xdg-utils

The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

xdg-utils provides the official utilities for managing XDG MIME Applications.

xdg-desktop-menu(1) - Install desktop menu items
xdg-desktop-icon(1) - copies desktop entries to the user's desktop
xdg-email(1) - Compose a new email in the user's preferred email client, potentially with subject and other info filled in
xdg-icon-resource(1) - Install icon resources
xdg-mime(1) - Query and install MIME types and associations
xdg-open(1) - Open a file or URI in the user's preferred application
xdg-screensaver(1) - Enable, disable, or suspend the screensaver
xdg-settings(1) - Get or set the default web browser and URL handlers

Installation

Install the xdg-utils package.

Usage

xdg-mime

See xdg-mime(1).

Determine a file's MIME type:

$ xdg-mime query filetype photo.jpeg
image/jpeg

Determine the default application for a MIME type:

$ xdg-mime query default image/jpeg
gimp.desktop

Change the default application for a MIME type:

$ xdg-mime default feh.desktop image/jpeg

Debug default application for MIME type:

$ env XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL=10  xdg-mime query default text/html
Checking /home/you/.config/mimeapps.list
Checking /home/you/.local/share/applications/defaults.list and /home/you/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
Checking /usr/local/share/applications/defaults.list and /usr/local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
Checking /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
qutebrowser.desktop

xdg-open

xdg-open is a resource opener that implements XDG MIME Applications and is used by many programs, see xdg-open(1) for the usage.

xdg-open is desktop-environment-independent in the sense that it attempts to use each environment's native default application tool.

If no desktop environment is detected, MIME type detection falls back to using file which—ironically—does not implement the XDG standard. If you want xdg-open to use XDG MIME Applications without a desktop environment, you will need to install perl-file-mimeinfo or switch to one of the resource openers that support XDG MIME Applications.

xdg-settings

See xdg-settings(1).

Shortcut to open all web MIME types with a single application:

$ xdg-settings set default-web-browser firefox.desktop

Shortcut for setting the default application for a URL scheme:

$ xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler irc xchat.desktop

Tips and Tricks

URL scheme handlers

To set the default application for a URL scheme you may also need to change the default application for the x-scheme-handler/* MIME types:

$ xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/https x-scheme-handler/http