XDG-SETTINGS(1) xdg-settings Manual XDG-SETTINGS(1)

.SH "NAME" xdg-settings - get various settings from the desktop environment

.SH "SYNOPSIS"

.HP 312u

**xdg-settings**  
{  
| **get**  
| **check**  
| **set**  
}  
{ **property**  
}  
[  
**subproperty**  
]  
[ **value**  
]

.HP 312u

**xdg-settings**  
{  
| **--help**  
| **--list**  
| **--manual**  
| **--version**  
}

.SH "DESCRIPTION"

.PP 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).

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

.SH "OPTIONS"

.PP **--help**

Show command synopsis.

.RE

.PP **--list**

List all properties xdg-settings knows about.

.RE

.PP **--manual**

Show this manual page.

.RE

.PP **--version**

Show the xdg-utils version information.

.RE

.SH "PROPERTIES"

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

.PP 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.

.SH "EXIT CODES"

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

.PP **1**

Error in command line syntax.

.RE  
.PP **2**

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

.RE  
.PP **3**

A required tool could not be found.

.RE  
.PP **4**

The action failed.

.RE

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.PP [**xdg-mime**(1)](/man/os/xdg-utils/xdg-mime.1), [**xdg-open**(1)](/man/os/xdg-utils/xdg-open.1), **MIME applications associations specification**\[1]

.SH "EXAMPLES"

.PP Get the desktop file name of the current default web browser

```


        xdg-settings get default-web-browser


      
```

.PP 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


      
```

.PP Set the default web browser to google-chrome.desktop

```


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


      
```

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

```


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


      
```

# [AUTHOR](#AUTHOR)

**Mike Mammarella**

Author.

# [COPYRIGHT](#COPYRIGHT)

Copyright © 2009-2011

# [NOTES](#NOTES)

1\.

MIME applications associations specification

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-apps-spec/

04/02/2026 xdg-utils 1.1.0

---

Document: xdg-settings(1) from xdg-utils 1.2.1-r8 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils