Every time I update Libreoffice, I have to change my startup command lines.
For example, I just updated Libreoffice from 25.2.3 —> 25.8.2. In Cairo-Dock, I had to change the startup command line from ‘libreoffice25.2 --writer’ to ‘libreoffice25.8 --writer’. This also has to be done in multiple Menu entries in ALA Carte for ‘–writer’ & ‘–calc’.
Is there a simple invocation to start Libreoffice and ensure it starts with the latest release ? Something like ‘libreoffice --writer’ or ‘libreoffice --calc’
ogra@anubis:~$ which libreoffice
/usr/bin/libreoffice
ogra@anubis:~$
How did you install your libreoffice ?
The .deb based install from the archive definitely has no versioning in the binary name …
If you installed it somewhat different (snap, flatpak, appimage) you should talk to the packager to change it to have a proper executable without versioning …
As an interim solution you could simply create a wrapper shellscript that you call from your desktop entries that first looks for the correct name and then executes the respective app …
@mikegreen8: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think what you mean by ‘.deb install’ means you’re downloading the .deb from libreoffice.org and installing from that, which isn’t generally a great idea (those .deb files are meant for all distributions using that package format, not specifically for Ubuntu). I’m arriving at the conclusion because of the version numbers – 25.8 is the newest version currently available on the website while the version in the repositories for noble is 24.2.7. The “normal” way to install programs on Ubuntu is to use the versions from the repositories which automatically get updated with fixes for ‘show-stopping’ bugs or security problems (but no updates for features, so the major and minor version stays the same over the lifetime of a release).
The problem you encounter is due to the fact that this version of libreoffice is optimized for parallel installation of multiple versions, it always installs into /opt/libreoffice{VERSION_NUMBER} so you can have multiple versions installed for comparison of features (and bugs).
Yes I always have downloaded the “.debs” from libreoffice.org.
If I use synaptic, I get an older version. So now I’m confused - are you saying not to bother with the latest releases and leave 24.2.7 as was installed from the noble repo, and never do any updates ?
What do you mean by the ‘lifetime of the release’ ?
Why do you use them in the first place ?
What feature is so important to you to use a version that does not get security fixes from the Ubuntu maintainers ?
These versions do actually get updates (at least in LTS releases) if there are any instabilities or security fixes that need to be applied …
There are two kinds of releases of Ubuntu, normal and Long Time Support (LTS). Every fourth release is LTS, the one released in April of an even numbered Year (22.04, 24.04, 26.04 …). Normal releases get updates for 9 months, LTS releases for 5 years for Ubuntu and 3 years for other ‘flavours’ (KUbuntu, XUbuntu, LUbuntu, Ubuntu Studio …) . At the end of that time you’re supposed to switch to the next release, either by doing ‘do-release-upgrade’ or doing a clean new install. That time is what I meant.
And regarding the question of new from the developer vs. older from the repos, there’s an old adage: ‘new is the enemy of stable’. Would you rather have an older version in which everything you need works and the bugs / mis-features and the workarounds for them are known or a new version with new and exciting bugs ?
I learn a lot from this forum. I never realized the LibreOffice .deb updates would not get security updates as they would if I had stayed with the original installed LibreOffice. And you are right, the minor improvements for each new .deb are rarely of any value to me. I’m just a nutbar and want to keep improving, or so I thought, my system. What’s the harm in bringing in a new rev, right ? Now I know.
But being a nutbar, after I install each .deb, I Purge the old Libreoffice rev. So now I’m pretty much stuck with the newer Rev. I assume that as a new .deb arrives, it has improved security fixes over the previous ones ?? So at this point, I will keep bringing in new ones as they become available.
To solve my problem of how to start Libreoffice as the Rev numbers keep changing, I wrote this script:
> #!/bin/sh
> # libreoffice Nov.10.2025
> # Fire Up Latest Rev of libreoffice - just change 'Rev' in this script
> # Pass in a parameter: writer, calc, draw, or impress, and Path/Filename
> # All Startup Commands will be in this Format:
> # /home/mg/MGScripts/libreoffice writer Path/FileName
> # /home/mg/MGScripts/libreoffice calc Path/FileName
> # /home/mg/MGScripts/libreoffice draw Path/FileName
> # /home/mg/MGScripts/libreoffice impress Path/FileName
>
Rev=“25.8”
libreoffice$Rev --$1 $2
Thanks for all your insight and help. Have a nice day,
Since the security fixes in the Ubuntu debs of LibreOffice are usually backported from the newer revisions, you are probably as safe as someone who stays on the revision in the repositories, provided you install each revision as soon as it’s released. For somebody who does stay on the Ubuntu package this is semi-automatic since the updates to LO are part of the normal updates.
The Ubuntu packages bring along a set of small shell-scripts named lowriter, localc, lobase, lodraw, loimpress, lomath, and loweb. These basically just call /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice with the right option to start the component needed and pass through the rest of the arguments. If the packages from the website bring along some similar scripts you could just create a bunch of symbolic links to them which you’d need to update when you install a new version. If you use these symlinks in all your desktop-files and other starters then those could stay the same.