update-desktop-database - Build cache database of MIME types handled by desktop files
update-desktop-database [-q|--quiet] [-v|--verbose] [DIRECTORY...]
General Commands Manual UPDATE-DESKTOP-DATABASE(1)
NAME
update-desktop-database - Build cache database of MIME types handled by
desktop files
SYNOPSIS
update-desktop-database [-q|--quiet] [-v|--verbose] [DIRECTORY...]
DESCRIPTION
The update-desktop-database program is a tool to build a cache database
of the MIME types handled by desktop files.
The cache database contains the list of MIME types that can be handled
by desktop files, as well as, for each MIME type, a list of desktop
files that can handle this MIME type. This cache database ease the work
of applications that need to find an application that can open a docu-
ment of a specific MIME type: those applications will not have to parse
all the desktop files existing on the system, and can instead parse
this cache database.
If no DIRECTORY is specified as argument, the desktop files that will
be processed are the ones installed in $XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications.
If both the --quiet and --verbose options are used, then --verbose will
be ignored.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-q, --quiet
Do not display any information about processing and updating
progress.
-v, --verbose
Display more information about processing and updating progress.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------------+
|Availability | desktop/xdg/desktop-file-utils |
+---------------+--------------------------------+
|Stability | Pass-through volatile |
+---------------+--------------------------------+
NOTES
If an invalid MIME type is met, it will be ignored and the creation of
the cache database will continue.
The format of the cache database is a simple desktop entry format, with
a MIME Cache group, containing one key per MIME type. The key name is
the MIME type, and the key value is the list of desktop file that can
handle this MIME type.
The order of the desktop files found for a MIME type is not signifi-
cant. Therefore, an external mechanism must be used to determine what
is the preferred desktop file for a MIME type.
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://www.freedesktop.org/software/desk-
top-file-utils/releases/desktop-file-utils-0.23.tar.xz.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/desktop-
file-utils/.
EXAMPLE
Here is a simple example of a cache database:
[MIME Cache]
application/x-shellscript=gedit.desktop;
text/plain=gedit.desktop;gvim.desktop;
video/webm=totem.desktop;
This cache database is created with three desktop files, each contain-
ing a MimeType key:
gedit.desktop: MimeType=text/plain;application/x-shellscript;
gvim.desktop: MimeType=text/plain;
totem.desktop: MimeType=video/webm;
FILES
$XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications/mimeinfo.cache
This file is the cache database created by update-desktop-data-
base.
BUGS
If you find bugs in the update-desktop-database program, please report
these on https://bugs.freedesktop.org.
FREEDESKTOP.ORG
UPDATE-DESKTOP-DATABASE(1)