Open website in browser using terminal?

[mdpalow]

Is there a terminal command that would allow you to open a browser and go to a specific website?

thank you...

[cnr437]

lynx or curl

[Natr0n]

[insert browser of choice here] "www.thewebsite.com"
Should work pretty much the same for any browser as far as I know. Do not include the brackets.

[mdpalow]

thank you Natr0n...

Geez... I did that, but just realized when I scrolled through my previous commands I had a space in the name that was messing it up.

hmm, I'm wondering though - what if you didn't want the command to be browser specific? I have a feeling that's not going to work without a script checking to see what browser you're running..

Any thoughts?

[LaRoza]

For Ubuntu, expect Firefox to be installed, so you can use:



firefox http://ubuntuforums.org

[engla]

The command
x-www-browser should point to the user's preferred browser.

[mdpalow]

Thanks LaRoza...

I'm just wondering how many people don't use Firefox and therefore might uninstall it in favor of say.... opera.

[mdpalow]

The command
x-www-browser should point to the user's preferred browser.

now that's what I was hoping for... thanks.

One question about this command. I ran it and it brought up Opera, which surprised me a bit. Granted, I had downloaded Opera the other night just to take a look at it.

Do you think 'x-www-browser' brought up Opera because it was the last browser I installed?

thanks...

[LaRoza]

Thanks LaRoza...

I'm just wondering how many people don't use Firefox and therefore might uninstall it in favor of say.... opera.

I didn't know of x-www-browser.

I use Opera myself, and have uninstalled Firefox on Ubuntu before.

You might have made Opera your default.

[pedro_orange]

Browser companies like you using their browser, so usually in the install somewhere it says "Make x default browser"

Would be interesting to know where 'buntu saved this information.

[jpkotta]

You can change x-www-browser with update-alternatives. The setting is implemented as /usr/bin/x-www-browser symlinked to the desired browser binary, IIRC. I think any package that uses the Debian alternatives system makes that package the default when it is installed.

You can set it with
sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

I've seen a few programs that look at the BROWSER environment variable.

[engla]

Yes well I think I was wrong. That would start the system's preferred browser.

I'll go back and make it even simpler. I think this command is really going to respect the user's settings


gnome-open <uri>

This general command will handle any file path or url, file paths being opened in their default applications of course. (And OTOH, this is gnome-specific :( )

Edit: Hehe, one more try?


xdg-open <uri>

This should be desktop-independent since that is what freedesktop and xdg stand for. However, this is from the package 'xdg-utils' and I'm not certain it is universally available.

[mdpalow]

hi engla,

Thank you for this post.

I had actually unsubscribed from it because I thought it had been resolved (hence the late thank you), but I just came back and saw your solution and it's actually a very good one.

thanks again...

[Endolith]

Wait. Which is the correct way to open the browser, if you're writing a system script?


x-www-browser is a symlink to a symlink to a symlink and is global for all users
gnome-open is for gnome only
exo-open is for XFCE only?
kde-open is for KDE only?
xdg-open is supposed to be cross-desktop, and apparently calls all of the above depending on your desktop

Are there others? Which is the canonical way to open a URL in the user's preferred browser?

[mssever]

Wait. Which is the correct way to open the browser, if you're writing a system script?

x-www-browser is a symlink to a symlink to a symlink and is global for all users
gnome-open is for gnome only
exo-open is for XFCE only?
kde-open is for KDE only?
xdg-open is supposed to be cross-desktop, and apparently calls gnome-open if you use Gnome?

Are there others? Which is the canonical way to open a URL in the user's preferred browser?
My preference is xdg-open, since it's the most flexible. x-www-browser isn't user-configurable. The others are desktop-specific. xdg-open seems to be the best of all worlds.

[zeezam]

Trying to open a website with opera over ssh but got failed to open the X server.

I try with


/path/opera -fullscreen -display=user:0 &


any ideas?

[mssever]

Trying to open a website with opera over ssh but got failed to open the X server.

I try with


/path/opera -fullscreen -display=user:0 &
any ideas?
Just use the same command to open opera as you would if you were opening it on the local machine. SSH automatically sets $DISPLAY to the correct value, so you don't need to manually specify it. Of course, this presupposes that you're using the SSH option ForwardX11.

[zeezam]

Just use the same command to open opera as you would if you were opening it on the local machine. SSH automatically sets $DISPLAY to the correct value, so you don't need to manually specify it. Of course, this presupposes that you're using the SSH option ForwardX11.

Just got;

ERROR: ld.so: object 'libjvm.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object 'libawt.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
opera: cannot connect to X server
opera: Fatal error on creating Qt application object

[Endolith]

You are using ssh -X, right?

[nathand28]

Simple, use


gnome-open "website"

Without the quotes and use http:// or https:// at the start.

(EDIT) Looked at the post above by Engel, and he already posted this.

[Endolith]

Simple, use


gnome-open "website"
Without the quotes and use http:// or https:// at the start.

xdg-open does the same thing, but works in Gnome, KDE, etc.

[mssever]

Simple, use


gnome-open "website"
Without the quotes and use http:// or https:// at the start.
Better to leave the quotes there. Many URLs include characters that have special meaning to the shell and will cause problems if not quoted.

[zeezam]

You are using ssh -X, right?

No, I tried with that and then opera starts on my computer even if I run the command in terminal via ssh on another computer. I want to start the browser on the remote computer.

[mssever]

No, I tried with that and then opera starts on my computer even if I run the command in terminal via ssh on another computer. I want to start the browser on the remote computer.
Wait. You're trying to make the window for the opera installed on your local machine appear on a remote machine? If so, I have no idea how to do that. My instructions were for opening a remote opera's window on the local machine.

[zeezam]

Wait. You're trying to make the window for the opera installed on your local machine appear on a remote machine? If so, I have no idea how to do that. My instructions were for opening a remote opera's window on the local machine.

Ok.
With firefox is it this parameter:



/usr/bin/firefox --display=:0.0

[zeezam]

Ok.
With firefox is it this parameter:



/usr/bin/firefox --display=:0.0


Any?

[Zugzwang]

Any?

You're in the wrong forum here (this one is about programming). Anyway, for security, you might need to be the user who is logged in at that machine locally at the moment.

[junke1990]

you can if you add -Y to the -X ;)

[Fhernd]

I prefer this method (using Google Chrome):

Alt + F2

Type the next command on the textfield:

google-chrome http://www.feedly.com/

Then activate the Run in terminal checkbox.

Lastly, click on Run button (Alt+R).

Regards.

[shantiq]

an intersting trick if you have compiz [can also be done with metacity and no doubt unity] installed is to open your favourite website from a hotkey



open CCSM to install
sudo apt-get install ccsm


in General tick commands box then double-click commands


and enter for example
firefox http://facebook.com


then click on key-bindings and now pick a hotkey say F4 or CTRL+F4


now simply click F4 or CTRL+F4 when you want to see facebook

[samarthmath]

One more command to open the system's preferred browser is:


sensible-browser www.google.com

This works.