Replace all editors with Emacs client

I have to work on a Ubuntu system having installed some text editors I would never use. Instead I like to use Emacs client, because I have Emacs always running.

Graphical desktops like Gnome are believed to be user friendly, but it took me more than a hour to replace the useless editors with Emacs client. First it is necessary to remove all existing MIME type associations. Next it is necessary to define a new application. And finally new MIME type associations have to be set. This is done in two files in the directory $HOME/.local/share/applications.

mimeapps.list

This file defines your own associations overriding the system defaults.

emacsclient.desktop

This is a newly defined application necessary to execute Emacs client.

I have cloned the already existing Emacs application to define the Emacs client application. The original Emacs application definition is stored in /usr/share/applications/emacs24.desktop. This is the application definition.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Emacs Client
Type=Application
Terminal=false
MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;
Exec=emacsclient -n %F
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;Development;
Comment=
Keywords=editor
Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/emacs24.svg

Now it is necessary to override the existing MIME type associations. This is done in the section "Default Applications" of the file mimeapps.list.

[Default Applications]
application/x-shellscript=emacsclient.desktop
text/english=emacsclient.desktop
text/plain=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-c++=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-c++hdr=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-c++src=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-c=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-chdr=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-csrc=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-java=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-makefile=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-moc=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-pascal=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-tcl=emacsclient.desktop
text/x-tex=emacsclient.desktop

And next all already existing associations have to be removed. This is done in the section "Removed Associations" of the same file.

[Removed Associations]
application/x-shellscript=emacs24.desktop
text/english=emacs24.desktop
text/plain=emacs24.desktop;gedit.desktop;leafpad.desktop
text/x-c++=emacs24.desktop
text/x-c++hdr=emacs24.desktop
text/x-c++src=emacs24.desktop
text/x-c=emacs24.desktop
text/x-chdr=emacs24.desktop
text/x-csrc=emacs24.desktop
text/x-java=emacs24.desktop
text/x-makefile=emacs24.desktop
text/x-moc=emacs24.desktop
text/x-pascal=emacs24.desktop
text/x-tcl=emacs24.desktop
text/x-tex=emacs24.desktop

The MIME type text/plain had three associations separated by semicolon. After this modifications the file manager PCManFM does not show any useless but only one useful program in the context menu.