Re: How to open pdf file links with evince under linux?..

["Jan Böcker" <jan.boecker@jboecker.de>]

On 23.03.2010 10:17, Leo Alekseyev wrote:
> When using org mode under windows, links to local PDF files bring up
> Acrobat.  However, under linux, these links just spawn a new empty
> buffer in emacs in fundamental mode.  How can I make PDF links bring
> up evince?...
> 

As far as I know, Org uses the system defaults when it does not know how
to open a file, and when the system does not know, Org opens the file in
emacs. Under linux, that system default is the mailcap database, but I
have no idea how to configure that. (It doesn't even appear to exist on
my system.)

But we can tell Org directly what to do with PDF files: take a look at
the variable org-file-apps (M-x customize-variable org-file-apps).

Each entry in this list consists of (selector, action) pairs where the
action tells Org how to open a file, and the selector (in most cases a
regular expression matched against the file name) specifies what kind of
files to open in this way.

Add the following entry:

Extension:	\.pdf\'
Command:	evince %s

Links to PDF files should now open in evince.


If you pull the current git version of Org, you could add a second entry:

Extension:	\.pdf::\([0-9]+\)\'
Command:	evince %s -p %1

This would allow you to link to a specific page of a PDF like this:
[[file:/path/to/document.pdf::21]]
(Shameless plug for a patch of mine that just got accepted.)


HTH, Jan