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    XDG-SETTINGS

    WillieBy Updated:No Comments2 Mins Read

    NAME

    xdg-settings – get various settings from the desktop environment  

    SYNOPSIS

    xdg-settings {get | check | set} {property} [subproperty] [value]
    xdg-settings {–help | –list | –manual | –version}
     

    DESCRIPTION

    xdg-settings gets various settings from the desktop environment. For instance, desktop environments often provide proxy configuration and default web browser settings. Using xdg-settings these parameters can be extracted for use by applications that do not use the desktop environment’s libraries (which would use the settings natively).

    xdg-settings is for use inside a desktop session only. It is not recommended to use xdg-settings as root.  

    OPTIONS

    –help

    Show command synopsis.

    –list

    List all properties xdg-settings knows about.

    –manual

    Show this manual page.

    –version

    Show the xdg-utils version information.
     

    PROPERTIES

    When using xdg-settings to get, check or set a destkop setting, properties and possibly sub-properties are used to specify the setting to be changed.

    Some properties (such as default-web-browser) fully describe the setting to be changed. Other properties (such as default-url-scheme-handler) require more information (in this case the actual scheme to set the default handler for) which must be provided in a sub-property.  

    EXIT CODES

    An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:

    1

    Error in command line syntax.

    2

    One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.

    3

    A required tool could not be found.

    4

    The action failed.
     

    EXAMPLES

    Get the desktop file name of the current default web browser 

            xdg-settings get default-web-browser

    Check whether the default web browser is firefox.desktop, which can be false even if "get default-web-browser" says that is the current value (if only some of the underlying settings actually reflect that value) 

            xdg-settings check default-web-browser firefox.desktop

    Set the default web browser to google-chrome.desktop 

            xdg-settings set default-web-browser google-chrome.desktop

    Set the default mailto URL scheme handler to be evolution.desktop 

            xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler mailto evolution.desktop

     

    AUTHOR

    Mike Mammarella

    Author.
     

    COPYRIGHT


    Copyright © 2009-2011

    Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.

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