---
name: "install-menu"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "menu"
version: "2.1.51"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/install-menu"
---

# install-menu(1)

Process a menu method and generate the menu files for a window manager or a menu-aware application.

## NAME

install-menu - Process a menu method and generate the menu files for a window manager or a menu-aware application.

## DESCRIPTION

**[update-menus(1)](/update-menus/1.md)** computes the list of menu entries and passes it in turn to the menu methods in */etc/menu-methods/*. The task of a menu methods is to generate menus for a specific window manager. **install-menu** provides a generic and customizable way to do that. The documentation of the **install-menu** definition language is available in the Debian Menu manual, a local copy being available in  **/usr/share/doc/menu/html.**

## SYNOPSIS

**install-menu \[-vh\] \[--remove\] \<menu-method\>**

Read menu entries from stdin in *update-menus --stdout* format and generate menu files using the specified menu-method.

Normally used in menu method scripts as *#! /usr/bin/install-menu*.

## OPTIONS

- \-h,--help

  Show the help message and exit.

- \--remove

  Remove the menu files instead of generating them.

- \-v,--verbose

  Output messages about what the program is doing.

## COPYING

**install-menu** is distributed under the term of the GNU General Public License version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

## AUTHOR

Written by Joost Witteveen \<joostje@debian.org\>. Now maintained by Bill Allombert \<ballombe@debian.org\>.

## SEE ALSO

[**update-menus**(1)](/update-menus/1.md), [**menufile**(5)](/menufile/5.md), **/usr/share/doc/menu/html**