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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, you can change it. This page explains how to do that.
Step 1: 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.
Step 2: 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
Step 3: 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:
12/04/2024