defaults.list or mimeapps.list?

Post by Jerome Leclanche
I'm finding a lot of conflicting information. Which to use? I'm using
mimeapps.list currently, I was certain defaults.list was the
deprecated one but I need an official word on this.

mimeapps.list adds mime-types to a particular application.
defaults.list changes the default handler for a mime-type.

Jerome Leclanche

2014-01-21 10:52:12 UTC

Post by Bastien Nocera

mimeapps.list adds mime-types to a particular application.
defaults.list changes the default handler for a mime-type.

The mimeapps.list has a [Default Applications] section as well, which
is why I ask. And in any case, why have two files?

J. Leclanche

Rex Dieter

2014-01-21 17:01:17 UTC

Jerome Leclanche

2014-01-21 17:09:08 UTC

See "Default application ordering" on
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-actions-spec/
In effect, its a bit implementation specific... gnome uses defaults.list,
kde uses a mixture of InitialPreference= key and mimeapps.list
-- Rex
_______________________________________________
xdg mailing list
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg

Grmph.

For the record, this is what I use, and what makes the most sense:
https://github.com/Adys/python-xdg/blob/master/xdg/actions.py#L120

1. Unalias the mime type
2. Check default application (in mimeapps.list)
3. Check added associations (mimeapps.list)
4. Check cached associations (mimeinfo.cache), discarding excluded
ones (mimeapps.list)
5. Recursively do the same for every parent of the mime type.

I'm having a deja vu here, I think this was brought up before. Anyway...

J. Leclanche

David Faure

2014-02-02 10:32:51 UTC

This is a strange way of presenting it. The same mixture exists everywhere.

The environment defaults are environment-specific, using defaults.list in
Gnome and InitialPreference= in KDE.

On top of that, mimeapps.list is standard, and can be used at the system level
(/usr/share) by ISVs or at the user-level to store user-specific overrides.

--
David Faure, ***@kde.org, http://www.davidfaure.fr
Working on KDE, in particular KDE Frameworks 5

Rex Dieter

2014-02-03 02:50:06 UTC

This is a strange way of presenting it. The same mixture exists everywhere.
The environment defaults are environment-specific, using defaults.list in
Gnome and InitialPreference= in KDE.
On top of that, mimeapps.list is standard, and can be used at the system
level (/usr/share) by ISVs

In my experience, stuff set in mimeapps.list in /usr/share isn't used by
gnome. Should I go retest that?

-- Rex

A. Walton

2014-02-05 21:56:31 UTC

See "Default application ordering" on
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-actions-spec/
In effect, its a bit implementation specific... gnome uses

defaults.list,

Post by Rex Dieter
kde uses a mixture of InitialPreference= key and mimeapps.list

This is a strange way of presenting it. The same mixture exists everywhere.
The environment defaults are environment-specific, using defaults.list in
Gnome and InitialPreference= in KDE.
On top of that, mimeapps.list is standard, and can be used at the system
level (/usr/share) by ISVs

In my experience, stuff set in mimeapps.list in /usr/share isn't used by
gnome. Should I go retest that?

You should go retest that. The code is supposed to load mimeapps.list and
defaults.list from $XDG_DATA_DIRS and the system data dirs (usually
/usr/local/share/:/usr/share).

Here's the code.
https://git.gnome.org/browse/glib/tree/gio/gdesktopappinfo.c

-A. Walton

Post by Rex Dieter
-- Rex
_______________________________________________
xdg mailing list
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg

Rex Dieter

2014-03-13 18:31:00 UTC

Post by A. Walton

Post by Rex Dieter
In my experience, stuff set in mimeapps.list in /usr/share isn't used by
gnome. Should I go retest that?

You should go retest that. The code is supposed to load mimeapps.list and
defaults.list from $XDG_DATA_DIRS and the system data dirs (usually
/usr/local/share/:/usr/share).
Here's the code.
https://git.gnome.org/browse/glib/tree/gio/gdesktopappinfo.c

Thanks, ironically looks like the problem I experienced recently was due to
a kde bug,
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332107

where my prefered/custom value of XDG_DATA_DIRS ended up being ignored. :(

-- Rex

Samuli Suominen

2014-02-06 06:10:18 UTC

This is a strange way of presenting it. The same mixture exists everywhere.
The environment defaults are environment-specific, using defaults.list in
Gnome and InitialPreference= in KDE.
On top of that, mimeapps.list is standard, and can be used at the system
level (/usr/share) by ISVs

In my experience, stuff set in mimeapps.list in /usr/share isn't used by
gnome. Should I go retest that?
-- Rex

I'm sure it's used by GNOME and Xfce.

Personally I always thought that defaults.list was the global file,
because that's what the Debian GNOME Team is using
to set their default applications for the users
And that mimeapps.list in user's own local directory was to override
that global defaults.list
I see now I was wrong, and that mimeapps.list can also be used globally
and that Debian still using defaults.list is just for historical reasons

Xfce's utilities modify mimeapps.list at users directory when defining
preferred applications / file associations
I would expect GNOME to do same thing thesedays

So heck, just to drop the confusion, could the defaults.list be declared
obsolete somewhere so that the confusion stops?

Jerome Leclanche

2014-02-06 06:34:10 UTC

Post by Samuli Suominen

This is a strange way of presenting it. The same mixture exists everywhere.
The environment defaults are environment-specific, using defaults.list in
Gnome and InitialPreference= in KDE.
On top of that, mimeapps.list is standard, and can be used at the system
level (/usr/share) by ISVs

In my experience, stuff set in mimeapps.list in /usr/share isn't used by
gnome. Should I go retest that?
-- Rex

I'm sure it's used by GNOME and Xfce.
Personally I always thought that defaults.list was the global file,
because that's what the Debian GNOME Team is using
to set their default applications for the users
And that mimeapps.list in user's own local directory was to override
that global defaults.list
I see now I was wrong, and that mimeapps.list can also be used globally
and that Debian still using defaults.list is just for historical reasons
Xfce's utilities modify mimeapps.list at users directory when defining
preferred applications / file associations
I would expect GNOME to do same thing thesedays
So heck, just to drop the confusion, could the defaults.list be declared
obsolete somewhere so that the confusion stops?

Christ please yes.

J. Leclanche

Post by Samuli Suominen
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http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg

David Faure

2014-03-02 11:29:34 UTC

Post by Samuli Suominen
So heck, just to drop the confusion, could the defaults.list be declared
obsolete somewhere so that the confusion stops?

It depends if you want the app order to affect only gnome (-> defaults.list)
or all desktop environments (-> mimeapps.list).

I think there's a use case for both, so I wouldn't declare defaults.list
obsolete.

--
David Faure, ***@kde.org, http://www.davidfaure.fr
Working on KDE, in particular KDE Frameworks 5

Samuli Suominen

2014-03-02 11:33:50 UTC