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# Default Applications

From ArchWiki

There are numerous places to configure default applications on Linux. This page will attempt to address problems related to the following issues:

- You need to change a certain default application (e.g. after switching desktop environments), but there appears to be nowhere to configure it, or an application ignores your configuration
- You regularly switch back and forth between several desktop environments, and need to configure some applications (e.g. file manager) on a per-desktop-environment basis, but need to configure others (e.g. web browser) globally

## Changing a default application

### xdg-open

xdg-open is a desktop-independent tool for configuring default applications.

#### Exactly how it works

This is currently very shaky because the standard in question (relevant freedesktop.org document, "Default application ordering" section) is still not finalised and it is even less correctly implemented.

What happens with the current version of xdg-open (extra/xdg-utils 1.1.0rc1-3) is the following: xdg-open uses xdg-mime (among other things; if you use a mainstream DE like GNOME, KDE or LXDE, xdg-open might try using their specific tools before xdg-mime) to find the MIME type of the file that is to be opened and the default application associated with that MIME type. xdg-mime looks for the default application in the following files:

    /usr/share/applications/defaults.list      (global)
    ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list  (per user, overrides global)

The syntax of these files is:

    [Default Applications]
    mimetype=desktopfile1;desktopfile2;...;desktopfileN

E.g.

    [Default Applications]
    text/html=firefox.desktop;chromium.desktop

The intent is to be able to specify applications in order of preference so the next would be selected if the previous is unavailable. However, xdg-open is currently broken and specifying more than one application for a single MIME type will result in none being used. Be sure to specify only one application per MIME type.

Also see xdg-open for more information on what affects its behaviour. This information is sufficient for a user to configure default applications on Arch currently.

#### How it should work

However, the behaviour described in the previous section is actually wrong according to the quoted standard draft. defaults.list should only be used by distributions/DEs to specify sane defaults for that particular environment. This file should only be placed in `/usr/share/applications/`, it should be a system-wide setting and it should not be changed by users. Instead, users should use the files `/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list` (global) and `~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list` (per user, overrides global) to specify custom file associations. The syntax of these files is as follows:

    mimeapps.list

    [Added Associations]
    mimetype=desktopfile1;desktopfile2;...;desktopfileN
    ...
    [Removed Associations]
    mimetype=desktopfile1;desktopfile2;...;desktopfileN

The [Added Associations] section is used to specify preferred (default) applications in decreasing order of preference for the specified MIME type. The [Removed Associations] section is used to explicitly remove any previously inherited associations.

Note that the upstream, yet unreleased xdg-utils were fixed to use mimeapps.list instead of defaults.list but the xdg-open bug (specifying multiple applications breaks it completely) still remains.

Currently, the best option is to use mimeo, which implements everything explained above correctly. There is also xdg-utils-mimeo which provides a patched xdg-open to use mimeo. Both are available in AUR.

### GNOME 3

The xdg-open settings are usually recognized by GNOME, but specific configuration is needed for some tasks. See GNOME#Miscellaneous settings for more details.

## Custom File Associations

The following method creates a custom mime type and file association manually. This is useful if your desktop does not have a mime type/file association editor installed. In this example, a fictional multimedia application 'foobar' will be associated with all '*.foo' files. This will be done a per user basis (as opposed to system-wide).

- First, create the file `~/.local/share/mime/packages/application-x-foobar.xml`:

    $ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/mime/packages
    $ cd ~/.local/share/mime/packages
    $ touch application-x-foobar.xml

- Then edit `~/.local/share/mime/packages/application-x-foobar.xml` and add this text:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
    	<mime-type type="application/x-foobar">
    		<comment>foo file</comment>
    		<icon name="application-x-foobar"/>
    		<glob-deleteall/>
    		<glob pattern="*.foo"/>
    	</mime-type>
    </mime-info>

Note that you can use any icon, including one for another application.

- Next, edit or create the file `~/.local/share/applications/foobar.desktop` to contain something like:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Foobar
    Exec=/usr/bin/foobar
    MimeType=application/x-foobar
    Icon=foobar
    Terminal=false
    Type=Application
    Categories=AudioVideo;Player;Video;
    Comment=

Note that Categories should be set appropriately for the application type (in this example, a multimedia app).

- Now update the mime database with:

    $ update-mime-database ~/.local/share/mime

Programs that use mime types, such as file managers, should now open '*.foo' files with foobar. (You may need to restart your file manager to see the change.)

## Maintaining settings for multiple desktop environments

The `OnlyShowIn` field of a .desktop file may be useful; see this page. I haven't tried setting this field yet; please update this wiki page if you have any info about using `OnlyShowIn`.

## Troubleshooting

### Applications don't appear in the Open With... context menu (of a file manager)

Sometimes, a certain application will not appear in the right-click Open With... dialog. To fix this problem, locate the `.desktop` file in `/usr/share/applications`, edit it as root, and add `%U` to the end of the `Exec=` line. For example, Kile currently has this problem; you need to edit `/usr/share/applications/kde4/kile.desktop` and change the line reading `Exec=kile` to read `Exec=kile %U`. Also, please file a bug against the upstream project if you notice this problem.

You may also have to edit the `MimeType` list in the `.desktop` file if you install extensions that allow an application to handle additional MIME types.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Default_Applications&oldid=278916"
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