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Setting a default application on DICE
On DICE some types of files - for instance PDF documents - have a default application. This is the application that will be used when you click on the icon for a file or open a file that your web browser cannot view directly. If you don't like the default, it can be changed. This page explains how to do that.
Find out the MIME type
Each file has a "MIME type". To find out what it is, start a terminal window and type mimetype
and the name of the file. For example:
$ mimetype guide.pdf guide.pdf: application/pdf
In this example, the MIME type of a PDF document is application/pdf.
Find the default application
To find out the default application for a particular MIME type, use gio mime
. For instance:
$ gio mime application/pdf Default application for “application/pdf”: org.gnome.Evince.desktop Registered applications: org.gnome.Evince.desktop gimp.desktop google-chrome.desktop inkscape.desktop libreoffice-draw.desktop pdfarranger.desktop display-im6.q16.desktop Recommended applications: org.gnome.Evince.desktop gimp.desktop google-chrome.desktop inkscape.desktop libreoffice-draw.desktop pdfarranger.desktop display-im6.q16.desktop
Set the default application
You can also use gio mime
to change the default application - for example:
$ gio mime application/pdf gimp.desktop Set gimp.desktop as the default for application/pdf
Last reviewed:
08/07/2022