browseURL not opening folders and files with default apps

[avila]

System details:

Positron and OS details:

Positron Version: 2024.12.0 build 41
Code - OSS Version: 1.93.0
Commit: 39536c265d6828a68291984d0d359170316d055e
Date: 2024-11-18T02:42:16.243Z
Electron: 30.4.0
Chromium: 124.0.6367.243
Node.js: 20.15.1
V8: 12.4.254.20-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.11.9-amd64

Interpreter details:

• R 4.4.2

Describe the issue:

browseURL() does not work as expected in the built-in console (likely using Ark). However, it works as intended when called from R in the built-in terminal (e.g., browseURL(".")). I use browseURL() to open exported files with the default external program, even though the function is intended for opening URLs in a browser. While related issues/PRs exist (e.g., #4468, #4151, #4297), this specific issue is undocumented as far as I could tell.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

temp_file <- tempfile()
write.csv(iris, temp_file)
browseURL(temp_file)  # nothing happens

browseURL(tempdir()) # nothing happens

Expected or desired behavior:

The file or folder should be opened with respective default application.

Were there any error messages in the UI, Output panel, or Developer Tools console?

No.

[avila]

After quick checks, I see that the argument browser in the signature of browseURL is getOption("browser") by default. And the default option differ if called from the console (Ark?) or from R within the Terminal.

from console

> getOption("browser")
function(url) {
    .ps.Call("ps_browse_url", as.character(url))
}
<environment: 0x55b8659722f8>

from R (built-in Terminal or any terminal)

> getOption("browser")
[1] "xdg-open"

from RStudio (works as expected!!)

> getOption("browser")
function (url) 
{
    .Call("rs_browseURL", url, PACKAGE = "(embedding)")
}
<environment: 0x557c2bacfea8>

So, a workaround is setting the browser option to xdg-open for now.

options(browser="xdg-open")
browseURL(tempdir()) # works

[jonvanausdeln]

@avila , thank you for the report! I can also reproduce the issue. I'll move it forward to our triage process!