Also reported as:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnumeric/+bug/570836

What makes you think Gnumeric is wrong as opposed to the checker being
wrong?

Morten, it is pretty clear that "zz-application" is not registered, see http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/

On the other hand it is in use:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/p8docs/v4r5m1/topic/com.ibm.p8.doc/admin/publishing/pub_supported_gold_list.htm
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Word_Document_%28DOC%29

There are other not registered media types. Chemists currently use x-chemical. update-desktop-database might emit a warning, not an error. I thing the bug, if any, is there, not in gnumeric.desktop.

See also bug 129833 and bug 152159.

We really have to specify the mime types that are in de-facto use whether they are "legal" or not.

so ->WONTFIX

Actually I think you don't need to specify those mime types: the right thing is to have them registered as aliases to the real valid mime types in shared-mime-info, and then it will all just work.

See https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41286#c6

I understand that the mime-types in question have just been added to the shared-mime-info database as aliases.

So there will be quite some time until this will in fact be in all distributions. (I have reason to assume that more people compile Gnumeric from git than install the updated shared-mime-info database separate from a distribution update.)

So I don't think we should drop these mime-types until we see them in the recent distributions and we can test that using those aliases in shared-mime-info in fact works.

(In reply to comment #8)
> I understand that the mime-types in question have just been added to the
> shared-mime-info database as aliases.

Actually, I don't think they've be committed yet :-) Hopefully, they'll be in soon.

> So there will be quite some time until this will in fact be in all
> distributions. (I have reason to assume that more people compile Gnumeric from
> git than install the updated shared-mime-info database separate from a
> distribution update.)
> 
> So I don't think we should drop these mime-types until we see them in the
> recent distributions and we can test that using those aliases in
> shared-mime-info in fact works.

Right, it makes sense to wait a bit before removing them.

This has been fixed in update-desktop-database
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41286
and recommends that the MIME type be changed:

# update-desktop-database 
Warning in file "/usr/share/applications/fedora-gnumeric.desktop": usage of MIME type "zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls" is discouraged ("zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls" should be replaced with "application/vnd.ms-excel")

No, it should not be replaced.

Maybe we should have "application/vnd.ms-excel" too, if we do not already
have it, but that is a different story.

See http://filetonic.com/blog/2008/03/20/what-is-file-extension-xls/
or http://dotwhat.net/xls/24/

"zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls" exists.  Reality wins over the spec.

Morten, I think the point is that in the freedesktop database (and desktop-file-utils), "zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls" is now (supposedly) listed as an alias for application/vnd.ms-excel. So once this has landed in the various OS distribution it should not need to be specified any longer in Gnumeric.

But any change in Gnumeric cannot happen until those change are in fact included in shipping distributions and we have tested that the effect is in fact correct.

We still get this with 0.21 (and changes in git look to not change this):
       /usr/share/applications/gnumeric.desktop: warning: value "application/x-gnumeric;application/vnd.ms-excel;application/excel;application/msexcel;application/x-excel;application/x-ms-excel;application/x-msexcel;application/x-xls;application/xls;application/x-dos_ms_excel;zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls;application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet;application/tab-separated-values;text/csv;text/x-csv;text/spreadsheet;text/tab-separated-values;application/vnd.lotus-1-2-3;application/x-123;application/vnd.sun.xml.calc;application/vnd.sun.xml.calc.template;application/x-applix-spreadsheet;application/x-mps;application/x-oleo;application/x-planperfect;application/x-quattropro;application/x-sc;application/x-sylk;application/x-dbase;application/x-dbf;application/x-xbase;" for key "MimeType" in group "Desktop Entry" contains value "zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls" which is a MIME type that should probably not be used: "zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls" should be replaced with "application/vnd.ms-excel"

You will keep getting that until update-desktop-database (not Gnumeric)
gets fixed.  That's where the problem is.

Was it reported to update-desktop-database upstream?

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75014

*** Bug 729319 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

The shared-mime-info aliases have been around for a couple of years now, and are likely widely deployed. Do you think it'd be possible for you to switch over to the preferred MIME types, or do you want to give it more time?

You should be able to see the aliases using e.g.

grep ^zz-application /usr/share/mime/aliases

I have that alias now.  Andreas?

Just to summarize: you want to eliminate the "zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls"
entry.  Correct?

$ grep ^zz-application /usr/share/mime/aliases
zz-application/zz-winassoc-123 application/vnd.lotus-1-2-3
zz-application/zz-winassoc-cab application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed
zz-application/zz-winassoc-cdr application/vnd.corel-draw
zz-application/zz-winassoc-doc application/msword
zz-application/zz-winassoc-hlp application/winhlp
zz-application/zz-winassoc-mdb application/vnd.ms-access
zz-application/zz-winassoc-uu text/x-uuencode
zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls application/vnd.ms-excel

But I still don't understand why it needs to be replaced.

(In reply to Morten Welinder from comment #19)
> Just to summarize: you want to eliminate the "zz-application/zz-winassoc-xls"
> entry.  Correct?

Yeah.

(In reply to Andreas J. Guelzow from comment #20)
> But I still don't understand why it needs to be replaced.

The overall idea is to keep desktop files consistent across applications and free from cruft. Preferring official IANA Media Types, as far as possible, is a part of that goal.

I realize this is a very minor issue in the context of Gnumeric -- but in the context of a desktop install with many applications and multiple DEs, the issues tend to add up.

This problem has been fixed in our software repository. The fix will go into the next software release. Once that release is available, you may want to check for a software upgrade provided by your Linux distribution.

Nice, thanks!

*** Bug 766471 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***