xdg-open – Opening a URL with xdg-open Using Mozilla Remote Protocol

freedesktopxdg-open

Older versions of Netscape and Mozilla (for X11) supported the so-called remote protocol: it was possible to open a URL or start composing an e-mail whenever a Netscape/Mozilla window (not necessarily from a local process) was open on the current DISPLAY.

The "remote" feature worked either way: either from a remote client to a local browser, or vice versa, or even from a remote host1 to a remote host2, provided both could connect to the local DISPLAY.

Here's the documentation for:

Rudimentary support for remote requests has been preserved in SeaMonkey, too, so even nowadays it supports arguments like openURL(%url%,new-tab) and openURL(%url%,new-window)

Now, I want to create a custom *desktop file which would launch SeaMonkey with exactly those arguments.

The problem is, in this form:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=seamonkey %u

%u expansion works, while in this one:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=seamonkey -remote openURL(%u)

it doesn't: %u gets expanded only if it's surrounded with spaces.

The desktop entry specification doesn't mention this, so this is both an undocumented and unexpected behaviour.

Can you suggest any workaround?

Best Answer

I cannot say anything about the specification but as far as just the result matters I (not being familiar with the quoting in such files, though) would expect this to work:

Exec=bash -c 'echo seamonkey openURL"($1)"' seamonkey-wrapper %u%

Related Solutions

Desktop Environment – How xdg-open Works

Look at the content of the xdg-open file, and you will notice that it is a simple shell script. Its main task is identifying the desktop environment in use, which will then be used to delegate the task to a specific tool:

KDE delegates to kde-open or kfmclient
Gnome delegates to gvfs-open or gnome-open
Mate delegates to gvfs-open or mate-open
XFCE delegates to exo-open
LXDE delegates to pcmanfm, with fallback to “generic” for most URLs
Enlightenment delegates to enlightenment_open
Everything else is termed “generic”, and the script tries its own luck

So the core message is this: in most situations, one of these delegates will do the actual work, so you should check about how these are configured.

For example, I'm running XFCE, so xdg-open calls exo-open which uses the XFCE settings available through the XFCE settings user interface and stored in ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list.

For details about the config files in use, strace -e file can be useful. And if you are in the “generic” situation and want to see what xdg-open itself does, you can try sh -x `which xdg-open` file.name.

Is there a FreeDesktop command to open an open-with dialog similar to xdg-open

mimeopen is what you're looking for. Specifically mimeopen's -a or --ask option.

From the man page:

   -a, --ask
       Do not execute the default application but ask which
       application to run.  This does not change the default
       application.

Otherwise, it depends on your desktop environment and/or file browser. For example, xfce's Thunar file browser has an `Open With" option when you right-click on a filename, which displays a menu with all apps known to be capable of opening the file's filetype. The final menu item is "Open with Other Application" (which optionally lets you change the default).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Desktop Environment – How xdg-open Works

Is there a FreeDesktop command to open an open-with dialog similar to xdg-open

Related Question