xdg-settings(1)

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), 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

1.: MIME applications associations specification

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

04/02/2026

xdg-utils 1.1.0

AUTHOR

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NOTES