xdg-open-simple

A more minimal variant of xdg-open.

Characteristics

• Adheres to the same XDG specifications as the original xdg-open

  • "Desktop Entry Specification"
  • "Association between MIME types and applications".

• Support for the relative target file paths and URLs has been added.

• Retains the original xdg-open exit codes.

• From xdg-utils substitutes only the xdg-open, not the other tools.

• Some of the original xdg-open functionality has been REMOVED:

  • Auto-forwarding target paths without a known MIME handler to a web browser. (Not in specifications)

    Reasons for removal:

    1. Obfuscates that there is a missing MIME handler on the system.
    2. Unexpected and needless behavior - the web browser creating a copy of the target file in the downloads directory.

  • Handling the $BROWSER variable. (Not in specifications)

    Reasons for removal:

    1. A legacy convention of setting the default web browser on some environments.
    2. Redundant, overlaps with the core functionality of xdg-open.

  • Handling any mimeapps.list and Desktop file search paths that have been deprecated. (In specifications)

  • The desktop environment specific integrations:

    1. Auto-forwarding target paths to desktop environment specific file openers. (Not in specifications)
    2. Use of the file <desktop environment name>-mimeapps.list. (In specifications)
    3. Use of the file <desktop environment name>-mimeinfo.cache. (Not in specifications)

    Reasons for removal:

    1. Lack of a robust identification of the desktop environments and their the default opener commands.

       These features have required adding lots of work-arounds in the original xdg-open.

    2. Not required for the core functionality of this tool.

  • Substituting Name (%c) and Icon (%i) field codes within the Exec key to pass program icon identifiers and localized program names to the applications. (In specifications)

    Reason for removal:

    1. Unlikely to be in use - out of more than 100 Desktop files on my Linux system, none use these field codes.

Resources

• xdg / xdg-utils · GitLab
• xdg-utils on freedesktop.org
• Association between MIME types and applications
• Desktop Entry Specification
• xdg-utils - ArchWiki