adwaita-icon-theme

Overview

Adwaita Icon Theme provides the standard GNOME icon theme used by GTK-based desktop components and applications that rely on themed icons. In practice, this package supplies the icon assets that let desktop software resolve icon names through the active icon theme instead of hard-coding file paths. GTK documents this model as the normal way icon themes are used on Linux and Unix systems. (gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org)

For a distribution, the package matters because many desktop components and applications expect a usable Adwaita theme to be present when they render menus, dialogs, status pages, and other interface elements that reference named icons. GNOME also lists adwaita-icon-theme as a core component. (gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org)

Purpose and typical use cases

Typical use cases include:

• providing the default GNOME/Adwaita icon theme for desktop sessions and GTK applications;
• supplying a consistent icon set for user interfaces that look up icons by name;
• serving as a packaging dependency or runtime asset for desktop environments, application launchers, settings panels, and other GUI software that uses themed icons. (gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org)

Typical users are:

• desktop users, who see the icons in GNOME and other GTK-based environments;
• package maintainers, who need to keep the theme packaged and installable;
• desktop integrators and CI/CD maintainers, who verify that icon assets and metadata still build correctly after updates;
• developers working on GTK applications, who may use icon names that expect a standard theme to be available. (gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org)

Upstream project

Upstream is the GNOME project repository for Adwaita Icon Theme. The canonical project page is the GitLab repository under GNOME, and GNOME’s component listing identifies this project as “Standard Icons”. (gitlab.gnome.org)

If you need deeper upstream context, NiceOS maintainers should verify details directly in the GNOME repository and release tags before relying on them for packaging changes. (gitlab.gnome.org)

Dist-git repository contents

This dist-git repository is organized in the standard RPM layout:

• SPECS/ — RPM spec files and packaging logic;
• SOURCES/ — source manifests and related metadata used to track imported upstream material;
• METADATA/ — package metadata used by the dist-git workflow;
• SBOM/ — software bill of materials material when present in the repository workflow.

The repository is intended to carry packaging metadata, not to mirror all upstream sources in full.

Source storage and integrity policy

Large upstream source archives are intentionally not stored in this Git repository. Instead, source integrity is tracked through manifest files under SOURCES/. That lets the dist-git history stay small and keeps the repository focused on packaging metadata rather than binary payloads.

When reviewing an update, maintainers should confirm that the manifests still point to the expected upstream source material and that the imported files match the package’s normal source policy. Do not rely on this README for file-by-file source inventory; check the repository contents directly.

NiceOS maintenance notes

Before updating this package, NiceOS maintainers should check:

• whether the upstream release or tag being imported is the intended one;
• whether any packaging patches still apply cleanly;
• whether icon theme metadata, install paths, or file lists changed upstream;
• whether the manifest in SOURCES/ needs to be regenerated after the source import;
• whether SPEC file conditions, subpackages, or file ownership rules need adjustment;
• whether the update changes translation, theming, or desktop integration behavior that downstream users may notice.

Risks to consider:

• icon theme packages often affect visual consistency across the desktop, so missing or renamed assets can cause regressions that are obvious but easy to miss in automated checks;
• upstream layout changes may require spec updates even when the project still builds;
• if build tooling or metadata generation changes, the repository may need refreshed packaging metadata in more than one place.

If any of those points are uncertain, NiceOS maintainers should verify them before relying on the update.

Build and verification checklist

For RPM maintenance, a practical checklist is:

• verify the upstream source import and SOURCES/ manifest entries;
• review spec changes for new file paths, renamed assets, or removed install targets;
• rebuild in a clean environment;
• check %files coverage for missing or stray files;
• confirm that installed icon-theme metadata is complete and that the theme can be discovered by desktop tooling;
• run any available package-specific tests or sanity checks from the build system;
• inspect the resulting RPM payload for unexpected additions or omissions;
• if the package is split into multiple outputs, verify that each subpackage still has the intended ownership and dependencies;
• perform a basic desktop sanity check if possible, especially after upstream icon set changes.

References

• GNOME Adwaita Icon Theme repository
• GNOME Components listing
• GTK Icon Theme documentation
• GNOME Themed Icons guide

Russian documentation

See README_RU.md.

Dist-git repository notes

• Package repository: rpms/adwaita-icon-theme
• NiceOS branch: niceos-5.2
• This README is intentionally stable and does not include EVR, source archive checksums or lock hashes.