The file mimeapps.list is supposed to be a file for allowing a sysadmin for changing default application or mime associations - see http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-actions-spec . However, kde-settings owns the file /usr/share/kde-settings/kde-profile/default/share/applications/mimeapps.list On a F16 system it contains: [Added Associations] application/x-bittorrent=kde4-ktorrent.desktop;kde4-kget.desktop; application/x-rpm=kde4-apper.desktop;gpk-install-file.desktop; I think this stuff should be in defaults.list rather than mimeapps.list. I also don't see why kde-settings owns mimeapps.list. If it does, it should mark it as a configuration file so that sysadmin modifications are not overwritten when the package is upgraded. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kde-settings-4.7-13.fc16.4.noarch
It's not that simple. :( Note the spec says "This hasn't been finalized in a cross-desktop way yet..." In short, Gnome uses defaults.list KDE uses a combination of InitialPreference key in the .desktop files and mimeapps.list Let me see if I can come up with a solution for you (though the %config suggestion has some merit too)
Marking files under /usr as %config doesn't strike me as that great an idea. I think we should prepend a directory under /etc to the default search path, like we did for the KConfig search path (see kdelibs-4.6.90-kstandarddirs.patch). In this case, it should be enough to create /etc/kde/xdgdata/applications and prepend /etc/kde/xdgdata to the XDG_DATA_DIRS path.
on the other hand, perhaps we could shuffle the ordering a bit to allow use of /usr/local for this purpose as well, ie, move /usr/local/share priority to be higher than /usr/share/kde-settings/kde-profile/default/share ?
though in doing so, I'd loathe the bug reports from other installers mucking with /usr/local (chrome, acroread), breaking stuff, and our having to explain why it's their and not our fault. :(
Yeah, the directory the proprietary crap dumps its crap into shouldn't be trusted any more than /dev/urandom as a source of user preferences. ;-)
So, I guess we're happy with the status quo? (I'll mark WORKSFORME then)