How to open some files based on extension rather than mime type?

[John Hupp]

I was looking at this further, and found out that 
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list was officially deprecated in 
4/14.  See, for instance, 
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/distributor-list/2015-January/msg00000.html 
and also the current spec at 
http://standards.freedesktop.org/mime-apps-spec/mime-apps-spec-latest.html 
which instead specifies the use of a mimeapps.list at one location or 
another.

Lubuntu 14.04 seems to implement some sort of mixture of the deprecated 
and current spec.  I have not been able to pin it down with precision.

The LibreOffice installation wrote a full complement of mime type 
associations to /usr/share/applications/defaults.list.  But PCmanFM does 
not look at that -- it opens an ODT file with AbiWord.  I have yet to 
figure out what it looks at by default. Anyone know?

If I R-click on a file: Open With and check the box to make the current 
app the default for opening the file, then PCmanFM writes to 
~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list with the minimal entries 
required to set the desired mime type association.  And then for the 
current user, ODT files open with LibreOffice.

Oddly enough, though PCmanFM writes to a mimeapps.list (named per the 
new spec), ~/.local/share/applications is not one of the lookup 
locations in the new spec.

I copied ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list to /etc/xdg/lubuntu/, 
which is a lookup location in the new spec. Then I created a new user 
and found that my global mimeapps.list was ineffective.

On 1/15/2015 2:39 PM, Israel wrote:
> You could of course use:
>
> /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
> This hold a bunch of the values you'd normally set using xdg-mime
> It usually contains stuff like:
> application/rtf=libreoffice-writer.desktop
> application/tab-separated-values=libreoffice-calc.desktop
> application/vnd.lotus-1-2-3=libreoffice-calc.desktop
> application/vnd.ms-excel=libreoffice-calc.desktop
> application/vnd.ms-word=libreoffice-writer.desktop
>
> Which you can change to whatever you like.
> This should effect using things like:
> xdg-open mydoc.rtf
> from the terminal, and probably from any application that looks at xdg 
> mime types.
> The first line in my above excerpt defines that 
> libreoffice-writer.desktop will handle this.
>
>
>
> On 01/15/2015 10:38 AM, John Hupp wrote:
>> OK, a happy discovery.  LxSession Default Apps does not do the same 
>> thing as R-Click: Open With: <app> + checking "Always use ..."
>>
>> If I do the latter with an .odt file, then LxSession Default Apps 
>> still has Documents: AbiWord, but odt docs open with LibreOffice.  
>> And abw docs open with AbiWord.
>>
>> I see now also that the properties of an odt file show File Type: 
>> OpenDocument Text.  The format has its own mime type which can be 
>> used (but is not used by default) as the basis for the kind of 
>> granular control I wanted.
>>
>> So lxsession-default-apps and pcmanfm are apparently doing something 
>> different in the back end with mime types.  I read somewhere that 
>> there are perhaps 4 different mime type configuration files which are 
>> respected in some hierarchy.
>>
>> On 1/15/2015 10:17 AM, Andre Rodovalho wrote:
>>> You can set this at*lxsession-default-apps*
>>> *Menu > Preferences > LxSession Default Apps
>>> *
>>> OR
>>>
>>> *Right click* on the file you want to set. Let say, a Document.odt. 
>>> On the menu, choose *Properties*. At the Properties windows, select 
>>> the software you want to open as default on the "*Open With*" 
>>> combobox (drop down menu)... Then hit *OK*.
>>>
>>> Double click the file to see if works...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2015-01-14 17:57 GMT-02:00 John Hupp <lubuntu at prpcompany.com 
>>> <mailto:lubuntu at prpcompany.com>>:
>>>
>>>     I don't understand mime types very well, but it seems like the
>>>     net effect as implemented is that they don't result in very
>>>     granular control.
>>>
>>>     To be specific, I find that if I use LibreOffice Writer to
>>>     create an .odt file, a double-click on the file in pcmanfm
>>>     results in AbiWord opening the file.
>>>
>>>     I would like LibreOffice to open odt files, AbiWord to open abw
>>>     files, and leafpad to open plain text files. But
>>>     lxsession-default-apps merely sets a "Document" launcher.
>>>
>>>     Can set up finer control to open some files according to their
>>>     extension?
>>>
>>>     -- 
>>>     Lubuntu-users mailing list
>>>     Lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>     <mailto:Lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>>     Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>>>     https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/lubuntu-users
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Regards
>
>

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