Ubuntu – How to (persistently) change default file/program associations in Ubuntu 18.04+

18.04file associationfiles

I am not shown the "Open with …" tab in Files or the "Set as default …" button anymore. This seems to be gone due to a UI change and there is an issue registered at Launchpad.

I know that tools like Ubuntu Tweak have offered such functionality in the past (it is mentioned as a solution in similar questions) but afaik Ubuntu Tweak is no more supported (i.e. not in the repo). One can use mimeopen to adjust this from the command line. And, there is a relatively complicated but generic workaround.

However, I am looking for a GUI-based way and without installing extra packages not in the default Ubuntu repos. Thanks for help!

Best Answer

As for Ubuntu 19.10, the "Set as default" button is accessible by selecting "Properties" on a file contextual menu and going to the tab "Open with".

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Ubuntu – file associations stored

The file manager (Nautilus, by default) uses the MIME type of a file to determine which program to open it with. When an application is installed, it can specify what MIME types it can open and the command to use to open the files in the .desktop file which is placed in /usr/share/applications. This is the file used for menus, desktop shortcuts, etc.

For example, GIMP has the following .desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=GNU Image Manipulation Program
GenericName=Image Editor
Comment=Create images and edit photographs
Exec=gimp-2.7 %U
TryExec=gimp-2.7
Icon=gimp
Terminal=false
Categories=Graphics;2DGraphics;RasterGraphics;GTK;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=GIMP
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=General
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.7.2
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-OtherBinaries=gimp-2.7
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=application/postscript;application/pdf;image/bmp;image/g3fax;image/gif;image/x-fits;image/pcx;image/x-portable-anymap;image/x-portable-bitmap;image/x-portable-graymap;image/x-portable-pixmap;image/x-psd;image/x-sgi;image/x-tga;image/x-xbitmap;image/x-xwindowdump;image/x-xcf;image/x-compressed-xcf;image/tiff;image/jpeg;image/x-psp;image/png;image/x-icon;image/x-xpixmap;image/svg+xml;application/pdf;image/x-wmf;image/jp2;image/jpeg2000;image/jpx;image/x-xcursor;

See the MimeType field - this lists the supported MIME types.The Exec field tells the system to use the command gimp-2.7 %U, replacing '%U' with the files to open. (Note GIMP 2.7 is a version I have installed from a PPA, so is higher than the current version in the Ubuntu repositories).

When the application package is installed, the system extracts this MIME type data into a more easily accessible database because looking in each .desktop file would take too long if it was done every time a file was opened.

This tells the system what applications can be used for that MIME type and provides the applications in the 'Open With' list. The default is defined elsewhere. The file /usr/share/applications/defaults.list provides the information for the system defaults. Unless you choose otherwise, these are the applications used when you 'Open' a file.

Ubuntu – Change all associations from gedit to another application

Running on 13.04+, update the file: /etc/gnome/defaults.list.

sudo sed -i 's/gedit.desktop/sublime-text-2.desktop/g' /etc/gnome/defaults.list

Credit to trent for the update to 13.04+

Pre-13.04:

System wide associations:

sudo sed -i 's/gedit.desktop/sublime-text-2.desktop/g' /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Just your user's associations:

sed -i 's/gedit.desktop/sublime-text-2.desktop/g' ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

Credit to Oli for the naming convention of the .desktop file before I started using SublimeText2.

Best Answer

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