mimeapps¶

Implements the freedesktop.org Association between MIME types and applications specification (mimeapps.list) — given a MIME type, which application opens it by default, and what is the ordered list of candidates? With round-trippable edits, it is the engine behind an "Open With…" menu. Pure Go, CGO_ENABLED=0, building on desktopentry.

Merge the mimeapps.list layers per the XDG environment and $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP.
Resolve the default handler and the ordered candidate list for a type.
Persist a user's default choice back to mimeapps.list.

Install¶

go get github.com/go-freedesktop/mimeapps

Usage¶

package main

import (
    "fmt"

    "github.com/go-freedesktop/mimeapps"
)

func main() {
    r := mimeapps.Load() // standard XDG environment + $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

    // The default handler for a MIME type.
    if app, err := r.DefaultApp("text/html"); err == nil {
        fmt.Println("default:", app.Name, "→", app.Exec)
    }

    // The ordered "Open With…" menu.
    for _, app := range r.Candidates("image/png") {
        fmt.Println("candidate:", app.ID, app.Name)
    }

    // Make an application the user's default (persisted to mimeapps.list).
    _ = r.SetDefault("text/html", "org.mozilla.firefox.desktop")
}

The full API is on pkg.go.dev. Source: github.com/go-freedesktop/mimeapps.