Making vim the default editor when I double click a file

Question

When I run vim from the start menu, it opens up an xfce terminal window and runs vim. However, when I set vim to be my default text editor and double-click a file, it runs in xterm instead of the xfce terminal for some reason. I'd rather have it run in the xfce terminal all the time because xterm's text size is too small on my screen.

I tried changing the vim.desktop file to try to force vim to start in xfce4-terminal:

Exec=vim %F

to:

Exec=xfce4-terminal -e vim %F

but when I double clicked a file, it just started in xterm again before immediately closing. Can someone offer insight?

Here's the rest of the vim.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Vim
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Icon=vim
TryExec=vim
Exec=xfce4-terminal -e vim %F
NoDisplay=false
Categories=TextEditor;Utility;
MimeType=text/plain;
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=true

spaok · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-23 16:05:36Z

1

This is old post, but I was just looking for this, so here's what worked for me.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Vim
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Icon=vim
TryExec=vim
Exec=xfce4-terminal -e "vim %F"
NoDisplay=false
Categories=TextEditor;Utility;
MimeType=text/plain;
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false

quote the vim command and set terminal to false

answered Oct 23, 2018 at 16:05

spaok

111 bronze badge

Oh man this saved my day! You really need to use Terminal=false!

71GA
– 71GA

2020-04-09 20:36:27 +00:00
Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 20:36

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