Xpra: Ticket #1726: intercept xdg-open and forward it to the client

This could be enabled by default when we add at least a dialog showing that the file is ready to be opened (see #1375) since we don't want open-silently by default. (for security reasons)

forwarding of files can re-use the "send-file" protocol: wiki/FileTransfers
for urls we will need a new protocol message

Maybe each one could be enabled independently?

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 16:35:37 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed

status changed from new to assigned

Basic support added in r17726.

xdg-open /some/file

Will end up sending the file to the client and ask it to open it. (which is not allowed by default)

Sun, 24 Dec 2017 12:11:37 GMT - Antoine Martin: attachment set

attachment set to xdg-open-url.patch

forwarding of xdg-open for URLs

Sun, 24 Dec 2017 17:27:22 GMT - Antoine Martin: owner, status changed

owner changed from Antoine Martin to J. Max Mena
status changed from assigned to new

Done in:

r17740: add prompt for accepting file-transfer/file-open (#1375)
r17742: packaging of xdg-open override script
r17743: support url-open with prompt
r17744 + r17745: enable forward-xdg-open by default
r17752: also redirect gnome-open and gvfs-open

Things that could be done to improve this:

improve the popup dialog: #1375
requires a unix-domain socket that does not require authentication, and we pass the socket path using an env var which is a bit iffy
forward-xdg-open could support url, paths as options to only forward the type specified and let the other one through - meh

Notes:

this only works from an environment we setup (we modify $PATH), so commands started with --start=xterm (or --start-child and friends), but not with DISPLAY=:N xterm
some applications will bypass xdg-open, maybe we need to override xdg-mime for those? (PITA as this points to a desktop file..) - see Where does firefox get the “default” applications for opening files from? (esp comments: gnome-open, gvfs-open, gio open - some kind of sick joke?)
more improvements recorded in ticket:1375#comment:7

How to test:

start server with forward-xdg-open=no then xdg-open works normally (not overriden with our custom script)

From here on, with forward-xdg-open=yes (which is the default):

in an xterm, run xdg-open https://xpra.org/, this should popup the dialog asking the client if it accepts to open this URL
change the client's command line: set --open-url to no or yes, and check again
for file-transfers, test with xdg-open /path/to/some/file.png, again, the dialog should come up
and again, change --file-transfer to no or yes and check again (default value is ask)

@maxmylyn: just a FYI.

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 20:25:41 GMT - J. Max Mena: status changed; resolution set

status changed from new to closed
resolution set to fixed

Noted and closing.

Wed, 30 May 2018 14:03:26 GMT - Antoine Martin:

For the html5 client, see #1862.

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 05:32:09 GMT - migration script:

this ticket has been moved to: https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/issues/1726