{"id":1333,"date":"2012-01-24T23:39:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T21:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.void.gr\/kargig\/blog\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2012-10-08T21:13:24","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T18:13:24","slug":"open-magnet-urls-with-xdg-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.void.gr\/kargig\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/open-magnet-urls-with-xdg-open\/","title":{"rendered":"open magnet URLs with xdg-open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Browsers on Linux should use xdg-open to open URLs. From xdg-open’s description:<\/p>\n

xdg-open opens a file or URL in the user’s preferred application. If a URL is
\nprovided the URL will be opened in the user’s preferred web browser. If a file
\nis provided the file will be opened in the preferred application for files of
\nthat type. xdg-open supports file, ftp, http and https URLs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Magnet<\/a> is a new type of URLs that’s currently not supported by xdg-open. It’s very easy to add a quick hack to support it though. Just copy xdg-open to a local binary path (e.g \/usr\/local\/bin or preferably $HOME\/bin) and apply the following patch. Change deluge<\/em> with your preferred torrent application.<\/p>\n

--- \/usr\/bin\/xdg-open  2010-09-15 14:08:29.000000000 +0300\n+++ bin\/xdg-open  2012-01-24 22:05:03.935338593 +0200\n@@ -437,6 +437,11 @@\n                 exit_success\n             fi\n         fi\n+    elif (echo "$1" | grep -q '^magnet:'); then\n+        deluge "$1" \n+        if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then\n+            exit_success\n+        fi\n     fi\n \n     sensible-browser "$1"\n<\/code2><\/pre><\/p>\n
For those who don’t know how to patch a file, here it is in full: patched xdg-open to open magnet URLs<\/a><\/p>\n
Works fine on my Debian using Chrome<\/a> which properly uses xdg-open to handle URLs. Firefox<\/a> after version 3.5 became a piece of bloatware and it’s not possible to open magnet links using about:config settings<\/em> or xdg-open. For Opera<\/a> just go to Settings->Preferences->Programs and add new protocol with name magnet<\/em>. At Open with other application<\/em>, use the path that you saved the patched xdg-open.<\/p>\n
Now go download some creative commons licensed files.<\/p>\n
*UPDATE*
\nPatch for latest xdg-utils (since some people complained that previous patch does not apply):
\n
\n\n--- xdg-open  2012-02-18 14:22:48.058497027 +0200\n+++ xdg-open  2012-02-18 14:24:04.326875223 +0200\n@@ -440,6 +440,11 @@\n                 exit_success\n             fi\n         fi\n+    elif (echo "$1" | grep -q '^magnet:'); then\n+        deluge "$1" \n+        if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then\n+            exit_success\n+        fi\n     fi\n \n     IFS=":"\n<\/code2><\/pre><\/p>\n
*UPDATE 2*
\nFor Firefox\/Iceweasel one can do the following:
\ngo to about:config and right-click. Then click on New->Boolean->network.protocol-handler.expose.magnet -> Value -> false
\nUpon the next click Firefox\/Iceweasel will ask you to choose a program to open magnet links, choose the patched xdg-open posted above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Browsers on Linux should use xdg-open to open URLs. From xdg-open’s description: xdg-open opens a file or URL in the user’s preferred application. If a URL is provided the URL will be opened in the user’s preferred web browser. If a file is provided the file will be opened in the preferred application for files […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[25,452,33,451,114,125,595,449,453,450,500],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-linux","tag-bash","tag-chrome","tag-debian","tag-deluge","tag-firefox","tag-iceweasel","tag-linux","tag-magnet","tag-opera","tag-torrent","tag-xdg"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t