how to set file associantions

[texjunky]

I have two related problems.

1. I have written a program that does mathematical modeling. I want to use .mod a the extension for its input files. However, LMDE associates .mod with a music program. How can I change that?

2. I use a 3D drawing program called sketch. I would like to use .sk as an extension for its textual input files. However, the file browser refuses to open files with this extension. How do I designate .sk files as text files to be opened with the text editor?

[rossdv8]

Depending on which File Manager you use, the method should be similar to the 'easy way' in Mint Xfce.
Open the File Manager
Right click the file.mod
Choose 'Open with' and look at the bottom of the Context Menu, below the list of Apps.
You should have an option like 'Other Application'
Click that
Look at the bottom of that for a check box like [ ] 'Remember application for all files of type "mod"
Put a check mark in the box [X] 'Remember appl...' etc

There should be a list that looks like your main App Menu with various Category submenu items and + next to them
Find your program if it is in one of them. If you have used a menu editor or the App Finder, to add your program to the menu, it should be in whatever category you added it. You might need to click the + to expand each one.

If it is not in the Main Menu, it might not show in the list in any Category. In that case you might have to add it manually to the menu.

If you don;t know how to add your program, you might have some reading to do or someone here who uses LMDE will help.

In the mean time this might get you started.

[texjunky]

Thanks! your suggestions work for a single file. However, even if I uncheck the default association, the change is not persistent.

[rossdv8]

Strange.
In normal Mint (Ubuntu Based with Xfce in my case), it doesn't matter which of my file managers I use, as long as I put the check mark in the Square or the dot in the Radio Button where it says to remember or use as default, it is persistent.

It must be a distribution version thing, rather than a file manager thing.

In Ubuntu based Linux, like Mint, the file associations should be in a 'defaults.list' file. There's one in /usr/share/applications/ but from memory it is probably a link to somewhere else.

I suppose LMDE uses a more debiany approagc, so a bit of searching brought the following link from Arch linux about their tool to set the mime types using xdg-utils.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xd ... figuration

Might not be the solution, but if you haven't seen it, it might be something to investigate.

[texjunky]

I saw elsewhere on this forum the suggestion to use thunar rather than nemo which ships with LMDE. That seems to help with the persistence problem.

However, the musical note icon is still shown with .mod files. I now think that the Mime system may have to .mod extension locked up.

Anyway, I am going to cave on trying to use .mod extension and try .model.