Default Applications (简体中文)
Default applications can be set for use with particular file types (e.g. the Firefox web browser for HTML
files). Where undertaken, files may be opened and/or edited with the desired application much faster and more conveniently. There are also numerous methods to configure default applications in Linux. This page will explain the most common methods: File Managers, MIME types, and environment variables.
Contents
Using File Managers
Most file managers will allow for specific applications to be set as the defaults for various file types. New defaults may also be set at any time. For example, to set a default application using thunar, the native file manager for Xfce:
-
right-click
the file-type desired - Select
Open with another application
- Select the desired application
- Ensure that the
Use as default for this kind of file
check-box is ticked - Click the
Open
button.
The general process will be very similar for most other popular file managers, including PCManFM and spacefm.
Using MIME types and desktop entries
The modern method to start applications is using Desktop entries. This way, programs can advertise which kind of files (to be exact: what MIME types) they can open. For instance, gimp.desktop
states MimeType=image/bmp;image/gif;...
.
The recommended way of specifying the preferred (default) applications for MIME types is via the files called mimeapps.list
which may be stored in the directories $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications (usually ~/.local/share/applications)
for high user-level preferences and $XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications (usually /usr/local/share/applications and /usr/share/applications)
for lower system-level preferences. A mimeapps.list
file may have either or both of the following sections, for example:
[Added Associations] text/html=firefox.desktop;chromium.desktop;opera-browser.desktop; image/jpeg=viewnior.desktop;gpicview.desktop;
[Removed Associations] text/html=midori.desktop;google-chrome.desktop; image/jpeg=feh.desktop;
where the [Added Associations]
section specifies preferred (default) applications in decreasing order of preference for the specified MIME type. The [Removed Associations]
section removes any associations made in lower level applications directories.
An older way of specifying preferred (default) applications is via files called defaults.list
may be stored in the same applications directories. These files are now generally only used for read-only special purposes, and mimeapps.list files are now favoured instead. A defaults.list
file has the following section, for example:
[Default Applications] text/html=firefox.desktop;chromium.desktop;opera-browser.desktop; image/jpeg=viewnior.desktop;gpicview.desktop;
Note that Arch Linux itself does not provide any system-wide preferences for associations, but other distributions and specific desktop environments may, via mimeapps.list and/or defaults.list files. Your choice of preferred (default) applications can be conveniently set by several file managers (for example, SpaceFM, Thunar or PCManFM), or you can edit the file ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
yourself as a user. You may also try the "official" utility xdg-mime to set preferred applications, but your mileage to success may vary depending on your desktop environment, or lack of desktop environment.
gnome-defaults-list
gnome-defaults-listAUR is available from the AUR, and contains a list of file-types and programs specific to the Gnome desktop. The list is installed to /etc/gnome/defaults.list
.
Open this file with a text editor. Here you can replace a given application with the name of the program of your choice. For example, the media-player totem
can be replaced with another, such as vlc
. Save the file to ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
.
perl-file-mimeinfo
perl-file-mimeinfo is available from the official repositories. It can be invoked by using the following command:
$ mimeopen -d /path/to/file
You are asked which application to use when opening /path/to/file
:
Please choose a default application for files of type text/plain 1) notepad (wine-extension-txt) 2) Leafpad (leafpad) 3) OpenOffice.org Writer (writer) 4) gVim (gvim) 5) Other...
Your answer becomes the default handler for that type of file. Mimeopen is installed as /usr/bin/perlbin/vendor/mimetype
.
xdg-open
xdg-open is a desktop-independent tool for starting default applications. Many applications invoke the xdg-open
command internally. xdg-open uses xdg-mime to query ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
(among other things; if you use a mainstream DE like GNOME, KDE or LXDE, xdg-open might try using their specific tools before xdg-mime) to find the MIME type of the file that is to be opened and the default application associated with that MIME type.
See xdg-open for more information.
Custom file associations
The following method creates a custom mime type and file association manually. This is useful if your desktop does not have a mime type/file association editor installed. In this example, a fictional multimedia application 'foobar' will be associated with all *.foo
files. This will only affect the current user.
- First, create the file
~/.local/share/mime/packages/application-x-foobar.xml
:
$ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/mime/packages $ cd ~/.local/share/mime/packages $ touch application-x-foobar.xml
- Then edit
~/.local/share/mime/packages/application-x-foobar.xml
and add this text:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"> <mime-type type="application/x-foobar"> <comment>foo file</comment> <icon name="application-x-foobar"/> <glob-deleteall/> <glob pattern="*.foo"/> </mime-type> </mime-info>
Note that you can use any icon, including one for another application.
- Next, edit or create the file
~/.local/share/applications/foobar.desktop
to contain something like:
[Desktop Entry] Name=Foobar Exec=/usr/bin/foobar MimeType=application/x-foobar Icon=foobar Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=AudioVideo;Player;Video; Comment=
Note that Categories should be set appropriately for the application type (in this example, a multimedia app).
- Now update the mime database with:
$ update-mime-database ~/.local/share/mime
Programs that use mime types, such as file managers, should now open *.foo
files with foobar. (You may need to restart your file manager to see the change.)
Maintaining settings for multiple desktop environments
The OnlyShowIn
field of a .desktop file may be useful; see this page. I haven't tried setting this field yet; please update this wiki page if you have any info about using OnlyShowIn
.
Using environment variables
Most non-graphical programs use Environment variables, such as EDITOR
or BROWSER
. These can be set in your terminal's autostart file (e.g. ~/.bashrc
):
~/.bashrc
export EDITOR="nano" export BROWSER="firefox"
Troubleshooting
Sometimes, a certain application will not appear in the right-click Open With... dialog. To fix this problem, locate the .desktop
file in /usr/share/applications
, edit it as root, and add %U
to the end of the Exec=
line. For example, Kile currently has this problem; you need to edit /usr/share/applications/kde4/kile.desktop
and change the line reading Exec=kile
to read Exec=kile %U
. Also, please file a bug against the upstream project if you notice this problem.
You may also have to edit the MimeType
list in the .desktop
file if you install extensions that allow an application to handle additional MIME types.