Re: setting default pdf viewer

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

[OT warning: no org content here, just gnome/mailcap.]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote:

> > Next question: since xpdf is available and /etc/mailcap prefers it, why
> > is nautilus using evince? Doesn't it use mailcap? I guess not, although
> > I don't know for sure[fn:1], but it wouldn't surprise me if it did its
> > own thing: there are way too many cooks in this kitchen.
> 
> I think most linux desktop environments use something like xdg-open or
> gnome-open to determine defaults applications, all my defaults seem to
> live in /usr/local/share/applications, which can be overridden in the
> home directory. Nautilus ought to use gnome-open. I've tweaked most of
> my "open-in-external-blah" functions (in dired and gnus, for example) to
> use xdg-open, so the same defaults are used in all my applications,
> including emacs.
> 

Thanks! That was useful.

Part of my frustration with these things (gnome things in particular) is
the sparse-to-non-existent documentation, so I really appreciate these
pointers. Or maybe I've given up too easily: is there good documentation
somewhere on the web e.g. of gconftool? Not just the syntax but an
enumeration of possibilities. My impression is that things like this are
hidden, (and in some cases, as time goes on, even if they exist, they
are taken away, so there is some motivation to keep them hidden,
although I'm not thinking conspiracy: it's just that documenting things
is hard.)  I've usually fumbled in the dark with things under ~/.gconf
(or .gnome2 or .gnome) until I've found something plausible. Just to
make my problem concrete: what is the invocation of gconftool that would
change the default pdf viewer to xpdf?

The other way that I eventually figured out to do that is to open some
application, e.g. nautilus, select some PDF file, click on Properties
and change the default application: I find that counterintuitive,
changing the properties of a class through a single instance (and to all
applications that use the mechanism, even though I'm just using
nautilus: I can't help but find this method somewhat distasteful.) And I
like editing files rather than clicking buttons, but that's me.

To get back to your post: my problem with xdg-open with its switch
blades (kde-open, gnome-open, etc) is that each of those has its own
customization methods. So if I ever want to switch from kde to gnome, I
have to redo the customizations (and I have to find out how to do all
that for the new environment).

I'd rather have them all use mailcap for preferred application choice.
And if mailcap does not provide all the capabilities needed by them, I'd
rather they cooperated and came up with a common mechanism that would
serve *all* their needs (plus provide thorough documentation!) But
that's a fight that's been fought and lost many times - many more times
than it's been won.

Enough venting: I've veered off-topic quite a bit here. Apologies for
the length of the (possibly uninformed) rant. If I've got things wrong,
I'd love to be corrected, but I don't want to exercise the patience of
the regulars too much. But I hope that the discussion, however
tangential, is useful.

Thanks,
Nick