[Portland-bugs] [Bug 31629] xdg-mime does not search mimeinfo.cache

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31629

--- Comment #3 from Dan Muresan <danmbox at gmail.com> 2011-03-31 08:47:37 PDT ---
First of all, I think this patch does the right thing -- but mimeapps.list also
needs to be checked. There seems to be some confusion, so I'll add some
explanations.

mimeinfo.cache (both the system one and the user's one) are ENUMERATIONS of
AVAILABLE handlers for each mime type. They encode no preference or PRIORITY.

User preference is encoded in defaults.list and mimeapps.list. defaults.list is
older, gnome-specific, and no longer freedesktop-supported. mimeapps.list is
newer, freedesktop-approved, and KDE-supported.

The "lighter" desktop environments (XFCE, LXDE) seem to still use
defaults.list.

What happens when a user selects an "unusual" association? In LXDE, if I set
"Open With" for text files to xpdf,

1) a new ~/.local/share/applications/xpdf-usercustom-0.desktop is created

2) ~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache and defaults.list are updated,
associating text/plain to the new desktop file

Bottom line: look in defaults.list and/or mimeapps.list first, to pick the
user's preferred app; then in mimeinfo.cache, to pick any available handler.

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