config: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\qutebrowser\config data: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\qutebrowser\data
I ♥︎ the qutebrowser web browser and recently set it up from scratch and wrote these tips so it will be easier for me next time. I hope they make it easier for you too.
2020-June-26 qutebrowser v1.13.0 released. To keep up with qutebrowser releases, see github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/releases, lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser/, or old.reddit.com/r/qutebrowser/.
2020-May Changed the title of this article to Getting Started with qutebrowser and created a new Infinite Ink article titled qutebrowser Tips and Fragments.
“qutebrowser (pronounced "cute browser") is a web browser for Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems with Vim[1]-style key bindings and a minimal GUI. It is keyboard-driven”
The first tip is specific to Windows, but the rest are relevant to all systems.
As of qutebrowser v1.7.0[2] the Windows installer gives you the option to register qutebrowser with Windows and set it as your default browser. To get these options, use one of the following installers, which are available on github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/releases.
qutebrowser-version-amd64.exe — 64-bit version for x64 (also known as AMD64) systems
qutebrowser-version-win32.exe — 32-bit version for x86 (also known as IA-32) systems
After you install qutebrowser, launch it and do the following.
Press the Esc[3] key to make sure you are in command mode.[4]
Type :version,
which is a Vim-style
colon command.[5]
This displays the version
and a lot of other information,
including the
config and data directory paths.
On a default Windows installation, these paths are displayed like this
(with username replaced with your user name):
config: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\qutebrowser\config data: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\qutebrowser\data
Make note of these paths because they are used in Tips 5, 6, and 8 below.
To close this (or any) tab, press d for delete.
👉️ | In qutebrowser the following are equivalent.
|
If a command does not work in qutebrowser, try the following.
Press Esc to make sure you are in command mode.[4] Sometimes you need to press Esc — and possibly Enter — multiple times to escape from a previous command.
Make sure you have entered a command correctly.
A common mistake for me is to use a leading colon
(:)
when the command is not a colon command.[5]
Since qutebrowser commands are case sensitive, make sure you are using the correct case and that CapsLock is not on.
Make sure you press Enter after typing a colon command.
Make sure you press
Enter
followed by
Esc
after
you are done
searching for string with
either
the
/string
or
the
?string
command.
To get help about qutebrowser commands, see:
A lot of help documents, including the above three, are built in to qutebrowser. To access quetebrowser’s built-in help, use any of the following within qutebrowser.
:help
:open qute://help
o qute://help
To get help about a specific topic, use :help topic, for example:
:help :config-write-py :help :devtools :help :download :help :help :help :reload :help :view-source :help :yank :help bindings.default :help qt.args
If you are not opposed to using an ad blocker, I recommend that you run the following colon command.
:adblock-update
This creates or updates a file named blocked-hosts in the qutebrowser data
directory.[6]
If you were not able to read the
message that :adblock-update
briefly
displayed,
you can
view it and all messages from this
qutebrowser
session with
one of the
following
colon commands.
:messages :messages --plain
After viewing the message(s), you can return
to the previous page
by typing H
(a mnemonic to remember this key binding is
“H for History”).
There is more than one way to configure qutebrowser, which you can read about in qutebrowser.org’s Configuring qutebrowser. I recommend that you create a template configuration file by running the following colon command from within quitebrowser.
:config-write-py --defaults
This creates
a
file named
config.py in your qutebrowser config
directory.[6]
👉️ | If /full/path/to/config.py already exists - use --force to overwrite! I tested this with qutebrowser
v1.8.1
and
v1.8.2,
but
YMMV
so backup your |
More about the config.py file is in Tip 8 below.
Before you edit config.py, which was created in the previous Tip,
quit qutebrowser with one of these
colon commands:
:qa
-
quit all without saving the currently open windows and tabs
:wqa
-
save (write) the currently open windows and tabs, and quit all
In a plain text editor,
open the config.py
that we
created in Tip 6 above.
Read through the
default
configuration settings — which are all commented out — and uncomment and edit the ones
that you would like to change.
For example,
here are some of my
settings:
c.content.default_encoding = 'utf-8'
c.content.geolocation = False
c.scrolling.bar = 'always'
c.tabs.background = True
c.zoom.default = '150%'
config.bind('<Ctrl-=>', 'zoom-in')
config.bind('<Ctrl-->', 'zoom-out')
My last two settings above allow me to use Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- to zoom in and zoom out on a web page. With these settings, the qutebrowser zoom defaults, which are + and -, still work.
💡︎ | The template config.py
that qutebrowser
v1.13.0
creates
is
2127 lines
and you can view it
on
Infinite Ink’s
qutebrowser’s config.py. |
If qutebrowser is on your path, you can easily launch it from a command line with arguments. For example, you can use the following to view Infinite Ink’s home page in a new qutebrowser window.
qutebrowser https://www.ii.com/ --target window
Possible command-line arguments are described on qutebrowser’s man page.
Infinite Ink’s #qutebrowser Portal includes qutebrowser-related links from around the web, including:
vi. It is pre-installed on most nix-based systems and can be run with a graphical or text-based user interface (GUI or TUI). Information about Vim is at wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim_(text_editor).:) is known as a “colon command” or “Ex command.”:version command from within qutebrowser.To add a reaction or comment to this page, you need a GitHub account and your browser needs to be able to run a script that is hosted at https://utteranc.es.