handlr

Manage your default applications with ease using handlr!

Features

• 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/dmenu to pick one
• Wildcard support like text/*
• Automatically removes invalid/wrong .desktop entries from mimeapps.list
• Helper commands like launch, get --json for your scripting needs
• Unnecessarily fast (written in Rust)
• Single compiled binary with no dependencies

Usage

# 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

Compared to xdg-utils

• 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 just fish), including mimes, extensions, and .desktop files
• Optional json output for scripting
• Properly supports Terminal=true entries

Setting default terminal

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.

Because most users will not have this handler set up, handlr will:

1. Find an app with TerminalEmulator category
2. Set it as the default for x-scheme-handler/terminal
3. 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.

Setting multiple handlers

1. Open ~/.config/handlr/handlr.toml and set enable_selector = true. Optionally, you can also tweak the selector to your selector command (using e.g. rofi or dmenu).

2. Add a second/third/whatever handler using handlr add, for example

handlr add x-scheme-handler/https firefox-developer-edition.desktop

3. Now in this example when you open a URL, you will be prompted to select the desired application.

Screenshots

Installation

Arch Linux

yay -S handlr-bin

Optionally you can also install xdg-utils-handlr to replace xdg-open:

yay -S xdg-utils-handlr

Rust/Cargo

cargo install handlr

Binaries

1. Download the latest release binary and put it somewhere in $PATH
2. Download completions:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chmln/handlr/master/completions/handlr.fish --create-dirs -o ~/.config/fish/completions/handlr.fish

Attribution

Icons made by Eucalyp from www.flaticon.com

Cover photo by creativebloq.com