How do I force gedit to open a specific file each time I boot my computer?

Question

This post here served as a guide at my attempt to force the gedit Text Editor to open a specific file each time I startup my computer. Here are the steps I took:

1. Create a sample directory and sample text file via mkdir ~/sample && touch ~/sample/sample.txt.
2. Add the gedit Text Editor to my startup applications via the GNOME Tweak Tool.
3. Modify the gedit startup command via Startup Applications Preferences. Change the startup command from gedit %U to gedit ~/sample/sample.txt. I also eventually tried gedit "~/sample/sample.txt", which didn't work.
4. Save, Close, Restart

Upon reboot, gedit Text Editor is automatically launched, but the file opened is "Untitled Document 1". Why isn't gedit opening "~/sample/sample.txt" as I commanded it to? As a test I issued the gedit ~/sample/sample.txt command into GNOME Terminal and it did open "sample.txt" in gedit, as you'd expect.

What's wrong with my process described above? Why isn't "sample.txt" loading upon each restart of my computer, instead of "Untitled Document 1".

Answer 1

If you meant open a file when you log in, then you could use the "Startup Applications", choose add a program and on the command field you type gedit /path/to/file. You could also add the startup action via terminal by doing the following:

echo '[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=gedit /path/to/file
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name[en_US]=Gedit_to_file
Name=Gedit_to_file
Comment[en_US]=Opens file using gedit
Comment=Opens file using gedit
' > $HOME/.config/autostart/filegedit.desktop
chmod +x $HOME/.config/autostart/filegedit.desktop

This adds the action you want to do to the list of startup programs. Note: You should not be using "~" to point to your home directory when creating a script/program, instead use /home/username/