Ulauncher: An application launcher that makes Linux terminals more efficient

The Linux terminal is a powerful tool that allows you to perform a wide variety of tasks and commands. However, if you want to quickly launch or search for apps, files, websites, or other content, you may find the terminal not convenient and friendly enough. Is there an app launcher that allows you to easily access what you need in Terminal? The answer is yes, that is Ulauncher, which is a super practical application launcher in the Linux terminal.

Ulauncher: More than just an app launcher

Ulauncher is a completely free and open source application launcher for Linux-based operating systems. Written in Python, using the GUI GTK toolkit.

It is also simple, lightweight and can be used in almost all Linux desktop environments, such as GNOME, KDE and Xfce.

If you're using macOS, you'll find it familiar with the default Spotlight or popular third-party app launchers like Alfred.

Search for apps using Ulauncher

After installing and launching the app, you can use the default hotkey CTRL Space to activate it, which displays the input box to search for.

Search Application

The application provides instant search results by using fuzzy matching. This means that even if the app name you enter is misspelled, Ulauncher will show relevant results.

Fuzzy search

If you want Ulauncher to skip searching certain directories, you can add the absolute path of the directory to Blacklisted App Dirs.

Blacklist Application Directory

Search file system

In addition to application search, if you start typing with ~ or /, it will let you browse and navigate files and directories.

Search directory using Ulauncher

Use query or script shortcuts

Ulauncher also supports web search directly through its own input box. By default, it comes with three fallback searches and their shortcuts.

• g – Google
• so – Stack Overflow
• wiki – Wikipedia

Search network

Want to search for Linux fans or add shortcuts to your scripts? You can also create custom shortcuts for web searches or scripts.

Add custom shortcut

Change Color Theme

Ulauncher comes with four built-in themes: Adwaita, Elementary Light, Elementary Dark and Ubuntu.

Ubuntu theme

If you want to try more themes like Arc Dark, Mint-Y-Dark, Dracula, and Pop!_OS, you can find other people's contributions here.

To install a new theme, you just need to clone the repository to the ~/.config/ulauncher/user-themes/ directory.

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ git clone https://github.com/xiaoqixian/ulauncher-dracula-theme.git ~/.config/ulauncher/user-themes/ulauncher-dracula-theme
正克隆到 ‘/home/linuxmi/.config/ulauncher/user-themes/ulauncher-dracula-theme’…
remote: Enumerating objects: 13, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (13/13), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (10/10), done.
remote: Total 13 (delta 3), reused 13 (delta 3), pack-reused 0

Expanding objects: 100% (13/13), 55.95 KiB | 1.10 MiB/s, completed.

Like none of these themes? You can also create your own custom color theme by overwriting an existing one. You can follow the steps given here.

Use extensions to add functionality

To make Ulauncher more powerful and feature-rich, it allows adding extensions. An extension is basically a Python 3 program that runs alongside the application as a separate process.

You can use Ulauncher to add a large number of third-party extensions to directly perform more functions.

For example, timer for notification countdown, clipboard for copying data, SSH launcher.

How to install Ulauncher on Linux?

The easiest way to install Ulauncher is to download its Debian or RPM package and double-click to install it (if you have a GUI package installer). Alternatively, you can run the following command:

For Debian or Ubuntu based

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ sudo dpkg -i ulauncher_5.11.0_all.deb

For Fedora

sudo dnf install ./package-name

Ulauncher is also available in Arch Linux's AUR repository.

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/ulauncher.git && cd ulauncher && makepkg -is

In short, Ulauncher is a very excellent and practical Linux terminal application launcher, which allows you to quickly access or open applications, files, websites or other content. It is written in Python and GTK and supports multiple Linux distributions and desktop environments. If you want to try Ulauncher, you can download the corresponding installation package from its official website1, or install it using a package manager. If you have any suggestions or feedback about Ulauncher, please leave a message in the comment area. Thanks!

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