Open a web-browser with the URL in the current line

Duplicate tip

This tip is very similar to the following:

• VimTip628
• VimTip732

These tips need to be merged – see the merge guidelines.

Tip 306 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created August 10, 2002 · complexity intermediate · author Kartik Agaram · version 5.7

---

function! Browser ()
  let line = getline (".")
  let line = matchstr (line, "\%(http://\|www\.\)[^ ,;\t]*")
  exec "!netscape ".line
endfunction
map <Leader>w :call Browser ()<CR>

Comments

I use a similar script when editing html files to view changes made to the file.

if exists("loaded_mozilla")
  finish
endif
let loaded_mozilla=1

"Setup commands to run mozilla.
":Mozilla - open current file in mozilla.
if !exists(':Mozilla')
  command Mozilla :call s:StartMozilla()
endif

function! s:StartMozilla()
  " let s:myfile = getcwd() . "/" . bufname("%")
  let s:myfile = expand("%:p")
  let s:a = "mozilla -remote 'openurl(file://"; . s:myfile . ")'"
  let s:r =system(s:a)
  "Mozilla is not running so start it."
  if s:r =~"No running window found."
    unlet s:a
    let s:a = "mozilla " . s:myfile . "&"
    let s:r =system(s:a)
  endif
endfunction

Both Netscape and Mozilla accept the remote argument which reloads an open browser with the supplied url.

---

Here is a more generic way to execute a URL (Windows only):

vnoremap <silent> <C-F5> :<C-U>let old_reg=@"<CR>gvy:silent!!cmd /cstart <C-R><C-R>"<CR><CR>:let @"=old_reg<CR>

If you visually highlight something, then hit CTRL-F5, it will tell Windows to start the default associated application. script#306 - On my machine this will launch Mozilla (since that is my default browser). dave.txt - On my machine this will launch gvim, on default windows machines this would launch notepad.exe.

---

This is my modification. It works for http:, ftp: and file:

function! Browser ()
  let line0 = getline (".")
  let line = matchstr (line0, "http[^ ]*")
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "ftp[^ ]*")
  :endif
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "file[^ ]*")
  :endif
  " echo line
  exec ":silent !mozilla ".line
endfunction
map \w :call Browser ()<CR>

---

Further refinement: (For URL with #?&|%, such as one from a google search)

" Evoke a web browser
function! Browser ()
  let line0 = getline (".")
  let line = matchstr (line0, "http[^ ]*")
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "ftp[^ ]*")
  :endif
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "file[^ ]*")
  :endif
  let line = escape (line, "#?&;|%")
  " echo line
  exec ":silent !mozilla ".line
endfunction
map \w :call Browser ()<CR>

---

Combining a couple previous scripts, here's what I came up with:

let $PATH = $PATH . ';c:\Program Files\Mozilla FireFox'
"=== evoke a web browser
function! Browser ()
  let line0 = getline (".")
  let line = matchstr (line0, "http[^ ]*")
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "ftp[^ ]*")
  :endif
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "file[^ ]*")
  :endif
  let line = escape (line, "#?&;|%")
  :if line==""
  let line = "\"" . (expand("%:p")) . "\""
  :endif
  exec ':silent !firefox.exe ' . line
endfunction
map \w :call Browser ()<CR>

---

ever since i used this command it bothered me that the screen messes up after calling the function. so i decided to use "urlview". well you got to hit enter quit a few times, but you also get all urls presented foud in the current buffer. you can map ":!urlsview %" to something you like

---

A workaround for this behaviour is to add ":redraw!<CR>" to the end of the mapping so that it looks like this:

map \w :call Browser ()<CR>:redraw!<CR>

It will still change the buffer for a moment, though.

---

I modified it so that URL that is passed to firefox is protected by quotes. The changed line is:

exec ':silent !firefox.exe ' . "\"" . line . "\""

The complete script now is:

let $PATH = $PATH . ';c:\Programs\FireFox1.5'
" Evoke a web browser
function! Browser ()
  let line0 = getline (".")
  let line = matchstr (line0, "http[^ ]*")
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "ftp[^ ]*")
  :endif
  :if line==""
  let line = matchstr (line0, "file[^ ]*")
  :endif
  let line = escape (line, "#?&;|%")
  ":if line==""
  " let line = "\"" . (expand("%:p")) . "\""
  ":endif
  exec ':silent !firefox.exe ' . "\"" . line . "\""
endfunction
map ,w :call Browser ()<CR>

---

Under Mac OS X, the open command can handle any URI:

function! HandleURI()
  let s:uri = matchstr(getline("."), '[a-z]*:\/\/[^ >,;:]*')
  echo s:uri
  if s:uri != ""
	  exec "!open \"" . s:uri . "\""
  else
	  echo "No URI found in line."
  endif
endfunction
map <Leader>w :call HandleURI()<CR>

---

OS X version that uses John Gruber's URL regexp and Ruby (as a plugin):

ruby << EOF
  def open_uri
    re = %r{(?i)\b((?:[a-z][\w-]+:(?:/{1,3}|[a-z0-9%])|www\d{0,3}[.]|[a-z0-9.\-]+[.][a-z]{2,4}/)(?:[^\s()<>]+|\(([^\s()<>]+|(\([^\s()<>]+\)))*\))+(?:\(([^\s()<>]+|(\([^\s()<>]+\)))*\)|[^\s`!()\[\]{};:'".,<>?«»“”‘’]))}

    line = VIM::Buffer.current.line

    if url = line[re]
      system("open", url)
      VIM::message(url)
    else
      VIM::message("No URI found in line.")
    end
  end
EOF

if !exists("*OpenURI")
  function! OpenURI()
    :ruby open_uri
  endfunction
endif
map <Leader>w :call OpenURI()<CR>

---

Under Linux, this one-liner opens the URL under the cursor:

nnoremap <leader>w :silent !xdg-open <C-R>=escape("<C-R><C-F>", "#?&;\|%")<CR><CR>