I know how to change the application associated with (opens) a 
particular file type finding an instance of the file type, getting to 
the preferences for that type through the GUI, etc., a very time 
consuming process.

For each window manager (Gnome, KDE, ... ) is there a systems text file, 
or, in the worst case, a file in each user's directory, that controls 
this association?  If so, will the simple editing of this file (these 
files) suffice upon the next startup of the window manager (login by a 
user)?  Do EL 5 and EL 6 versions of a window manager use the same 
configuration file(s) in this regard (e.g., has the method to configure 
Gnome, KDE, etc., change between EL 5 and EL 6)?

If each window manager uses a particular associations configuration file 
different from other window managers, a list or matrix of the file name 
and absolute path(s) would be appreciated.

Does the associations configuration file syntax accept an absolute path 
to the application from the root directory
(e.g., /usr/local/bin/foobar)?

Is the association by extension or by internal file attributes 
irrespective of extension (e.g., if foobar is a pdf file, will the 
association only work for foobar.pdf or will foobar suffice)?

I have done some reading of the documentation, but not the developer 
internals documents; any clarification would be appreciated.

Yasha Karant