Linux - DesktopThis forum is for the discussion of all Linux Software used in a desktop context.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Do you mean to start the program or find out what the default mail application is?
The name of the program's executable binary should run it from the command line (For Debian's Icedove, for example, that's icedove, all lower case). If it's the latter, it would help to know what desktop environment you are using. Different desktops have different conventions for storing items such as file associations and the like.
I'm running Debian 7 with Gnome classic or Xfce, and LinuxMint Olivia with Cinnamon. I don't need to run the mailer, what I need is a command that identifies the default mailer to a bash shell script. Thunderbird is the default on LinuxMint. I wasn't impressed so I switched to Evolution. Now both binaries are on the system, so $(which evolution) and $(which thunderbird) both return results. .thunderbird and .evolution directories both exist in my home directory, sop testing for one or the other won't work. Do you have a suggestion?
Found something. On a LinuxMint machine, under System Settings, I changed the default browser, exited, then ran "find ~ -mmin -1 -type f", which showed me the 2 files that had been modified in the past minute. ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list was a hit, it shows several default apps including the mailer. I can run "grep mailto .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list" to display the default mailer, or "grep http .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list" for the default browser, etc. It works on the Debian box too. I'll use it until it breaks.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.