How can I change the default text editor from gedit to vim? [duplicate]
You don't say how you are clicking on this file, so I will explain a way to do it in Gnome from Nautilus. It should work in other cases, I believe.
First, to get Vim (or any app) into the "open with other application" list, you need to create a .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications with a line in it like this: Exec=<command> %f. I just made one called vim.desktop with these lines:
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=;
Comment=Edit file in Vim
Exec=vim %f
GenericName=Text Editor
Hidden=false
Icon=vim
Name=Vim
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Version=1.0
This made "Vim" appear in the list of possible apps when I right-clicked in Nautilus, and opened the file as expected.
Let me know if there are any problems.
Open defaults.list
sudo -H gedit /etc/gnome/defaults.list`
Replace
text/plain=gedit.desktop
with
text/plain=gvim.desktop
Save and close.
For more details and screenshot check this answer: How do I stop gedit from opening anything?
Save this as ~/.local/share/applications/vim.desktop:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Vim Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Exec=vim %F
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Icon=vim
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=text/plain;
Then in Nautilus right-click on a text file, choose "Properties" and go to "Open with". If vim isn't shown here click "Show other applications". Select vim and click "Set as default".
The problem with the vim.desktop approach is that each time it will open a new terminal window, instead of using an existing vim instance. This is probably not what you want, but I don't think there's any way around it.
The next best thing is using gvim, which is a GUI app, instead of a terminal app.
Pure command line based method:
echo "[Desktop Entry]
Name=Vim Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Exec=vim %F
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Icon=vim
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=text/plain;" > ~/.local/share/applications/vim.desktop
cp /etc/gnome/defaults.list ~/defaults.list.bak # backup
sudo sed -i "s/=gedit\.desktop/=vim\.desktop/" /etc/gnome/defaults.list
mkdir ~/.icons
wget -O ~/.icons/vim.png http://en.xn--icne-wqa.com/images/icones/1/4/vim.png # if you want an icon