Default applications

To change the default application associated with a filetype you must use the xdg-mime command and point to the desired desktop file (if it doesn't exist, you must create one).

Example

In the following example we want to make mupdf the default command to open pdf files. First you need to create a desktop file, because mupdf doesn't provide one.

Contents of ~/.local/share/applications/mupdf.desktop

[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Terminal=false Exec=/usr/bin/mupdf-gl Name=mupdf

Then you must use xdg to associate the desktop file with the pdf extension.

$ xdg-mime default mupdf.desktop application/pdf

That's all.

See also

• ArchWiki: Default applications