Re: [Emacs-diffs] /srv/bzr/emacs/trunk r107890: Adapt browse-url.el to improvements in Cygwin's cygstart utility.

[Ken Brown]

On 4/16/2012 3:28 AM, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:
> Ken Brown wrote:
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > revno: 107890
> > committer: Ken Brown<address@hidden>
> > branch nick: trunk
> > timestamp: Fri 2012-04-13 11:15:42 -0400
> > message:
> >    Adapt browse-url.el to improvements in Cygwin's cygstart utility.
>
> >    * lisp/net/browse-url.el (browse-url-file-url): Remove Cygwin hack;
> >    this is no longer needed now that cygstart understands file://
> >    URLs.
> >    (browse-url-filename-alist): For the same reason, don't modify
> >    file:// URLs on Cygwin.
> > modified:
> >    lisp/ChangeLog
> >    lisp/net/browse-url.el
>
> Hi,
>
> This is neither a bug report nor a complaint.  I may be worrying
> unduly, but...
>
> By the change, a way for Cygwin users to view file:// urls by
> using a non-default browser was lost, since cygstart only runs
> the default Windows browser.  I like firefox but some web pages
> support only IE, so mainly for the office work I don't set firefox
> as the default browser (similarly I use Gnus for personal mails
> but use Outlook for the office work).  My Emacs configuration:
>
> (setq browse-url-browser-function 'browse-url-generic
>        browse-url-generic-program
>        "/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe")
>
> Ok, the following advice helps:
>
> (defadvice browse-url-file-url (after convert-filename-for-cygwin activate)
>    "Convert filename to the one that Cygwin understands."
>    (when (string-match "\\`file:///" ad-return-value)
>      (setq ad-return-value
>           (concat (substring ad-return-value 0 (match-end 0))
>                   (substring (with-output-to-string
>                                (call-process "cygpath" nil
>                                              standard-output
>                                              nil "-m"
>                                              (substring ad-return-value
>                                                         (1- (match-end 0)))))
>                              0 -1)))))
>
> FYI, Gnus still uses cygpath for converting link file names in
> a html file that `gnus-article-browse-html-parts' generates.

Thanks for the report.  I hadn't thought about the possibility that 
someone would want to use a Windows browser that's not the default 
Windows browser.

Would the following work?  Write a script "browser" that accepts a URL 
and then calls firefox, after first translating file:// URLs to a form 
that firefox understands.  Then set browse-url-generic-program to 
"browser".  This strikes me as more in the spirit of Cygwin, which tries 
to emulate GNU/Linux.  So a browser for Cygwin users ought to be able to 
handle file:// URLs.  That's why I asked for cygstart to be changed so 
that it would understand such URLs.  (It also understands mailto: URLs now.)

Ken