Get downloadable applications that can open a specific file type

Solution 1:

PackageKit allows you to search for applications by mime-type. Sadly, the Ubuntu devs haven't put much effort into integrating PackageKit with Ubuntu by default, but it still works surprisingly well.

First, make sure you've installed the graphical toolkit for PackageKit, gnome-packagekit-tools .

Then, run gpk-install-mime-type on the command line, followed by a mime-type. For example:

gpk-install-mime-type text/plain

Screenshots:

Solution 2:

My guess is you would need to compile the information yourself. You would need to compile the file types and associations with programs in the package manager. A lengthy task, but I'd be happy to help. Sounds like a worth while project. We could even open source the task and get others to help. You can go to my site and send me an email from the contact form.

Other then that known file types are stored internally in most linux distros to a smaller degree. Here is a question that addresses that Where are file associations stored?