This is an old revision of the document!
xfce4-verve-plugin - Verve
The Verve panel plugin is a comfortable command line plugin for the Xfce panel
Features
. The Verve plugin supports several nice features, such as:
- Opens URLs, e-mail addresses, directories, and programs
- Command history
- Auto-completion (including command history)
- Focus grabbing via D-BUS (so you can bind a shortcut to it)
- Custom input field width
New features in version 1.1.0:
- Ability to use the verve plugin to run smart bookmarks instead of commands
- Support for tilde and variable expansion in directory paths
- Support for running “normal” commands through your default shell (to expand variables and aliases)
- Ability to direct command beginning with ! or \ to DuckDuckGo
- Optional label (screenshot below)
Usage
Once added to the panel, you can use the following keys to control Verve:
TAB
to iterate through auto-completion entriesUP
andDOWN
arrows to iterate through the command historyCTRL+ENTER
to run a command in a terminal emulatorESC
to clear your input
If you want to launch URLs or eMail addresses using Verve, just paste them into the input field and press ENTER
.
Focus Grabbing
Verve installs a script named verve-focus
which can be used to bind a keyboard shorcut for Verve to grab the focus. To do so, you first need to open the Xfce settings manager:
xfce-setting-show
Once the dialog has appeared, chose Keyboard. In the next dialog, select the Shortcuts tab and add a shortcut for verve-focus
.
After this, Verve should grab the focus and start blinking whenever you press this shortcut. To stop the blinking, just type something (like a command or something else) or click on it with the mouse.
Screenshots
Verve in normal state
Verve blinking after grabbing the focus
Auto-completion
Version 1.1.0 config dialog
Required Packages
- libpcre
Optional Packages
- wordexp (for tilde and variable expansion in directory paths)
For detailed information on the minimum required versions, check the configure.ac.in file.
verve-focus is no longer supported in the GTK 3 version of xfce4-verve-plugin, due to changes in libraries related to dbus. (Let me know if you can contribute a patch to bring it back!)
Latest Release
2.0 (2018/04/15)
- xfce4-verve-plugin 2.1.0 released (2025/05/20 10:44)xfce4-verve-plugin 2.1.0 is now available for download from https://archive.xfce.org/src/panel-plugins/xfce4-verve-plugin/2.1/xfce4-verve-plugin-2.1.0.tar.xz https://archive.xfce.org/src/panel-plugins/xfce4-verve-plugin/2.1/xfce4-verve-plugin-2.1.0.tar.xz?sha1 https://archive.xfce.org/src/panel-plugins/xfce4-verve-plugin/2.1/xfce4-verve-plugin-2.1.0.tar.xz?sha256 What is xfce4-verve-plugin? =========================== The Verve panel plugin is a plugin for the Xfce panel. It supports several nice features, such as: - Command history - Auto-completion (including command history) - Open URLs and e-mail addresses in your favorite applications - Expansion of variables in directory names with wordexp, and variable and alias support in commands by running them through current shell - Optional support for sending ! and \ queries to DuckDuckGo - Configurable foreground and background colors - Custom input field width Website: https://docs.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce4-verve-plugin Release notes for 2.1.0 ======================= Meson has been added as a build system in this release, and the associated archive has been generated by 'meson dist'. Although autotools has been retained for the time being and can still be used via 'autogen.sh', meson is now the preferred build system, and autotools will be removed in a future release. - Update README after switchover to meson - build: Automate copyright year management - Add meson build - Add about dialog - build: Remove unused verve-dbus-service code - Replace deprecated exo with libxfce4ui 4.21.0 - Fix libxfce4panel include
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
- Reporting Bugs – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs