Xfce Forum

jt1122

Member

Registered: 2021-03-26

Posts: 271

Changing the command used for "Open Link"

Hi.

When I right click in the terminal on a text which starts with "http://..." the pop-up menu shows the options "Copy Link" and "Open Link".
How do I change which browser and which profile is used for opening links?.

Thanks

Added later 23 h 07 min 20 s:
any suggestions?

bggf

Member

Registered: 2026-04-13

Posts: 35

Re: Changing the command used for "Open Link"

mmhh unless anyone has any other information (and I admit I'm interested too):

I asked that question some time back and the answer was that it wasn't possible. Perhaps this has changed??!
It would stand to reason, after having all the custom actions, that this would be a great continuation for the future.

However I did notice: In xfce there sometimes are two possible results:
The terminal will open the same browser you have configured in your settings as default browser (in my case LibreWolf)
If I double click on an html file in thunar it will use the MIME  defined program (set with: rightclick, open with..) mine: (Brave-browser)

If your workflow allows a distinction you can change the desktop file command line to open your default browser with a certain profile...and in thunar open stuff with something else.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,644

Re: Changing the command used for "Open Link"

From https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-term … type=heads:

  /* try to open the URI with the responsible application */
  if (!gtk_show_uri_on_window (window, uri, gtk_get_current_event_time (), &error))
    {
      /* tell the user that we were unable to open the responsible application */
      xfce_dialog_show_error (window, error, _("Failed to open the URL '%s'"), uri);
      g_error_free (error);
    }

  g_free (uri);
}

...xfce4-terminal uses the gtk function gtk_show_uri_on_window() to open the link.

From: https://docs.gtk.org/gtk3/func.show_uri_on_window.html:

This is a convenience function for launching the default application to show the uri.

...so basically, it uses the default associated application for that uri type.

$ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/https

...shows the default app that will be used to, for example, open an https link.

Since it only uses the default application, you could change your default application (Settings Manager > Default applications > Web browser). However, what you won't be able to do, is have 2 separate default web browsers for the system - only one.

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jt1122

Member

Registered: 2021-03-26

Posts: 271

Re: Changing the command used for "Open Link"

Thanks.