How to set the Default Browser from the Command Line?

Question

Tried to set the default browser using the GUI tools but this didn't work overall. Is there a way to configure the system wide default browser from command line?

Solution 1

Execute the following command in terminal,to change the default browser.

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

Sample output:

karthick@Ubuntu-desktop:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser 
There are 3 choices for the alternative x-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                    Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/google-chrome   200       auto mode
* 1            /usr/bin/firefox         40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/google-chrome   200       manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/opera           90        manual mode

• Press enter to keep the default[*].

• Right now I have firefox as my default web browser.

• If i want google-chrome as default browser then I will type 3 and hit enter.

Note:

• If you want to configure a commandline browser,then you have to configure

  sudo update-alternatives --config www-browser

• Alternate way is to add the following line export BROWSER=/usr/bin/firefox to your ~/.bashrc

• Add the above line in the last,

  

Alternative GUI Method:

• You can also set the default browser in Gnome applications,type the following in terminal and press Enter gnome-default-applications-properties
• It will Open a Window.Now you can choose your preferred browser to set it default.

Solution 2

The already suggested methods might not work for some app (e.g. HipChat).

I've had to do:

xdg-settings set default-web-browser chromium-browser.desktop

Solution 3

It depends a bit on what "default browser" exactly means, i.e. for what purpose you want to change the browser. Some programs ignore any system-wide settings and use their own settings.

That said, you can set the default browser for all programs starting the browser with the generic sensible-browser command by exporting the BROWSER variable, e.g. add a line to the file ~/.bashrc:

export BROWSER=/usr/bin/firefox

The other generic way of calling a browser is x-www-browser, this one is handled by the Debian "alternatives" system:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

If you want to configure a commandline-only browser like lynx, you have to configure www-browser instead.

Solution 4

Googlers, to do this fully scripted (no interaction whatsoever) in a setup script:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-www-browser x-www-browser /usr/bin/google-chrome 500
sudo update-alternatives --set x-www-browser /usr/bin/google-chrome

…and similary for your favorite editor:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /usr/bin/pluma 500
sudo update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/pluma

Solution 5

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

only shows installed application trough apt-get, for manual installation you can use

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-www-browser x-www-browser /opt/yourapp/yourapp 200
sudo update-alternatives --set x-www-browser /opt/yourapp/yourapp

View more solutions

Comments

[Arpad Horvath]

My gnome-www-browser is a link to epiphany, my x-www-browser is a link to chromium, but the right click in the terminal (gnome-terminal and terminator) opens the url with firefox :(

[Rahul Raj]

Is there command line for to set document viewer as default for PDF.

[Xen2050]

XFCE seems to set this with it's GUI Settings -> Preferred applications

[jchook]

This helped me set the default browser for jupyter notebook.

[Graham]

This doesn't work for Ubuntu 18.04. The answer from stilllife works: xdg-settings set default-web-browser chromium-browser.desktop

[eichin]

Looks like this is the file that xdg-settings set default-web-browser google-chrome.desktop updates.

[Martin Dorey]

For me that seems to be replacing .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list... with the same content it already has. Something's broken but perhaps it's just for me.

[Enrique René]

Worked for me in Debian 10. I've downloaded Firefox 85, untargziped into /lib/firefox, created .desktop file into /usr/share/applications/ but it is not appearing into Default Browsers choices in GNOME settings. This above command works well in this case.

[cipricus]

what does 500 stand for?

[Frank Nocke]

it's just a “sufficently high“ (but mostly guessed) priority value to “win” over all existing.