<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="topic" style="task"
id="mime-types-application">
<info>
<link type="guide" xref="software#management" />
<link type="seealso" xref="mime-types-application-user" />
<link type="seealso" xref="mime-types-custom-user" />
<link type="seealso" xref="mime-types-custom" />
<revision pkgversion="3.12" date="2014-06-17" status="review"/>
<credit type="author">
<name>Petr Kovar</name>
<email>pknbe@volny.cz</email>
</credit>
<include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
</info>
<title>Override the default registered application for all users</title>
<p>
The <file>/usr/share/applications/defaults.list</file> file
specifies which application is registered to open specific MIME types by
default. To override the system defaults for all users on the system, you
need to create a <file>/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list</file>
file with a list of MIME types for which you want to override the default
registered application.
</p>
<steps>
<title>Override the default registered application for all users</title>
<item>
<p>
Consult the <file>/usr/share/applications/defaults.list</file>
file to determine the MIME types for which you want to change the
default registered application. For example, the following sample of
the <file>defaults.list</file> file specifies the default
registered application for the <code>text/html</code> and
<code>application/xhtml+xml</code> MIME types:
</p>
<code>[Default Applications]
text/html=epiphany.desktop
application/xhtml+xml=epiphany.desktop</code>
<p>
The default application (<app>Epiphany</app>) is
defined by specifying its corresponding <file>.desktop</file>
file (<file>epiphany.desktop</file>). The default location for
other applications’ <file>.desktop</file> files is
<file>/usr/share/applications/</file>.
</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>
Create the <file>/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list</file>
file. In the file, specify the MIME types and their corresponding
default registered applications:
</p>
<code>[Default Applications]
text/html=<var>myapplication1.desktop</var>
application/xhtml+xml=<var>myapplication2.desktop</var>
[Added Associations]
text/html=<var>myapplication1.desktop</var>;
application/xhtml+xml=<var>myapplication2.desktop</var>;</code>
<p>
This sets the default registered application for the
<code>text/html</code> MIME type to <code>myapplication1.desktop</code>,
and the default registered application for the
<code>application/xhtml+xml</code> MIME type to
<code>myapplication2.desktop</code>.</p>
<p>For these settings to function properly, ensure that both the
<file>myapplication1.desktop</file> and
<file>myapplication2.desktop</file> files are placed in the
<file>/usr/share/applications/</file> directory.
</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>
You can use the <cmd>gio mime</cmd> command to verify
that the default registered application has been set correctly:
</p>
<screen><output>$ </output><input>gio mime text/html</input>
Default application for “text/html”: myapplication1.desktop
Registered applications:
myapplication1.desktop
epiphany.desktop
Recommended applications:
myapplication1.desktop
epiphany.desktop</screen>
</item>
</steps>
</page>