---
name: "xdg-settings"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xdg-utils"
version: "1.2.1-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/xdg-settings"
---

# xdg-settings(1)

get various settings from the desktop environment

## NAME

xdg-settings - get various settings from the desktop environment

## SYNOPSIS

**xdg-settings** {*get* \| *check* \| *set*} {**property**} \[**subproperty**\] \[**value**\]

**xdg-settings** {**--help** \| **--list** \| **--manual** \| **--version**}

## DESCRIPTION

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).

xdg-settings is for use inside a desktop session only. It is not recommended to use xdg-settings as root.

## OPTIONS

- **--help**

  Show command synopsis.

- **--list**

  List all properties xdg-settings knows about.

- **--manual**

  Show this manual page.

- **--version**

  Show the xdg-utils version information.

## PROPERTIES

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.

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.

## EXIT CODES

An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:

**1**

Error in command line syntax.

**2**

One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.

**3**

A required tool could not be found.

**4**

The action failed.

## SEE ALSO

[**xdg-mime**(1)](/xdg-mime/1.md), [**xdg-open**(1)](/xdg-open/1.md), **MIME applications associations specification**\[1\]

## EXAMPLES

Get the desktop file name of the current default web browser

```
        xdg-settings get default-web-browser
```

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
```

Set the default web browser to google-chrome.desktop

```
        xdg-settings set default-web-browser google-chrome.desktop
```

Set the default mailto URL scheme handler to be evolution.desktop

```
        xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler mailto evolution.desktop
```

## AUTHOR

**Mike Mammarella**

Author.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2009-2011\

## NOTES

- 1\.

  MIME applications associations specification

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