Set default web browser via command line?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to set the default web browser on OS X via command line. I found this forum post, but the solution they are working out there is to open a specific URL with a specific application. I am looking for a way to set the default browser system wide. There's this neat app on GitHub, named Objektiv, which does exactly what I am after, but it's an app. There's a Cocoa method, apparently, to set the NSWorkSpace default browser.

The preference file com.apple.LaunchServices needs to be changed for this, maybe more.

How to set a different default browser via command line?

Thanks for help.

Answer 1

I found this tool. After installing it, you can do this:

defaultbrowser chrome 

Here's the entire source-code in case the link 404s in the future. It is licensed under the MIT license with Copyright (c) 2014 Margus Kerma.

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>  NSString* app_name_from_bundle_id(NSString *app_bundle_id) {     return [[app_bundle_id componentsSeparatedByString:@"."] lastObject]; }  NSMutableDictionary* get_http_handlers() {     NSArray *handlers =       (__bridge NSArray *) LSCopyAllHandlersForURLScheme(         (__bridge CFStringRef) @"http"       );      NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];      for (int i = 0; i < [handlers count]; i++) {         NSString *handler = [handlers objectAtIndex:i];         dict[[app_name_from_bundle_id(handler) lowercaseString]] = handler;     }      return dict; }  NSString* get_current_http_handler() {     NSString *handler =         (__bridge NSString *) LSCopyDefaultHandlerForURLScheme(             (__bridge CFStringRef) @"http"         );      return app_name_from_bundle_id(handler); }  void set_default_handler(NSString *url_scheme, NSString *handler) {     LSSetDefaultHandlerForURLScheme(         (__bridge CFStringRef) url_scheme,         (__bridge CFStringRef) handler     ); }  int main(int argc, const char *argv[]) {     const char *target = (argc == 1) ? '\0' : argv[1];      @autoreleasepool {         // Get all HTTP handlers         NSMutableDictionary *handlers = get_http_handlers();          // Get current HTTP handler         NSString *current_handler_name = get_current_http_handler();          if (target == '\0') {             // List all HTTP handlers, marking the current one with a star             for (NSString *key in handlers) {                 char *mark = [key isEqual:current_handler_name] ? "* " : "  ";                 printf("%s%s\n", mark, [key UTF8String]);             }         } else {             NSString *target_handler_name = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:target];              if ([target_handler_name isEqual:current_handler_name]) {               printf("%s is already set as the default HTTP handler\n", target);             } else {                 NSString *target_handler = handlers[target_handler_name];                  if (target_handler != nil) {                     // Set new HTTP handler (HTTP and HTTPS separately)                     set_default_handler(@"http", target_handler);                     set_default_handler(@"https", target_handler);                 } else {                     printf("%s is not available as an HTTP handler\n", target);                      return 1;                 }             }         }     }      return 0; } 

Makefile:

BIN ?= defaultbrowser PREFIX ?= /usr/local BINDIR ?= $(PREFIX)/bin  CC = gcc CFLAGS = -O2  .PHONY: all install uninstall clean  all:     gcc -o $(BIN) $(CFLAGS) -framework Foundation -framework ApplicationServices src/main.m  install: all     install -d $(BINDIR)     install -m 755 $(BIN) $(BINDIR)  uninstall:     rm -f $(BINDIR)/$(BIN)  clean:     rm -f $(BIN)