Set target when open .html file via terminal on MacOS

Question

There is this solved topic about opening .html files via command line.

I use the solution and it works well for using

open ./myfile.html

However, it opens the file always in a new tab. I would like to open it always in the same tab (using the browser target). This is an easy thing to do in JavaScript, but I can't figure out a way to do it in combination with the above mentioned code.

My assumption for now is, that there must be a way to pass the target as a parameter to the open command. The man open reveals the following for the parameter --args:

All remaining arguments are passed to the opened application in the argv parameter to main(). These arguments are not opened or interpreted by the open tool.

So I tried the following:

open ./myfile.html --args target=myfile_target   # still opens in new tab
open ./myfile.html --args target="myfile_target" # still opens in new tab
open ./myfile.html --args target:myfile_target   # still opens in new tab

I am not sure if this even works but I think there must be a way to do this.

Edit: for now it is enough to make this work with chrome.

You could do it with AppleScript reasonably easily. Let me know if you want me to draft something up for this purpose. — CJK
– CJK, Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 0:03
Thank you @CJK Of course I would prefer a solution that uses only shell commands, so I can have the future option to port this script easily to other OS (BSD, Linux etc.). However, since that goal might not be realistic I would stick with your solution for now, if it is feasible. Note, that I have zero applescript experience yet. Thank you. — Jankapunkt
– Jankapunkt, Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 8:24
Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you. The task was slightly more challenging than I had anticipated (because my Bash scripting isn't great), and I forgot to star this question, so spent ages tracking it down again. I've added a solution in the form of a bash script as we discussed. If you encounter any errors, let me know. — CJK
– CJK, Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 2:31
Thank you for the help. I will check it out as soon as I am back on the mac. — Jankapunkt
– Jankapunkt, Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 8:38

CJK · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-07 02:40:58Z

This Bash script incorporates a bit of AppleScript in order to open a browser window with a reference that the script can keep track of and continue to target with ongoing URL requests.

You ought to be able to copy-n-paste it into a text editor and save it as whatever you wish to call this replacement open function. I saved it as url, in one of the directories listed in my $PATH variable. That way, I could simply type url dropbox.com from the command-line, and it would run.

You will have to make it executable before you can do that. So, after it's saved, run this command:

chmod +x /path/to/file

Then you should be good to go. Let me know if you encounter any errors, and I'll fix them.

    #!/bin/bash
    #
    # Usage: url %file% | %url%
    #
    # %file%: relative or absolute POSIX path to a local .html file
    # %url%: [http[s]://]domain[/path/etc...]

    IFS=''

    # Determine whether argument is file or web address
    [[ -f "$1" ]] && \
        _URL=file://$( cd "$( dirname "$1" )"; pwd )/$( basename "$1" ) || \
            { [[ $1 == http* ]] && _URL=$1 || _URL=http://$1; };

    # Read the value on the last line of this script
    _W=$( tail -n 1 "$0" )

    # Open a Safari window and store its AppleScript object id reference
    _W=$( osascript \
        -e "use S : app \"safari\"" \
        -e "try" \
        -e "    set S's window id $_W's document's url to \"$_URL\"" \
        -e "    return $_W" \
        -e "on error" \
        -e "    S's (make new document with properties {url:\"$_URL\"})" \
        -e "    return id of S's front window" \
        -e "end try" )

    _THIS=$( sed \$d "$0" ) # All but the last line of this script
    echo "$_THIS" > "$0"    # Overwrite this file
    echo -n "$_W" >> "$0"   # Appened the object id value as final line

    exit
    2934

Works like a breeze! (macOS 10.13, safari 11.1) And with a self-assignable code... May be more traditional/universal approach could be used but it is creative like that.

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