Extensions de fichiers sous GNOME

(Tested with GNOME 2.14)

2 steps:

• Map your extension with a MIME type
• Map this MIME type to an application

The goal is to map .eml with a locally installed Thunderbird (~/software/thunderbird/thunderbird).

Map your extension with a MIME type

• (needed?) Declare the MIME type in /etc/mime.types

ex:

application/local.mozilla.thunderbird		eml

• Declare the MIME type in /usr/share/mime/packages/

ex: /usr/share/mime/packages/thunderbird.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mime-info xmlns='http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info'>
	<mime-type type="application/local.mozilla.thunderbird">
		<comment>Saved mail</comment>
		<comment xml:lang="fr">Courriel enregistré</comment>
		<glob pattern="*.eml"/>
	</mime-type>
</mime-info>

• Refresh the mime cache:

update-mime-cache /usr/share/mime/

Map your MIME type to an application

• You can right-click on a file with your extension, and select "Open with".

~/.local/share/applications/*.desktop
~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

• You can create a site-wide .desktop with 'NoDisplay=true' so it doesn't show in the Applications menu

/usr/local/share/applications/*.desktop
/usr/local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

or

/usr/share/applications/*.desktop
/usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

Then update the cache with:

update-desktop-database

More: create a 'file'-like file detection. Currently the added MIME type conflicts with 'plain text'.

Files

/etc/mime.types                           # MIME declaration
/usr/share/mime/packages/*.xml            # glob
/usr/share/mime/application/*.xml         # cache?
/usr/share/mime/mime.cache                # cache
/usr/share/mime-info/*.mime               # ?
/usr/share/mime-info/*.keys               # ?
/usr/share/application-registry/*.applications # priority?
/usr/share/applications/*.desktop         # menu entry and App->MIMEs association
/usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache    # MIME->Apps association cache
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list     # priority override

/usr/local/share/applications/ # alternate hierarchy
~/.local/share/applications/   # alternate hierarchy

Priority precedence:

~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
[Gnome hard-coded priorities, e.g. abiword.desktop - ugh >p]
/usr/local/share/applications/defaults.list
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Sample defaults.list:

[Default Applications]
application/msword=openoffice.org2.4-writer.desktop

Icons:

/usr/share/icons/*/*/mimetypes
ex: 
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/mimetypes/openofficeorg23-text.png

TODO

• /usr/share/application-registry/*.applications

(for priority/precedence?)

• Do we need to use these:

/usr/share/mime-info/*.mime
/usr/share/mime-info/*.keys

Avoid Abiword hard-coded high priorioty

dpkg-divert --rename \
 --divert /usr/share/applications/abiword-nothardcoded.desktop\
 /usr/share/applications/abiword.desktop
update-desktop-database

Links

• http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/806-6878/6jfpqt2tp?a=view
  • /usr/share/gnome/application-registry
  • /usr/share/application-registry/ (Debian)

• .desktop reference
• Gnome reference

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=726230
  • update-desktop-database (man -> undocumented)
  • /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

• http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=160531
  • update-mime-database /usr/share/mime/

• Gnome/KDE file associations
  • /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

• Local overrides
  • /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
  • (?) /etc/gnome/defaults.list
  • ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list