Ubuntu – How to make Sublime Text 3 the default text editor

sublime-texttext-editor

I'd like to replace gedit, and use Sublime Text 3 as my default text editor for all text files on my Ubuntu system. Can you let me know how do I go about making this change?

Best Answer

These instructions assume that you have installed Sublime Text 3 using the .deb file provided for Ubuntu. If you downloaded the tarball and installed it manually, you will need to change the paths below to your install location.

First, make sure that /usr/share/applications/sublime_text.desktop exists (sublime-text.desktop on some systems):

ls /usr/share/applications/sublime_text.desktop

Then, open /usr/share/applications/defaults.list with Sublime:

subl /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Search for all instances of gedit and replace them with sublime_text. Save the file, log out and back in, and you should be all set.

If for some reason /usr/share/applications/sublime_text.desktop (or sublime-text.desktop) doesn't exist, create it:

sudo touch /usr/share/applications/sublime_text.desktop

Open it in Sublime:

subl /usr/share/applications/sublime_text.desktop

and paste the following into it:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Sublime Text
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=Sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose
Exec=/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text %F
Terminal=false
MimeType=text/plain;
Icon=sublime-text
Categories=TextEditor;Development;
StartupNotify=true
Actions=Window;Document;

[Desktop Action Window]
Name=New Window
Exec=/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text -n
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

[Desktop Action Document]
Name=New File
Exec=/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text --command new_file
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

However, if you installed Sublime Text using the .deb file downloaded from sublimetext.com, the file should already exist.

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Ubuntu – How to update Sublime Text 2

SublimeText does not store its settings and plugins (at least those you downloaded using PackageControl) in the same directory as the editor itself (/usr/lib/sublime-text-2 in your case) - the settings are stored in /home/(yourusername)/.config/sublime-text-2/, so they won't be overridden when you install a new version.

But, just in case, you can make a backup copy of your current install before unpacking. Something like this would do:

sudo mv /usr/lib/sublime-text-2 /usr/lib/sublime-text-2.old
sudo tar jxf "/var/cache/sublime-text-2/Sublime Text 2 Build 2181.tar.bz2" /usr/lib

Just to note: installing stuff from tarballs into /usr is very wrong, if you must use system directories use /opt at least. Otherwise SublimeText runs just fine from a location in your home directory. Here I wrote a bit more on the matter: https://askubuntu.com/a/172753/14564

Ubuntu – Sublime text as default editor for all text files

The solution provided by Anwesha will work but you will have to manually make sublime text your default opening application for all file formats.

What worked for me in 17.10 was the following: First what you need is the path to the executable file for sublime text I have ST 3 and it was at

/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text

Then open your terminal and use the following commands:

    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor gnome-text-editor /path/to/executablesublime 100

Then enter:

    sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-text-editor

This will bring up a list of the available alternatives, where the default is marked by an asterisk. If sublime text is not it, then select it now by entering corresponding number. Make sure sublime-text's priority is the highest.

And you're done! Hope this helps :D

Best Answer

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