cinnamon-session-properties

cinnamon-session-properties
This command typically opens a graphical user interface (GUI) window and is primarily intended for interactive use. It does not commonly accept command-line arguments for its core functionality.

--help
    Displays a help message and exits. For cinnamon-session-properties, this usually shows generic GTK/application options rather than specific command-line functionality.

--version
    Shows the program's version information and exits.

The cinnamon-session-properties command is a graphical utility within the Cinnamon desktop environment. It provides a user-friendly interface to manage applications that automatically start when a user logs into their Cinnamon session. Users can easily add new programs to launch at startup, remove existing ones, or modify the properties of autostart entries, including the command to be executed, its name, and a description. This tool is essential for customizing the user's desktop experience, streamlining their workflow, and optionally optimizing session startup times by controlling which applications load automatically. It serves as the Cinnamon-specific implementation of the functionality found in its GNOME predecessor, gnome-session-properties.

• This command is a graphical user interface (GUI) application and requires a running Cinnamon desktop environment and an active display server (e.g., Xorg or Wayland) to function. It will not work in a purely text-based terminal session or on a server without a graphical display.
• It primarily manages applications for the current user's session only. For system-wide services or applications that need to start before any user logs in, other tools like systemctl are used.
• The configurations made through this utility are typically stored as XDG Desktop Entry Specification files (`.desktop` files) in the user's ~/.config/autostart/ directory. Direct manual editing of these files is an alternative but less user-friendly method.

In a typical Cinnamon desktop setup, cinnamon-session-properties can be conveniently launched without using the command line. It is usually accessible through the main menu by navigating to Menu > Preferences > Startup Applications, or a similar path depending on the distribution and menu layout.

Changes made via cinnamon-session-properties are stored as individual `.desktop` files in the user's ~/.config/autostart/ directory. Each file defines a specific application to be launched at login, adhering to the XDG Desktop Entry Specification. This directory is the primary location for user-specific autostart configurations within XDG-compliant desktop environments.

cinnamon-session-properties emerged as a direct descendant of the gnome-session-properties utility. When the Cinnamon desktop environment was created as a fork of GNOME Shell, many core components, including the session properties manager, were adapted to fit Cinnamon's specific libraries, design philosophy, and user experience. Its development trajectory has closely mirrored that of its GNOME predecessor, focusing on providing a stable and intuitive graphical interface for managing per-user startup applications within the Cinnamon ecosystem.

gnome-session-properties(1): The equivalent tool in the GNOME desktop environment, from which Cinnamon forked., systemctl(1): A command-line utility for controlling the systemd system and service manager, used for system-wide services., xdg-autostart(7): Refers to the XDG Autostart Specification, which defines how desktop environments handle autostarting applications, implemented by tools like cinnamon-session-properties.