so.  When you locked that program
to the launcher, it did the right thing and used your custom .desktop
file, as documented and as required.

The real root of the problem is that there is a conflict between trying
to make Unity user-friendly (by automatically creating .desktop files
when you run software that does not provide one) and accommodating
advanced users who prefer to modify their configurations manually.
Since automatic removal of a manual configuration is considered a
greater error, we simply assume the advanced user knows what they are
doing and let them.

I'm marking this bug as invalid because the system is actually working
completely as designed.  In this case the problem can be resolved by
manually fixing the configuration (.desktop) files that are reserved for
the user, probably by removing them.

** Changed in: unity (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1296909

Title:
  What you lock to launcher is not what you get locked to launcher

Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  I downloaded Eclipse from here: https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/technology/epp/downloads/release/kepler/SR2/eclipse-standard-kepler-SR2-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
  which is a tar.gz, which I untarred into a custom folder, namely ~/Documents/programmi/eclipse, by placing the .tar.gz in ~/Documents/programmi and right clicking on it with Nautilus and doing "extract here".
  (~/Documents/programmi is not set up to be any special or privileged folder for programs, it's just a folder that I created inside Documents).

  Then I realized that was not the version of Eclipse I wanted, so I installed Eclipsed by running in a terminal:
  sudo apt-get install eclipse
  This created, among other things, a /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop file
  "which eclipse" outputs "/usr/bin/eclipse"

  When I type "eclipse" into a terminal, the one installed with apt-get will run, as expected.
  I slightly modified /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop so that UBUNTU_MENUPROXY would be used (to work around the menus-not-working bug), and when I run "eclipse" from a terminal, I can see the menu is affected by the change I made to the .desktop file, so the /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop file somehow "relates" to the executable that is run by writing just "eclipse" from a command line.

  When I wrote "eclipse" into the Dash, the one I had manually
  downloaded and unzipped would run, which is somewhat funny in itself,
  because I wonder how it "finds" the one that I have installed in an
  arbitrary folder and it doesn't find the one that has been installed
  with the package manager.

  Then I did the following:
  - run "eclipse" from a terminal (this would run the apt-get installed one)
  - right click on the icon on the launcher and choose "lock to launcher".
  - exit eclipse
  - click on the icon that has been created on the launcher

  Expected: should run the same thing that was running when I locked it to the launcher, which is what I run from a terminal typing "eclipse"
  Observed: it runs the one that I had manually downloaded and unzipped.

  Whatever is going on, there is an inconsistency here. If I run some
  program, whatever I run it from, and then lock its icon to the
  launcher, then clicking on that icon must load the program that was
  running when I locked that icon on the launcher, whatever that is. Not
  some other version that is installed somewhere else.

  Then I deleted the folder ~/Documents/programmi/eclipse altogether.
  Now the icon on the launcher does nothing. Even if I remove it (unlock
  from launcher), start "eclipse" again from a terminal (which runs
  /usr/bin/eclipse), lock it to the launcher again, exit it, even so
  when I later click on the launcher icon it will launch nothing (as if
  "looking for" the one that I deleted).

  And surprisingly, when I type "eclipse" into the Dash, it still
  "finds" the old one, or at least, it finds something that won't run if
  I click on it. Even after restarting the computer.

  The only file named eclipse.desktop in the entire filesystem is the
  one under /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

  
  It's as if by merely unzipping the .tar.gz file into an arbitrary non-standard folder, some kind of shortcut to it has been installed somewhere that allows it to be found when typing "Eclipse" into the Dash; even if I didn't install any package, just unzipped a .tar.gz file. Even after deleting the unzipped folder, that "link" somehow persists somewhere. It's crazy. And it even takes the place of the icon that I lock to Launcher when running /usr/bin/eclipse.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
  Package: unity 7.1.2+13.10.20131014.1-0ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-18.32-generic 3.11.10.4
  Uname: Linux 3.11.0-18-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.2
  Architecture: amd64
  CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
  Date: Mon Mar 24 20:08:39 2014
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (164 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
  MarkForUpload: True
  SourcePackage: unity
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to saucy on 2014-02-23 (29 days ago)

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