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#1 2025-06-24 18:49:32
- Tadhg
- Member
- From: Éire
- Registered: 2023-01-19
- Posts: 18
Use terminal file manager as file selector / xdg-mime default
Hello, does anyone know if there is any way to make a terminal file manager (such as in my case lf) be set to the file selector used when for example opening a file in my browser.
Furthermore does anyone know how to set a default terminal in XDG to open directories with a terminal file manager. By default if I run lf via xdg-open it opens in xterm. The only way I found to change this was my adding my preferred terminal to the exec section of the lf.desktop file like so:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=lf
Comment=Launches the lf file manager
Icon=utilities-terminal
Terminal=true
Exec=footclient lf
Categories=ConsoleOnly;System;FileTools;FileManager
MimeType=inode/directory;But I don't like this solution as it feels pretty tacky and also it still opens an empty xterm window for some reason. Surely there's a more principled and effective way of doing this?
Is fuath liom fuinneoga
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#2 2025-06-24 19:32:46
- seth
- Member
- From: Don't DM me only for attention
- Registered: 2012-09-03
- Posts: 73,723
Re: Use terminal file manager as file selector / xdg-mime default
There's not really a standard way to set the default TE - it very much hinges on the desktop environment, xdg-open backend in use
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=286905
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=300118
The file dialogs (typically, there're exceptions) aren't some external process but part of the application.
For clients that seek desktop intergration using xdg-desktop-portal, you'd need a custom portal implementation to run some custom dialog (the file manager will still have to return the selected file - somehow)
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