"desktop-used-apps" is not good design

q962 · December 2, 2025, 3:42am

The mime-apps-spec draft specifies the default launch method. Although it’s only a draft, it actually exists. The defaults.list file is still valid.

desktop-used-apps caches the launch application IDs corresponding to MIME types.

xdg-permission-store records the number of times an application has been launched. When an application has been launched less than 3 times, an application selector pops up on each launch. The cached launch applications are used as the default launch applications.

If the default launch application changes afterward, xdg-permission-store will not be updated.

Therefore, my recommendation is to remove the desktop-used-apps file and use mimeapps.list and defaults.list files instead.

q962 · December 2, 2025, 3:48am

This issue occurs when using xdg-open.

razzeee · December 3, 2025, 10:53am

You probably want to raise that here Sign in to GitHub · GitHub

q962 · December 3, 2025, 12:28pm

What is the connection between this and the flatpak project? Is it solely because of xdg-open?

The flatpak version of xdg-open simply calls OpenUri.

While ‘desktop-used-apps’ is controlled by the code at

github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal

document-portal/xdg-permission-store.c

main


      
          PermissionDb *db;
          g_autofree char *dir = NULL;
          g_autofree char *path = NULL;
          
          g_autoptr(GError) error = NULL;
          
          table = g_hash_table_lookup (tables, name);
          if (table != NULL)
            return table;
          
          dir = g_build_filename (g_get_user_data_dir (), "flatpak/db", NULL);
          g_mkdir_with_parents (dir, 0755);
          
          path = g_build_filename (dir, name, NULL);
          db = permission_db_new (path, FALSE, &error);
          if (db == NULL)
            {
              g_dbus_method_invocation_return_error (invocation,
                                                     XDG_DESKTOP_PORTAL_ERROR, XDG_DESKTOP_PORTAL_ERROR_FAILED,
                                                     "Unable to load db file %s: %s", name, error->message);
              return NULL;

razzeee · December 3, 2025, 2:43pm

You’re posting in the flathub forum. Flathub has no code - that does any of this.

q962 · December 3, 2025, 3:54pm

So, is this not the right place to discuss “portals”?

I see, I should go to flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal · Discussions · GitHub