Open url in Emacs with external browser

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Here is some handy elisp function which use browse-url-generic to open the url in external browser (firefox, for example).

The key point is how to detect the url. If we are in w3m-mode, we will use the link under cursor or the URI of current web page. Or else, we will let browse-url-generic to detect the url. 

(defun w3mext-open-link-or-image-or-url ()
  "Opens the current link or image or current page's uri or any url-like text under cursor in firefox."
  (interactive)
  (let (url)
    (if (string= major-mode "w3m-mode")
        (setq url (or (w3m-anchor) (w3m-image) w3m-current-url)))
    (browse-url-generic (if url url (car (browse-url-interactive-arg "URL: "))))
    ))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b") 'w3mext-open-link-or-image-or-url)

To specify the external browser like firefox, add below code into ~/.emacs: 

;; C-h v browse-url-generic-program RET to see the documentation

;; is-a-mac and linux is the boolean constants defined by me


(setq browse-url-generic-program
      (cond
       (is-a-mac "open")
       (linux (executable-find "firefox"))
       ))
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