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philipballew
Asked: 2012-01-23 13:17:40 +0800 CST

How can I change the default text editor from gedit to vim? [duplicate]

  • 772

How can I change the default text editor from gedit to vim? When I click on a text file, I want it to open in vim under the terminal instead of gedit.

command-line

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You don't say how you are clicking on this file, so I will explain a way to do it in Gnome from Nautilus. It should work in other cases, I believe.

    First, to get Vim (or any app) into the "open with other application" list, you need to create a .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications with a line in it like this: Exec=<command> %f. I just made one called vim.desktop with these lines:

    [Desktop Entry]
Categories=;
Comment=Edit file in Vim
Exec=vim %f
GenericName=Text Editor
Hidden=false
Icon=vim
Name=Vim
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Version=1.0

    This made "Vim" appear in the list of possible apps when I right-clicked in Nautilus, and opened the file as expected.

    Let me know if there are any problems.

    • 43

  2. Open defaults.list 

    sudo -H gedit /etc/gnome/defaults.list`

    Replace 

    text/plain=gedit.desktop

    with 

    text/plain=gvim.desktop

    Save and close.

    For more details and screenshot check this answer: How do I stop gedit from opening anything?

    • 22

  3. Save this as ~/.local/share/applications/vim.desktop:

    [Desktop Entry]
Name=Vim Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Exec=vim %F
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Icon=vim
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=text/plain;

    Then in Nautilus right-click on a text file, choose "Properties" and go to "Open with". If vim isn't shown here click "Show other applications". Select vim and click "Set as default".

    • 12

  4. The problem with the vim.desktop approach is that each time it will open a new terminal window, instead of using an existing vim instance. This is probably not what you want, but I don't think there's any way around it.

    The next best thing is using gvim, which is a GUI app, instead of a terminal app.

    • 3

  5. Pure command line based method:

    echo "[Desktop Entry]
Name=Vim Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Exec=vim %F
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Icon=vim
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=text/plain;" > ~/.local/share/applications/vim.desktop
cp /etc/gnome/defaults.list ~/defaults.list.bak # backup
sudo sed -i "s/=gedit\.desktop/=vim\.desktop/" /etc/gnome/defaults.list
mkdir ~/.icons
wget -O ~/.icons/vim.png http://en.xn--icne-wqa.com/images/icones/1/4/vim.png # if you want an icon
    • 2