Determine Mac default browser in Python

Question

This question asks how to open an HTML file in the default browser on Mac OS.

There is a useful answer which refers to this infamous bit of Perl:

VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT=true perl -MMac::InternetConfig -le 'print +(GetICHelper "http")[1]'

Here's some working Python code:

import shlex, subprocess

env = {'VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT': 'true'}
raw = """perl -MMac::InternetConfig -le 'print +(GetICHelper "http")[1]'"""
process = subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(raw), env=env, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
out, err = process.communicate()

default_browser = out.strip()

Is there a more direct way?

To elaborate, given a file URL it has the same problem as open: it invokes the default program for html files, which for me is Sublime, not Chrome. There's a good explanation in this answer: stackoverflow.com/a/10250717/893113 — paulmelnikow
– paulmelnikow, Commented May 6, 2014 at 23:39
For the record, modern Python would use subprocess.check_output of subprocess.run instead of the multi-line Popen song and dance. — tripleee
– tripleee, Commented Nov 18, 2024 at 15:07

paulmelnikow · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-06 23:10:04Z

2

Here's a Python solution using pyobjc:

from Foundation import CFPreferencesCopyAppValue

handlers = CFPreferencesCopyAppValue('LSHandlers', 'com.apple.LaunchServices')

try:
    handler = next(x for x in handlers if x.get('LSHandlerURLScheme') == 'http')
    bundle_identifier = handler.get('LSHandlerRoleAll')
except StopIteration:
    pass

This returns the bundle identifier, which you can use with the -b argument to open.

answered May 6, 2014 at 23:10

paulmelnikow

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Comments

Jace Browning · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-10 16:14:48Z

1

You can read the "property list" file using plistlib from the standard library:

from pathlib import Path
import plistlib

PREFERENCES = (
    Path.home()
    / "Library"
    / "Preferences"
    / "com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist"
)

NAMES = {
    "com.apple.safari": "Safari",
    "com.google.chrome": "Google Chrome",
    "org.mozilla.firefox": "Firefox",
}

with PREFERENCES.open("rb") as fp:
    data = plistlib.load(fp)

for handler in data["LSHandlers"]:
    if handler.get("LSHandlerURLScheme") == "http":
        role = handler["LSHandlerRoleAll"]
        name = NAMES[role]
        print(name)

answered Apr 10, 2022 at 16:14

Jace Browning

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Comments

Vandit Shah · Accepted Answer · 2024-11-18 14:26:41Z

0

I think this might be useful here.

webbrowser is inbuilt python library

import webbrowser
import os

# Path to your HTML file
html_file_path = "/path/to/your/file.html"

# Open the HTML file in the default web browser
webbrowser.open(f"file://{os.path.abspath(html_file_path)}")

Optional: You can specify the webbrowser as well

# Replace 'chrome', 'firefox', or 'safari' with the appropriate browser name
browser = webbrowser.get('chrome')
# Then do open
browser.open(f"file://{os.path.abspath(html_file_path)}")

answered Nov 18, 2024 at 14:26

Vandit Shah

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