open-url is a wrapper script to make it possible to open URL in an already running browser, rather than the
“default-browser”. It is aware of a set of browsers, and has a priorderised list of browsers. When invoked with a URL as
its argument, it will look through the priority list to figure out if one of them is running already. If a running
browser is found, it is used to open the URL. If no running browser is found, it picks the first in the priority list to
open the URL.
Assuming that you have ~/bin which is part of your $PATH variable, use the commands below to override
“default-browser”. This might need further updates for your specific desktop environment.
# Create a dekstop entry for open-url by following the instructions here
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_entries
# Then use it as the default web browser
xdg-settings set default-web-browser 'open-url.desktop'
# Some applications will use the below means to invoke default-browser
# Override them so/hoping that these applications are not invoking them by full path
# If you find that they do, you might either have to replace its settings to use the path
# under ~/bin or in worse case scenario, replace them in /usr/bin
ln -sf ~/bin/open-url ~/bin/x-www-browser
ln -sf ~/bin/open-url ~/bin/sensible-browser
ln -sf ~/bin/open-url ~/bin/gnome-www-browser