I do not want to install 3rd-party tools, e.g. kerma/defaultbrowser et al.
I assume there's a way to do it with 'defaults' but I'm unable to find any official documentation or user community support.
There is no longer a user friendly command-line entry that returns the default browser name. There are two choices that I am aware of:
# from https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/313454/applescript-find-the-users-set-default-browser
defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure | awk -F'"' '/http;/{print window[(NR)-1]}{window[NR]=$2}'
which returns com.vendor.browsername (e.g. com.apple.safari) for the default browser.
Or you can put the following into a Bash or Zsh script, mark it executable, and run it from the command-line to return just the default browser name:
#!/bin/zsh
# return default browser name that would open the URL
function default_browser () {
osascript <<-AS
use framework "AppKit"
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
property NSWorkspace : a reference to current application's NSWorkspace
property NSURL : a reference to current application's NSURL
set wurl to NSURL's URLWithString:"https://www.apple.com"
set thisBrowser to (NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace)'s ¬
URLForApplicationToOpenURL:wurl
set appname to (thisBrowser's absoluteString)'s lastPathComponent()'s ¬
stringByDeletingPathExtension() as text
return appname as text
AS
return
}
printf '%s\n' $(default_browser)
exit 0
chmod +x dbrowser.zsh
./dbrowser.zsh
Safari
There is no longer a user friendly command-line entry that returns the default browser name. There are two choices that I am aware of:
# from https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/313454/applescript-find-the-users-set-default-browser
defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure | awk -F'"' '/http;/{print window[(NR)-1]}{window[NR]=$2}'
which returns com.vendor.browsername (e.g. com.apple.safari) for the default browser.
Or you can put the following into a Bash or Zsh script, mark it executable, and run it from the command-line to return just the default browser name:
#!/bin/zsh
# return default browser name that would open the URL
function default_browser () {
osascript <<-AS
use framework "AppKit"
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
property NSWorkspace : a reference to current application's NSWorkspace
property NSURL : a reference to current application's NSURL
set wurl to NSURL's URLWithString:"https://www.apple.com"
set thisBrowser to (NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace)'s ¬
URLForApplicationToOpenURL:wurl
set appname to (thisBrowser's absoluteString)'s lastPathComponent()'s ¬
stringByDeletingPathExtension() as text
return appname as text
AS
return
}
printf '%s\n' $(default_browser)
exit 0
chmod +x dbrowser.zsh
./dbrowser.zsh
Safari
I apologize. I thought I was clear. I want to discover the default browser from the command line without installing any 3rd-party tools such as 'defaultbrowser' by kerma.
The first link is irrelevant because my goal has never been to change my default shell.
The second link, to superuser.com, is one that I've visited before; its solution is woefully outdated and no longer works, i.e. defaults read com.apple.LaunchServices returns nothing.
The aforementioned link also contains references to 'defaultbrowser' (which I explicitly said I don't want) and focuses more on how to set the default browser from the command line.
The fact that any browser available for macOS has the ability to detect that it's not the default browser - as well as providing the ability to change itself to the default browser - demonstrates that there is some underlying, OS-based location where this information is stored. I assumed, perhaps naïvely, that such information would be available via 'defaults' or some *util tool.
You are welcome.
The defaults version is subject to change with future operating system releases as Apple is continually changing stuff. It has happened before. The AppleScript/Objective-C solution in a Bash or Zsh script is not about to change anytime soon — unless Apple deprecates, and removes the NSWorkspace method that I used.
I apologize...
echo $SHELL
Thank you very much! The 'defaults' version is perfection.
How can I discover the default browser from the command line?
