Mediator

Emacs open-with dialog for opening files in mime-type fitting application.

Description

This package uses xdg mime type information (which works only on freedesktops like those on GNU/linux) to present an open-with menu for opening files in an external application as a separate process. Additionally it provides some handy tools to associate applications with mime-types.

Installation

Until this package is available on MELPA, this package can be installed by downloading the mediator.el file and loading with adding

(load-file "<download-directory>/mediator.el")

to your init file.

You can also install it using straight:

(use-package mediator
  :straight '(mediator
              :type git
              :host github
              :repo "dalanicolai/mediator") 
  )

or you could use a Quelpa recipe.

On Spacemacs you can install the package by adding the following to your list of additional packages:

(mediator :location (recipe
                     :fetcher github
                     :repo "dalanicolai/mediator"))

Additionally you may be be interested in installing embark and/or ivy and all-the-icons-ivy-rich (see Complementary packages).

Usage

From a file-visiting buffer invoke M-x mediator-open-with. Select the desired application to open the file with. The command prints the chosen application and the command used to launch the application.

Comment

• To retrieve the shell command to launch the application, the package simply uses

the first ‘word’ in its desktop-icon’s `Exec` field. If the app does not launch then, in the message buffer, check the command that was used to launch it.

• If the XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable is not defined on your system then either set it using setenv or set the mediator-data-directories variable directly in your init file.

Associating an application with a mime-type

If your desired application is not in the list, then add the file its mime-type to the MimeType field in its desktop file. Use M-x mediator-get-mime-type to print the file its mime-type. Then use M-x mediator-get-desktop-file to quickly navigate to the desktop (if you don’t know where the desktop file is located then you could first use the locate command, in Emacs or otherwise in the terminal to locate the file). To insert the mime type run mediator-get-mime-type with a prefix argument C-u M-x mediator-get-mime-type (if the buffer is read only then use mediator-sudo-edit to sudo edit the file). Finally, after saving the file, M-x mediato-update-mime-database and type your sudo password to update the desktop database(s).

See the next section for extended features using complementary packages.

Spacemacs

Spacemacs users might like to define a keybinding in the user-config section of their init file, for example:

(spacemacs/set-leader-keys "fo" 'mediator-open-with)

Complementary packages

Embark

The Embark package allows for executing actions on various objects (e.g. on filenames). You can add the mediator-open-file action to the embark keymap by adding the following lines to your init file:

(with-eval-after-load 'embark
  (define-key embark-file-map "o" 'mediator-open-file))

Ivy

If you are using Ivy, then you can add the mediator-open-file command as an ivy action (e.g. under m) as follows:

(ivy-add-actions
 t
 '(("m" mediator-open-file "mediator-open")))

all-the-icons-ivy-rich

This package support icons with all-the-icons-ivy-rich. It is important that this package gets loaded before all-the-icons-ivy-rich-mode gets activated (or otherwise, re-activate it).

You use all-the-icons-ivy-rich then you can set icons for application by adding definitions to all-the-icons-app-icon-alist.

Helm/Selectrum etc.

This package should work with all completion frameworks, but it does not add support for icons. PR’s are welcome!

Feedback

Any feedback, suggestions, PR’s are welcome…