105

How can I change my default text editor from gedit to Emacs?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    It is answered here: askubuntu.com/questions/977538/… - basically you want to export EDITOR=emacs - and perhaps add that to your .bashrc so it becomes your default.
    – SDsolar
    Nov 17, 2017 at 21:24

12 Answers 12

Reset to default
114

Here is what worked in my case:

  1. Right click on a text file.
  2. Choose "Properties" (not "Open With...")
  3. Click on the "Open With" tab.
  4. Choose your new text editor.
  5. Mark chosen text editor using a button "Set as default".

This also works on 12.04 and 13.04.

@ Edit: based on comments it does work on all distros until 20.04

Improve this answer
16
  • 1
    worked for me on 13.10 (replaced gedit with geany)
    – Alexander Malakhov
    Jan 29, 2014 at 9:35
  • 1
    Works on 16.04 too!
    – Dženan
    Sep 5, 2016 at 15:02
  • 2
    Also works on 17.04
    – Jonas Dahlbæk
    Jul 25, 2017 at 15:38
  • 2
    This works only on the per filetype basis..
    – vstepaniuk
    Feb 16, 2018 at 17:46
  • 2
    Also works on 18.04
    – AlainD
    Aug 15, 2019 at 9:31
54

To change default text editor across the file types, try updating gnome-text-editor configuration. 

sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-text-editor

In some cases:

sudo update-alternatives --config editor
Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    How can someone add another option? In my case I get the following: There is only one alternative in link group gnome-text-editor (providing /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor): /usr/bin/gedit - EDIT: found how to do it: sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor gnome-text-editor /path/to/executablesublime 100 in my case /snap/bin/subl outoutted by which subl.
    – Tadej
    Oct 21, 2021 at 10:58
  • Thanks for this answer! Same here, I added subl first: sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor gnome-text-editor $(which subl) 100. Then it was already selected as editor, as the above command then confirmed.
    – Janos
    Jan 21 at 11:58
15

A more robust solution would be to replace the bindings in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list. 

sed -i 's/gedit/emacs/' /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
Improve this answer
2
  • I don't know how, but by copying this command I accidentally cleared the whole file. I would much prefer doing this in a text editor using find-replace (as explained in this answer) for those who are not too familiar with sed.
    – metakermit
    Apr 5, 2013 at 22:37
  • I did this (in a text editor with find-replace, which should have the same result), then logged out and back in but still C++ header files (*.h) are opened in gedit.
    – Stefan Monov
    Dec 14, 2016 at 15:06
12

I don't use a DE, but for my configurations the next command is the best:

/usr/bin/select-editor
  • it selects your default sensible-editor from all installed editors
  • must run with current user
  • you must have more than one editor in your system

Man pages select-editor

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    +1 Works in 18.04. Does not affect other users. Does not need sudo.
    – Roux
    Apr 23, 2020 at 5:11
  • After setting EDITOR to vi, VISUAL to vi, linking /etc/alternatives/editor or whatever to vi, I still got the pest named nano as the editor when running commands like virsh edit myvm. Applying a level of self-control I would never have guessed I could reach, I am not venting here. NOT VENTING AT ALL!!!! I renamed nano to nano.deleted, then I got several lines of error messages whenever I edited something. select-editor didn't change that. What did help was rm /usr/bin/sensible-editor followed by ln -s /usr/bin/vi /usr/bin/sensible-editor. Life is good.
    – berndbausch
    May 27, 2021 at 6:39
11

Right click on a text file, point to "Open With" and it'll show other editors in a sub-menu. Click on "Other Application...". It'll show you a dialog with a list of applications, select Emacs and make sure the "Remember this application for "plain text document" file" option is checked. Click "Open".

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    I did try this, but I'm having a bit of a problem - whenever I double-click on a file in Nautilus, I get a dialog box that says: "Do you want to run "tasks.css", or display its contents? "tasks.css" is an executable text file." And then there are four options - Run in Terminal, Display, Cancel, Run. (This happens with every file, not just CSS files.)
    – begtognen
    Nov 16, 2010 at 12:05
  • 5
    @begtognen: Sorry for the ultra-late reply. But I've been trying to find a solution for this myself. Just found one - go to Nautlius preferences (Edit > Preferences), select the "Behavior" tab and under the "Executable Text Files" section, select the radio button "View executable text files when they are opened". Fixed the issue for me.
    – Mussnoon
    Nov 22, 2010 at 23:28
  • I tried this also, but Emacs doesn't appear in the list of applications. Any thoughts?
    – MTS
    Apr 1, 2014 at 19:44
  • No "Remember this application" there. When outdated you might want to either delete your answer, or clearly specify for what versions of Ubuntu it works. Thanks! :-)
    – Nicolas Raoul
    Nov 21, 2016 at 2:52
8

If you are working from the terminal then I would add the following to your .bashrc file (or the config file for your favorite shell):

export EDITOR=emacs
export VISUAL=emacs
Improve this answer
1
  • 5
    +1 for this answer. Particularly if you're a user and don't have sudo or don't want to modify anyone else's preferences
    – Loisaida Sam Sandberg
    Dec 13, 2019 at 15:01
3 
sed -i 's/gedit/emacs/g' /etc/gnome/defaults.list
Improve this answer
3

You can set the default text editor for a specific user in # ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list by:

[Default Applications]
text/plain=gedit.desktop

For global configuration for all users you have to modify the /etc/gnome/defaults.list

Improve this answer
2

If you would like to replace gedit with any other text editor for all file types, the easiest is to edit the defaults.list file located here:

/usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Just find and replace all gedit.desktop references with your own editor (in this case emacs.desktop). You need root permissions to edit the file. So, just do: 

sudo -H gedit /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Save the file, close it and it's done.

Improve this answer
2

On Ubuntu 20, you need to change the gnome-text-editor alternatives link from gedit to the one you want. However, there usually is only one such editor detected so update-alternatives --config won't work; you'll have to add the editor you want.

E.g. to add notepadqq:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor gnome-text-editor /usr/bin/notepadqq 50
sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-text-editor
Improve this answer
2

For some reason I had to use xdg-mime:

xdg-mime default org.gnome.gedit.desktop text/plain # For current user

you can use your system-wide .desktop files under /usr/share/applications/ or local files under ~/.local/share/applications/ or create your own.

edit: It's also helpful to know that user configurations are stored in ~/.config/mimeapps.list which overrides the defaults. source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/64850938/9085151

Improve this answer
2
  • Probably your application is opening the archive with xdg-open. To see if it is the case open htop in terminal without closing the opened file and find your open file in the tree.
    – R. W. Prado
    Aug 26, 2021 at 8:33
  • @R.W.Prado I've changed my OS to debian since then, so I don't have access to that system anymore. But now I can easily change it with update-alternatives.
    – etzl
    Aug 26, 2021 at 10:53
-1

To set Pluma as default text editor for all user (global):

sudo sed -i 's|text/plain=gedit.desktop|text/plain=pluma.desktop|g'  /etc/gnome/defaults.list
Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.