Get all applications that can open a specific file (using the command line)

Question

I want to write my own "open with" GUI for Ubuntu. In Ubuntu, is it possible to get a list of applications that can open a specified file (from the command line?)

Answer 1

You can use mimeopen command to list the applications which is capable of opening the file.

Example: Say If I have to open a tar file. I can use the command

mimeopen -d test.tar

The sample output will be something like this

$mimeopen -d test.tar 
Please choose a default application for files of type application/x-tar

    1) Archive Manager  (file-roller)
    2) Archive Mounter  (mount-archive)
    3) Other...

use application #

When you choose the 3rd option, you will be asked to enter a command which is capable of opening a tar file.