Plasma/Krunner
KRunner es un lanzador construido sobre el escritorio Plasma. Si bien su función básica es lanzar programas desde una especie de línea de comandos, sus funcionalidades pueden ser extendida por los llamados "runners" que ayudan al usuario a lograr hacer una gran cantidad de tareas.
Características
Lamentablemente esta lista está incompleta y solo se presentan algunos ejemplos básicos del uso de KRunner. Descubre mas haciendo click en el icono '?' en KRunner.
Iniciar y terminar aplicaciones
Puedes iniciar programas escribiendo simplemente el nombre de la aplicación que quieras abrir. Necesitas escribir como mínimo tres caractéres para empezar a buscar coincidencias. Las coincidencias serán encontradas en tu menú de aplicaciones.
Ejemplos:
| Entrada | Salida |
gwe |
(starts Gwenview) |
Puedes usar KRunner para matar aplicaciones también. Escribe en el teclado kill seguido del nombre del proceso y KRunner mostrará varias opciones para cerrar la aplicación (SIGTERM) o matarla forzosamente (SIGKILL). KRunner buscará nombres de procesos parciales (a partir de tres caracteres) para ejecutar los procesos.
Nota que el comando kill puede ser cambiado en el runner "Terminar aplicaciones" para avoler la confusión del comando kill el cual acepta las ID de los procesos.
Problemas de los comandos
Además para los programas listados en el menú de las aplicaciones, KRunner puede se usado para ejecutar comandos de la consola, incluyendo lanzadores binarios. Observa que cuando introduces un comando, KRunner no acepta comandos parciales u ofrece un autocompletado de los comandos.
En la ejecución de un comando aparece un icono de llave inglesa que permite elegir opciones adicionales. Puedes optar por ejecutar el comando en una ventana de terminal e iniciarlo allí (eso puede ser útil si el comando produce una salida de texto que usted desea leer), o ejecutar el programa como un usuario diferente (introduciendo el nombre de usuario y la contraseña de este usario).
Ejemplos:
| Entrada | Salida |
ls ~/Documentos |
lista de contenidos de ~/Documentos (preferentemente un terminal) |
cp ~/Documentos/miArchivo ~/miArchivo |
copia miArchivo desde ~/Documentos a ~/ |
mplayer miVídeo.mkv |
reproduce miVídeo.mkv en mplayer |
De paso, si la línea de comandos es lo tuyo, podrías apreciar la integración con las páginas de ayuda (man). Simplemente escribe un comando precedido por # para abrir la página de ayuda en formato web para una fácil lectura desde tu navegador.
Ejemplos:
| Entrada | Salida |
#ls |
abre el manual para ls en un navegador |
Buscar páginas web
Usted puede simplemente comenzar escribiendo la URL del sitio web que desea abrir en su navegador predeterminado. Puede incluso escribir el nombre de un marcador de Konqueror y KRunner lo abrirá para ti. Si has visitado una página web en el pasado, KRunner también puede buscar los resultados desde el historial de tu navegador.
Ejemplos:
| Entrada | Salida |
miMarcador |
abre el marcador en un navegador |
kde.org |
abre la página de inicio de KDE en un navegador |
http://userbase.kde.org/ |
abre Userbase en un navegador |
KRunner conoce los atajos de teclado de Konqueror, por lo que puedes utilizarlos directamente.
Ejemplos:
| Entrada | Salida |
gg:KDE |
busca en Google KDE |
wp:krunner |
busca en Wikipedia krunner |
KRunner además ofrece opciones para descargar archivos desde una web utilizando KGet escribiendo la URL.
Existen runners adicionales para una búsqueda rápida en Wikipedia, Wikitravel y KDE Techbase.
Abrir archivos, carpetas y dispositivos
KRunner puede además abrir archivos y directorias en tu equipo local. Si desea buscar equipos remotos, puedes hacerlo también. Prestad atención como KRunner usa kioslaves para ssh (fish:) y samba (smb:).
Ejemplos:
| Entrada | Salida |
file:/home/ |
opens file:///home/ (el directorio Home) en Dolphin |
file:miVídeo.mkv |
abre /home/miVídeo.mkv |
fish:you@server.com |
abre fish:/you@server.com/ vía fish (archivo sobre protocolo ssh) |
smb:miCarpetadeWindows |
abre smb:/miCarpetadeWindows vía Samba |
If you don't know the path to a file, simply type the name of the file. If the file is a recently opened document, KRunner will list it for you. If you have the Nepomuk subsystem installed, you can also search your computer for the file by its indexed contents. KRunner will also open folders you've bookmarked in Dolphin (in your Places sidebar) if you type their name in. What's more, if you want to access devices on your system (both mounted and unmounted), you can do that, too. KRunner will even provide device-specific options.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
Home |
opens the Home directory in Dolphin |
myFlashDrive |
shows options to mount or open the contents of myFlashDrive |
Multitask with sessions, windows, desktops and activities
Several KDE applications allow you to save and load sessions. KRunner allows you to launch these sessions. You can either type in the name of the application or directly type in the name of the session. Runners exist for opening sessions saved in Kate, Konqueror, Konsole, etc.
KRunner is a multitasker's dream. If you have too many windows open, just type in the title of the window and switch directly to it. You can similarly type in the name of a virtual desktop and switch directly to it. If you roll with activities, switch activities by typing their name in. KRunner will find a match as soon as you type three characters in.
KRunner will even switch desktop sessions for you. Type in the keyword switch or new session to start a separate X session. You can switch back and forth between sessions by using the switch keyword.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
Desktop 1 |
switches the virtual desktop to Desktop 1 |
myWorkActivity |
switches the activity to myWorkActivity |
switch |
shows options to switch to an existing session or start a new one |
Several plasma widgets can be launched as windowed applications. You can simply type the name of a widget and KRunner will launch a window for you.
Talk to people
Type in the name of a contact in your KAddressBook to get a list of options to contact them. Typing in an email address into KRunner will open a KMail composer window. You can also search through contacts in your Kopete contact list.
The addressbook and kopete runners don't seem to be working in SC 4.8.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
kde@mail.kde.org |
compose a mail to the KDE mailing list |
myContact |
show options to contact myContact |
Listen to some music
You can control any modern audio player such as Amarok using KRunner. You can use several keywords (all configurable) to play, pause or skip songs. Typing in the name of an artist, album or song that is in Amarok's library will let you either play immediately, play next (queue) or play at the end (append) of the current playlist. You can use keywords to increase or decrease the volume of the player, or even to mute or quit it.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
play song search |
plays a song immediately |
pause |
pauses Amarok or your designated music player |
next |
plays next song in playlist |
Be on time
You can get the current date or time by typing in the keywords date or time. Selecting the result will copy it to your clipboard so you can paste it elsewhere. The format of the date and time respects your system settings.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
date |
Today's date is ... |
time |
The current time is ... |
You can even get the date and time at another location by specifying the time zone or the city listed in the TZ database.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
time UTC |
The current time in UTC is ... |
time oslo |
The current time in Europe/Oslo is ... |
time kolkata |
The current time in Asia/Kolkata is ... |
There is a runner for interfacing with Korganizer and fetching events, but it doesn't seem to be working in SC 4.8.
Calculator
KRunner features a very versatile calculator that can be called by starting or ending a calculation with an = sign. In addition to basic arithmetic, you can call scientific functions like sqrt(), sin(), log(), etc. A list of the supported functions is here. Note that trigonometric functions like sin(), cos(), etc expect the angle in radians. KRunner understands pi in expressions.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
32*12 = |
384 |
= sqrt(4) + 32*sin(30*pi/180) |
18 |
KRunner can also handle symbolic mathematics and perform integration and differentiation on expressions
Examples:
| Input | Output |
= integrate( -x/y^2, y ) |
-x/y |
diff( log(x) ) = |
1/x |
You can also use KRunner to solve polynomial functions to find its roots.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
= solve( x^2 + 4*x - 21 = 0 ) |
[3, -7] |
KRunner intelligently handles units as part of the calculations. Try the following examples to see how.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
= 2.5 kg * 10 m/s^2 |
25 N |
220 V / 10 A = |
22 ohms |
Since KRunner understands most units, you can use it to convert them very quickly. Note that unit conversions don't require an = sign.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
30 F |
-1.11111 degrees C (°C), 273.039 K, ... |
27.8 km |
1.09449e+06 inches (in), 17.2742 miles (mi), ... |
5 gallons in liters |
18.9271 liters (l) |
KRunner knows currencies, too. Conversions between currencies is done by fetching the exchange rate from the European Central Bank website.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
1 dollar |
0.657002 pounds sterling (GBP), 0.742501 euros (EUR), ... |
125 euros |
110.606 pounds sterling (GBP), 15,785 yen (JPY), ... |
30 JPY in RUB |
9.40731 rubles (RUB) |
Go places
If you have bookmarked locations in the Marble (in OpenStreetMap), KRunner can open the map directly.
Spell checking and special characters
KRunner can tell you whether your spelling is correct and/or suggest corrections. The default keyword to start the spellchecker is spell and can be configured.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
spell linux |
Suggested words: Linux, lynx, ... |
KRunner can also allow you to pick special characters if you can specify the hexadecimal unicode for the character, preceded by a # sign.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
#03b2 |
β |
#00b1 |
± |
Manage your computer
You can directly open system settings control modules from KRunner. Often, if you want to change something, just type associated terms and KRunner will find the control module with the settings you want.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
keyboard |
opens the Keyboard settings control module |
fonts |
opens the fonts settings control module |
password |
opens the Password & User account control module |
KRunner can also be used to adjust the screen brightness by using the keywords "screen brightness". You can specify a percentage or just turn the brightness halfway or fully down. Additionally, keywords exist to suspend, logout, shutdown or restart your machine.
Examples:
| Input | Output |
screen brightness 100 |
increases screen brightness to 100% |
sleep |
suspends computer to RAM |
lock |
locks the screen |
Usage
Open KRunner
The easiest way to open KRunner is to trigger its global shortcut (Alt+F2, by default). In some activities (e.g. Desktop), you can simply click on the desktop and start typing. In others (e.g. Search and Launch), KRunner may be built into the activity itself.
You can also right-click on your plasma workspace and select or just simply launch it from the commandline by typing krunner.
Use KRunner
Use Tab or Shift+Tab to navigate up and down results. Use arrow keys to move between options (if any) in a result. Use Enter (or left click) to select a result.
Discover KRunner
Click on the wrench icon to bring up configuration options where you can enable/disable/configure runners that will process your searches. Additional options are available to change the position on the screen where krunner appears. You can even change the style to a task-oriented interface, if you like.
Clicking on the waveform icon will open the System Monitor.
Clicking on the '?' icon opens a scrollable list that explains the syntax of all the available runners. This is a good way to discover new functionality!
Tips, Tricks and FAQs
You can use KRunner in a special "single runner" mode. While in this mode, krunner will only have one active runner to process your searches. This feature isn't supported by all runners, but quite a few already do. Open the global keyboard shortcuts control module directly from krunner and choose the "Run Command Interface" to see what's available. Set a global shortcut for the mode you want and launch krunner in that mode. You can have as many modes as you can find shortcuts for. 
This blog covers some of the advanced usage of the calculator runner.