Arch Linux

Shapeshifter

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 231

default file associations in linux?

Hi,

I quit using KDE and among other glitches, most of my programs have lost their knowledge of file associations or have very odd ideas about them. For example, opera thinks that gimp is the default program for pdf files on my machine. Thunderbird has forgotten all the associations except the ones I've set in thunderbird itself, and if I remember it right, some KDE app was always popping up suggesting a file type. (I think it was kmfclient...)

Anyways, isn't there a way to manage file types on a lower level? I've been reading that the kernel itself supports mime types since 2.2. I'm not using a DE anymore and I'd need some sort of lightweight handler to open programs accordingly.

So where are file associations handled in linux? Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

skymt

Member

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 443

Re: default file associations in linux?

File associations are a mess right now. Many programs (Opera included) handle them their own way. There's a project underway to handle associations in a standard way (see MIME actions, shared MIME info, desktop entries, all at freedesktop.org), but not all software uses it; KDE is a notable holdout (3 at least, not sure about 4).

Note that that first spec link, MIME actions, is currently "in the requirements-gathering / early-planning stages." That means there is no spec for that. As I said, a mess.

Most likely, Opera and Thunderbird detected you were running KDE and special-cased their association-finder to ask KDE instead. Now that you aren't, they're falling back to their normal behavior: use the first .desktop file to claim the MIME type. As I recall, both applications offer ways to specify associations in their preferences; you might just want to stick to that for now. Or use a desktop environment.

The kernel-level MIME support is designed to allow execution of strange files using interpreters. For example, you could directly execute Windows applications (as in "./notepad.exe") by setting the kernel to "interpret" application/exe files using wine. No applications use it for opening files.

Shapeshifter

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 231

Re: default file associations in linux?

Thanks for those infos. Linux definetly needs a shared way of dealing with file associations these days. Well, I guess it will take a few years until that's going to happen. Sticking to per-program configuration then

by the way, this application (envoy) might provide a usable workaround for the time being. Basically, you point all your programs to open all files with envoy, and envoy will then pick the right app. I'll check it out some time...
http://www.casual-tempest.net/projects/envoy/