Created attachment 48083 [details]
xdg-browser script

I've also needed omething like xdg-browser.Thus I've just created a new script called "xdg-browser" which uses xdg-utils functions and codebase. It's acutally based on xdg-terminal, xdg-open and xdg-settings.

I've also add LXDE support. Tested on KDE, LXDE and XFCE without any problem.

I would be glad if someone could review it. If it's OK i'll can create a patch directly from the git repo. I just wanted to notice you. If we could merge this into upstream codebase, then anyone can benefit from it.

Hrm... a patch against git would be more welcome, though I'm still trying to reconcile if it's worth a completely separate utility just because xdg-open currently can't open a blank browser.

What's the use-case for this?

For example some could use generic web-browser.desktop file which uses

Exec=/usr/bin/xdg-browser

That's very handy. Some distros are adding these kind of desktop entries to the panel or desktop. Thus we need something that just launches the preferred browser.

I don't know what Vincent's use-case is. Maybe he can provide more examples.

That one I don't (necessarily) buy, as the same can generally be accomplished by using xdg-open on some local/default html file too (albeit, you lose the ability to display a users' "home" page that way).

The main problem with xdg-open is that it tries to learn mimetype of the URL. This slows down the opening of the browser. OTOH, the command "xdg-open google.com" fails as it searches for a file named "google.com". These behavioural changes are important for some applications.

1.  slows down?  how much?  this should be fairly minimal.
2.  that, and "google.com" isn't exactly a valid URL either.

(In reply to comment #5)
> OTOH, the command "xdg-open
> google.com" fails as it searches for a file named "google.com". These
> behavioural changes are important for some applications.

I agree with rdieter that this is intended/correct behavior. However, there's also the case of a file in the current working directory called http://google.com/ which would properly be accessed with something like file://${PWD}/http://google.com/.

What we need to know is a proper way to get a browser launched without having to specify some dummy URL. Or to be given a dummy URL which is guaranteed to at least open a web-browser. Would something like

$ xdg-open about:blank

be suitable? I.e., is about: a protocol that is recognized by xdg-open as something which a browser should deal with regardless of an about:blank file existing in the current directory or could that be added?

With xdg-utils-1.1.0_rc1_p20110519, I found the following behavior:

The following works if there is no file called `about:blank':
$ xdg-open about:blank

The following opens in my browser, but my browser's launcher script realizes that a file is being referred to and opens it as a file instead of using its internal about:blank URL handler:
$ echo test > about:blank
$ xdg-open about:blank

The following opens the about:blank file with my ${EDITOR}:
$ echo test > about:blank
$ xdg-open file://${PWD}/about:blank

Here it looks like xdg-open is somehow interpretting `about:blank' as a fully-formed URI but isn't convincing my browser to do so since my browser sees the file...

I suppose we should take this onlist, bugzilla isn't really a good forum to carry on a conversation.

Last point I'd like to make here,
"What we need to know is a proper way to get a browser launched without having
to specify some dummy URL".

I'm still waiting for an answer to the question, "why, what's the use-case?"

(In reply to comment #8)
> I'm still waiting for an answer to the question, "why, what's the use-case?"

The use case, regarding what a DE could want, is not limited to the web browser. So yes, having a separate tool for just opening a web browser is not ideal.
What needs to be implemented in freedesktop is a platform-neutral way to store and launch a set of common services, such as:
 - Web browser
 - File manager
 - IM client
 - Window decorator

None of those should *have* to have a URL. What if, as a developer, I just want to open your default IM client? Currently, settings have to be parsed in different ways for each DE, and they are usually stored in DE-specific folders or files, making other DEs unable to share them or their model (and simplifying the developer's life).

It baffles me that this hasn't been done. I think I might put something together unless there's already been work in this area.

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