How can I configure git help to use Firefox?

Question

I was using Git on a Windows box and the git bash always used the web version for help. I really liked this and I am trying to do the same on my mac.

I ran:

$ git config --global help.format web
$ git config --global web.browser firefox

and the output of a help command is:

$ The browser firefox is not available as 'firefox'.

I then set:

$ git config --global browser.firefox.path /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin

Since I usually have firefox open, it now cries:

A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.

The real command I would like git to use is open -a Firefox.app somefile. I tried setting browser.firefox.cmd with no avail.

My question: how can I configure git to use the web version and call/use firefox in a way that won't cause issue if it's already open?

Answer 1

I guess you can't override the command for a known browser. What worked is using a browser name that is not firefox:

git config --global web.browser ff
git config --global browser.ff.cmd "open -a Firefox.app"