How do I make Org-mode open PDF files in Evince?

Question

In Org-mode when I try to open a link to a PDF file nothing happens. Also, when I do C-c C-e d to export as LaTeX and process to PDF and open the PDF is generated

Answer 1

You can use a construct similar to https://stackoverflow.com/a/3985552/789593 but adapt it to PDF files and Evince. What you want to do is to alter the list org-file-apps. This can be done by adding the following to your .emacs:

;; PDFs visited in Org-mode are opened in Evince (and not in the default choice) https://stackoverflow.com/a/8836108/789593
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
      '(lambda ()
         (delete '("\\.pdf\\'" . default) org-file-apps)
         (add-to-list 'org-file-apps '("\\.pdf\\'" . "evince %s"))))

This will delete the default setting for PDF files and instead open them in Evince (and retain everything else included in org-file-apps). I am new to elisp so I do not know if this solution is robust, but it works for me and seems to be more elegant than the one below.

Another option, which seems uglier, is to instead look up the default values and set them all that but change the value for PDF files:

;; PDFs visited in Org-mode are opened in Evince (and other file extensions are handled according to the defaults)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
      '(lambda ()
         (setq org-file-apps
           '((auto-mode . emacs)
             ("\\.mm\\'" . default)
             ("\\.x?html?\\'" . default)
             ("\\.pdf\\'" . "evince %s")))))