File: browse-url.el.html

This package provides functions which read a URL from the minibuffer, defaulting to the URL around point, and ask a web browser to load it. It can also load the URL at point, or one associated with the current buffer. The main functions are:

  browse-url Open URL
  browse-url-at-point Open URL at point
  browse-url-of-buffer Use web browser to display buffer
  browse-url-of-file Use web browser to display file

Different browsers use different methods of remote control so there is one function for each supported browser. If the chosen browser is not running, it is started. Currently there is support for the following browsers, as well as some other obsolete ones:

Function Browser Earliest version
browse-url-firefox Firefox Don't know (tried with 1.0.1)
browse-url-chrome Chrome 47.0.2526.111
browse-url-chromium Chromium 3.0
browse-url-epiphany GNOME Web (Epiphany) Don't know
browse-url-webpositive WebPositive 1.2-alpha (Haiku R1/beta3)
browse-url-text-* Any text browser 0
browse-url-generic arbitrary
browse-url-default-windows-browser MS-Windows browser
browse-url-default-macosx-browser macOS browser
browse-url-xdg-open freedesktop.org xdg-open
browse-url-kde KDE konqueror (kfm)
browse-url-elinks Elinks Don't know (tried with 0.12.GIT)
browse-url-default-android-browser Android 2.3.3 (should work on 2.2 too)
eww-browse-url Emacs Web Wowser

Browsers can cache web pages so it may be necessary to tell them to reload the current page if it has changed (e.g., if you have edited it). There is currently no perfect automatic solution to this.

See also the ffap.el package. The huge hyperbole package also contains similar functions.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Usage

To display the URL at or before point: M-x browse-url-at-point RET or, similarly but with the opportunity to edit the URL extracted from the buffer, use: M-x browse-url

To display a URL by shift-clicking on it, put this in your init file:
     (global-set-key [S-mouse-2] 'browse-url-at-mouse)
(Note that using Shift-mouse-1 is not desirable because
that event has a standard meaning in Emacs.)

To display the current buffer in a web browser: M-x browse-url-of-buffer RET

To display the current region in a web browser: M-x browse-url-of-region RET

In Dired, to display the file named on the current line: M-x browse-url-of-dired-file RET

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Customization (Init File)

To see what variables are available for customization, type M-x set-variable browse-url TAB. Better, use M-x customize-group browse-url.

Bind the browse-url commands to keys with the C-c C-z prefix:

(keymap-global-set "C-c C-z ." 'browse-url-at-point)
(keymap-global-set "C-c C-z b" 'browse-url-of-buffer)
(keymap-global-set "C-c C-z r" 'browse-url-of-region)
(keymap-global-set "C-c C-z u" 'browse-url)
(keymap-global-set "C-c C-z v" 'browse-url-of-file)
(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook
(lambda ()
             (keymap-local-set "C-c C-z f" 'browse-url-of-dired-file)))

Browse URLs in mail messages under RMAIL by clicking mouse-2:
(add-hook 'rmail-mode-hook (lambda () ; rmail-mode startup
  (keymap-set rmail-mode-map [mouse-2] 'browse-url-at-mouse)))
Alternatively, add goto-address to rmail-show-message-hook.

Gnus provides a standard feature to activate URLs in article buffers for invocation of browse-url.

Use the Emacs Web Wowser (EWW) when not running under X11:
(or (eq window-system 'x)
    (setopt browse-url-browser-function #'eww-browse-url))

To always save modified buffers before displaying the file in a browser:
(setopt browse-url-save-file t)

To invoke different browsers/tools for different URLs, customize browse-url-handlers. In earlier versions of Emacs, the same could be done by setting browse-url-browser-function to an alist but this usage is deprecated now.

All browser functions provided by here have a browse-url-browser-kind symbol property set to either internal or external which determines if they browse the given URL inside Emacs or spawn an external application with it. Some parts of Emacs make use of that, e.g., when an URL is dragged into Emacs, it is not sensible to invoke an external browser with it, so here only internal browsers are considered. Therefore, it is advised to put that property also on custom browser functions.
      (function-put 'my-browse-url-in-emacs 'browse-url-browser-kind
                    'internal)
      (function-put 'my-browse-url-externally 'browse-url-browser-kind
                    'external)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Defined variables (52)

Defined functions (61)

Defined faces (1)