[SOLVED] How do I change the default editor to use as root?

nokangaroo · 03-28-2011, 04:07 PM

How do I change the EDITOR environment variable so it stays changed? I already put a line

EDITOR=/bin/nano

in /etc/environment, and I also tried

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

to no avail; when I do gksu nautilus in Debian and open a config file I get abiword, and when I run the script "open as administrator" in Ubuntu I open Emacs if it is installed (I'd like to learn Emacs but not use it right away for simple editing tasks). How come? How can I make nano stick in all cases? I'll keep looking but have not yet found anything useful.

TobiSGD · 03-28-2011, 04:11 PM

The EDITOR variable only counts for shell operations. In Nautilus you have to change the settings also. I am not using Nautilus, but I would think that it works somewhat similar as in thunar: Right-click on a text-file, then click on "Open with"->"Other application" and choose your application.

nokangaroo · 03-28-2011, 05:45 PM

Thanks, TobiSGD. It is possible to make nano appear in the "Open with" window but it won't work. I just remembered something and edited /etc/gnome/defaults.list by replacing all instances of abiword.desktop with gedit.desktop. (Edited that file 2 years ago to replace totem with vlc). I will do that in ubuntu too and reinstall Emacs. The ubuntu root-sudo page also tells me of a drag-and drop sudo, a desktop launcher that reads

gksudo "gnome-open %u"

and will prompt for a password when you drag a file on it. For the record, the "open as admin" script is in $HOME/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts (at least in ubuntu) and goes

for uri in $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS; do
gksudo "gnome-open $uri" &
done

So I guess this is solved. I'll just go and see if this also works in Debian.

TobiSGD · 03-28-2011, 05:48 PM

Just for clarification: Since nano is a command-line program you have to start it in a terminal.

nokangaroo · 03-28-2011, 05:54 PM

Thank you. I guess I was a bit confused about this. As for the script mentioned above, it also works in Debian (make it executable). Also for the record, I know that you know all this but some people who read this might be interested. It seems I keep answering my own questions, assuming they might be of some interest. I hope this is okay.