Manage your default applications with ease using handlr!
- Set default handler by extension or mime-type
- Intelligent mime type detection from files based on extension and content
- Open multiple files at once
- Set multiple handlers for mime/extension and use rofi/dmenuto pick one
- Wildcard support like text/*
- Automatically removes invalid/wrong .desktopentries frommimeapps.list
- Helper commands like launch,get --jsonfor your scripting needs
- Unnecessarily fast (written in Rust)
- Single compiled binary with no dependencies
# Open a file/URL
handlr open ~/.dotfiles/pacman/packages.txt
handlr open https://google.ca
# Set default handler for png files
handlr set .png feh.desktop
# Set wildcard handler for all text files
handlr set 'text/*' nvim.desktop
# Set default handler based on mime
handlr set application/pdf evince.desktop
# List default apps
handlr list
# Get the handler for a mime/extension
$ handlr get .png
feh.desktop
# Launch a handler with given path/URL
handlr launch x-scheme-handler/https -- https://google.ca- Can open multiple files/URLs at once
- Can have multiple handlers and use rofi/dmenu to pick one at runtime
- Far easier to use with simple commands like get,set,list
- Can operate on extensions, no need to look up or remember mime types
- useful for common tasks like setting a handler for png/docx/etc files
 
- Superb autocomplete (currently fish, zsh and bash), including mimes, extensions, and .desktopfiles
- Optional json output for scripting
- Properly supports Terminal=trueentries
Unfortunately, there isn't an XDG spec and thus a standardized way for handlr to get your default terminal emulator to run Terminal=true desktop entries. There was a proposal floating around a few years ago to use x-scheme-handler/terminal for this purpose. It seems to me the least worst option, compared to handling quirks of N+1 distros or using a handlr-specific config option.
Now if x-scheme-handler/terminal is present, handlr will use it.
Otherwise, handlr will:
- Find an app with TerminalEmulatorcategory
- Set it as the default for x-scheme-handler/terminal
- Send you a notification to let you know it guessed your terminal and provide instructions to change it if necessary
On the upside, Terminal=true entries will now work outside of interactive terminals, unlike xdg-utils.
- 
Open ~/.config/handlr/handlr.tomland setenable_selector = true. Optionally, you can also tweak theselectorto your selector command (using e.g. rofi or dmenu).
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Add a second/third/whatever handler using handlr add, for example
handlr add x-scheme-handler/https firefox-developer-edition.desktop
- Now in this example when you open a URL, you will be prompted to select the desired application.
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yay -S handlr-binOptionally you can also install xdg-utils-handlr to replace xdg-open:
yay -S xdg-utils-handlrcargo install handlr- Download the latest release binary and put it somewhere in $PATH
- Download completions for fish:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chmln/handlr/master/completions/handlr.fish --create-dirs -o ~/.config/fish/completions/handlr.fishIcons made by Eucalyp from www.flaticon.com
Cover photo by creativebloq.com