NAME

       update-desktop-database - Build cache database of MIME types handled by desktop files

SYNOPSIS

       update-desktop-database [-q|--quiet] [-v|--verbose] [DIRECTORY...]

DESCRIPTION

       The  update-desktop-database program is a tool to build a cache database of the MIME types
       handled by desktop files.

       The cache database contains the list of MIME types that can be handled by  desktop  files,
       as  well  as,  for each MIME type, a list of desktop files that can handle this MIME type.
       This cache database ease the work of applications that need to find  an  application  that
       can open a document of a specific MIME type: those applications will not have to parse all
       the desktop files existing on the system, and can instead parse this cache database.

       If no DIRECTORY is specified as argument, the desktop files that will be processed are the
       ones installed in $XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications.

       If both the --quiet and --verbose options are used, then --verbose will be ignored.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -q, --quiet
              Do not display any information about processing and updating progress.

       -v, --verbose
              Display more information about processing and updating progress.

NOTES

       If  an invalid MIME type is met, it will be ignored and the creation of the cache database
       will continue.

       The format of the cache database is a simple desktop  entry  format,  with  a  MIME  Cache
       group,  containing one key per MIME type. The key name is the MIME type, and the key value
       is the list of desktop file that can handle this MIME type.

       The order of the desktop files found for a MIME type is not  significant.   Therefore,  an
       external mechanism must be used to determine what is the preferred desktop file for a MIME
       type.

EXAMPLE

       Here is a simple example of a cache database:

               [MIME Cache]
               application/x-shellscript=gedit.desktop;
               text/plain=gedit.desktop;gvim.desktop;
               video/webm=totem.desktop;

       This cache database is created with three desktop files, each containing a MimeType key:

               gedit.desktop: MimeType=text/plain;application/x-shellscript;
               gvim.desktop: MimeType=text/plain;
               totem.desktop: MimeType=video/webm;

FILES

       $XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications/mimeinfo.cache

              This file is the cache database created by update-desktop-database.

BUGS

       If  you  find  bugs  in  the  update-desktop-database  program,  please  report  these  on
       https://bugs.freedesktop.org.

                                         FREEDESKTOP.ORG               UPDATE-DESKTOP-DATABASE(1)