Icons

Icons

Print icon style name

Module type	icons
Default order	25 (only used by --gen-config)
Module source	src/modules/icons/icons.c
Detection source	src/detection/icons/

The module answers two different questions depending on the platform: on Linux and the BSDs it names the icon theme the desktop is configured with, and on Windows it lists the desktop icons that are currently shown. Both are reported as two pre-grouped strings, printed as one line separated by , :

Icons: This PC, Recycle Bin

The first part is only printed when it is non-empty, so a Windows machine that shows none of the first group's icons prints just the second part — and a machine that shows nothing at all prints nothing (see Pitfalls).

The split between the two strings is fixed by the backend, not by the module: on Windows the first string carries This PC and User's Files, the second one Remote Network, Recycle Bin and Control Panel; on Linux the first string is the Qt/Plasma theme and the second the merged GTK themes. There is no option that changes the grouping.

Platform support

Platform	Implementation	Notes
Linux	icons_linux.c	Qt/Plasma and GTK2/3/4 settings
Android	icons_linux.c	Same code; needs a display server
FreeBSD	icons_linux.c	Same code
NetBSD	icons_linux.c	Same code
OpenBSD	icons_linux.c	Same code
Solaris / illumos	icons_linux.c	Same code
Haiku	icons_nosupport.c	Not supported
GNU/Hurd	icons_linux.c	Same code as Linux
macOS	icons_nosupport.c	Not supported
Windows	icons_windows.c	Registry, HideDesktopIcons

macOS and Haiku are the two platforms where the module is a stub: both keep the module registered and report the standard Not supported on this platform message, which is silent unless display.showErrors is on.

Configuration

The module defines no keys of its own: option.h contains nothing but the shared FFModuleArgs.

Key	Type	Default	Description
key	string	module name	Module key. A single space hides the key and the separator.
keyColor	color	–	Overrides display.color.keys
keyIcon	string	built-in glyph	Printed when display.key.type includes the icon bit. Any glyph works; "" prints none.
keyWidth	integer	–	Overrides display.key.width
outputColor	color	–	Overrides display.color.output
format	string	–	Custom output format (see below)
condition	object	–	Show the module only if the conditions match

Format string

Run fastfetch -h icons-format for the authoritative list.

Variable	Description
{icons1}	First group (Qt theme on Linux, This PC / User's Files on Windows)
{icons2}	Second group (merged GTK themes on Linux, the remaining desktop icons on Windows)

Neither variable exists in the key format: ffPrintLogoAndKey() parses key with {index}, {icon} and {module-name} only, so "key": "{icons1}" prints a literal {icons1}. Two further details of the shared format engine matter here:

• An unknown placeholder is copied verbatim, conditional syntax included. A key of "[{?index}I{index}{?}][{?icons1}A{icons1}{?}]" prints [][{?icons1}A{icons1}{?}].
• A conditional treats an empty string as unset. formatArgSet() counts a string argument as set only when its length is non-zero, so {?icons1}…{?} is the right way to suppress the separator when the first group is empty on Windows.

JSON output

[
    {
        "type": "Icons",
        "result": {
            "icons1": "This PC",
            "icons2": "Recycle Bin"
        }
    }
]

Both fields are always present; an empty group is "". The two strings are exactly the ones the default line joins, so no re-splitting is needed. A detector error — including the Linux "nothing found" and Windows "everything hidden" cases — produces { "type": "Icons", "error": "…" } with no result.

Examples

// The second group alone, which on Windows is the icon set most people care about
{ "type": "icons", "format": "{icons2}" }

// Mark the two groups instead of relying on the "', '" the default line inserts
{ "type": "icons", "format": "{?icons1}{icons1}{?}{?icons2} + {icons2}{?}" }

Pitfalls

• On Windows the module reports the opposite of what the registry stores. The five values under HideDesktopIcons are hide flags (a non-zero value means the icon is hidden), and the module lists the icons whose flag is 0, i.e. the ones currently shown. Reading the registry by hand to compare gives inverted results.
• On Windows the built-in defaults are the "fresh install" state, not "nothing shown". When the key does not exist the module assumes Windows' own defaults — This PC, User's Files, Remote Network and Control Panel hidden, Recycle Bin shown — and answers Recycle Bin without reading a single value. A machine whose desktop has been customised before the key was created is not distinguishable from a fresh one.
• On Windows, when all five icons are hidden the module reports an error instead of an empty line. The message is All icons are hidden (silent unless display.showErrors is on), and the JSON path returns an error field rather than ""/"". Note that this includes the Recycle Bin, whose default is "shown": hiding only the Recycle Bin leaves the other four defaults in place, so the "all hidden" branch is reached exactly when every one of the five is hidden.
• On Windows the module is about desktop icons, not an icon theme. The registry description ("Print icon style name") describes the Linux behaviour; on Windows there is no theme to read, and the module answers a different question with the same two-string shape.
• On Linux a TTY session is an error, not an empty result. The module reports Icons aren't supported in TTY and prints nothing, rather than falling back to the GTK settings that may well be configured.
• On Linux the Qt and GTK themes are read from different places and can disagree. {icons1} holds only the Qt/Plasma theme (with a [Qt] label appended), while {icons2} is the GTK2/GTK3/ GTK4 merge produced by the shared ffParseGTK() helper. When all three GTK themes are equal the label is [GTK2/3/4], and combinations such as [GTK2/3], … [GTK4] are possible — so {icons2} is a labelled fragment, not a bare theme name. Nothing reconciles the two groups.
• On Linux nothing is printed when the GTK and Qt probes all come up empty, unless display.showErrors is on, where the message is No icons could be found.
• The GTK/Qt probes are cached, and re-read on every --dynamic-interval round. They live in the FFcache layer, whose entries are dropped at each round boundary, so switching the icon theme is visible on the next round without restarting fastfetch.
• ffPrintError() writes to stdout. With display.showErrors: true an error line is printed before the JSON array, so the run is no longer parseable. Keep showErrors off in anything that pipes the JSON output.

Implementation

ffPrintIcons() and ffGenerateIconsJsonResult() each call ffDetectIcons() on a two-string result and then do nothing but serialise it — the join in the print path is {icons1} + ", " (only when {icons1} is non-empty) + {icons2}. The detection layer is not cached, but the GTK/Qt layer it depends on is.

Windows

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel is tried first, then …\ClassicStartMenu. Five named values are read into variables that start out at Windows' defaults — ThisPC = 1, UsersFiles = 1, RemoteNetwork = 1, RecycleBin = 0, ControlPanel = 1 — and an unreadable value keeps its default. The value names are the well-known shell GUIDs (written here in lower case):

Value name	Icon
{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}	This PC
{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}	User's Files
{f02c1a0d-be21-4350-88b0-7367fc96ef3c}	Remote Network
{645ff040-5081-101b-9f08-00aa002f954e}	Recycle Bin
{5399e694-6ce5-4d6c-8fce-1d8870fdcba0}	Control Panel

icons1 is assembled from the two 0 flags of the first group, icons2 from the three of the second, each with a trailing , that is trimmed afterwards.

Linux, Android, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, GNU/Hurd

The display-server result is consulted first: a TTY session aborts. Otherwise the Qt/Plasma icon theme goes into icons1 with a [Qt] suffix, and icons2 is built by the shared ffParseGTK() helper from the GTK2, GTK3 and GTK4 icon themes. When all four sources are empty the module reports No icons could be found.