For bioLegato .properties file, the variable

gde.makemenus.path

governs the order in which menus are read. This variable contains a list of menu paths which are searched for a file called 'menulist'. These paths are read right to left. Thus, as each menu is read in succession, items in the new menu that have the same name as in a previous menu overwrite the previous menu items. The order of events is:

for each path in gde.menus.path {right to left}
for each line in menulist
if it's a menu
if the menu doesn't already exist
append the new menu to the end of the menu list
else {it's an item}
if item exists
overwrite existing item
else
append new item within the current menu

Example:

gde.makemenus.path=$BIRCH/local/dat/bldna:$BIRCH/dat/bldna

In this example, the 'menulist' file is read first from $BIRCH/dat/bldna, and next, from $BIRCH/local/dat/bldna. Therefore the order of the menuheadings from $BIRCH/dat/bldna are preserved.