> From: Ihor Radchenko <[email protected]>
> Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2025 16:45:39 +0000
>
> Anush V <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> I believe there’s a bug in org-open-at-point. The help text states
>> that with a double prefix argument (C-u C-u C-c C-o), it should “try
>> to open outside of Emacs, in the application the system uses for this
>> file type.” However, when I use this command with a double prefix
>> argument on a media file link in org file (e.g.,
>> [[file:big_buck_bunny.webm]]), the media file opens inside Emacs
>> instead of externally in mpv (my default video player).
>
> That's because we use mailcap to deduce the program to be used outside
> Emacs.
I wasn’t aware of mailcap. Thanks for letting me know!
> See `org-file-apps-gnu'. You can customize `org-file-apps' to
> change the default system handler from mailcap to, say, xdg-open.
With this configuration in “emacs --no-init” (also tested with
org-version 9.7.30)
(require 'org)
(setopt org-file-apps-gnu '((remote . emacs) (system . "xdg-open %s") (t .
"xdg-open %s")))
I get the message “Running xdg-open
/home/<username>/big_buck_bunny.webm...done” but doesn’t open mpv.
pdf files open properly with the default pdf viewer, however.
This might be similar to the "failing silently" issue mentioned at
https://list.orgmode.org/orgmode/874jedoo4d.fsf@localhost/, but I’m
not sure.
>> This behavior is inconsistent because dired-do-open (E) in dired
>> buffer correctly opens the same file in mpv.
>
> Dired uses `shell-command-do-open', which is a recent addition to Emacs.
> Org uses mailcap historically, and it is debatable whether we should
> change the historic behavior:
> https://list.orgmode.org/orgmode/874jedoo4d.fsf@localhost/
>
> In summary, it is not a bug, but we have been considering to move closer
> to what dired does.
Sure.
--
Regards,
Anush
