[From a post to python-help]

Under KDE under Mandrake Linux the BROWSER environment
variable is set to

kfmclient openProfile webbrowsing

The problem is that _iscommand() in the webbrowser
module doesn't realize that only the first thing there
is the name of the executable. It looks for an
executable with that whole thing as its name and
doesn't find one. Since the module doesn't use any
browser it has found if BROWSER is set, it raises an
error rather than opening the page.

The possible fixes that are obvious to me all have
potential disadvantages:

One solution would be to assume that the name of the
executable ran only up to the first space. But
executables can have spaces in their names, especially
on a Macintosh, I think.

Another possibility would be not to call _iscommand()
on anything in BROWSER. That would have the additional
advantage of not requiring that the executable
specified there be in a directory that's in the user's
PATH. The problem with doing things this way is that it
would be impossible to tell which of the browsers
specified in BROWSER should be used until the user
called open().

I'm prepared to work on a fix if given some guidance
about the best way to go.

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Please ask around on c.l.py if the macintosh problem
actually exists; if it doesn't, stopping at the first space
sounds like the right idea.

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A week after posting <slrnb5iu1s.t8.matt@sake.mondoinfo.com>
("webbrowser module under MacOS"), it hasn't gotten any
replies. That suggests that Mac users either don't much care
about the module or don't read comp.lang.python.

If it's desirable merely to stop at the first space, it
should be sufficient to replace:

if _iscommand(cmd.lower()):

with

if _iscommand(cmd.lower().split(" ")[0]):

There remain some things that are dubious about the handling
of the values in the BROWSER environment variable. In
particular, the lower() in that line, the assumption that
the executables specified in BROWSER are in the user's PATH,
and the lack of handling of %% and %s in those values.

Still, it may be reasonable to ignore those issues until
they pose a problem.

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You know, I have no idea why all the lower() business is
there. Assigning to Fred Drake, maybe he knows more. (Fred,
please treat this as a hot potato -- if you don't
immediately know the answer, assign it back to me.)

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This is still an issue... has there been any movement on it outside of this 
bug report? 
 
I'm seeing the behaviour on Mandrake 9.1, KDE 3.1.3 that the module is 
finding the BROWSER env var as described above, and thus not finding a 
usable browser. 
 
As a fallback, the _tryorder shouldn't be *replaced* by BROWSER, but 
just prepended with its value. Sure, that means that the KDE BROWSER 
value will be ignored, but it'll still find konqueror. This approach works for 
me, and I'm sure it'll work for others who have "valid" BROWSER values 
:) 
 
Simple patch against python2.3 (sorry, sf will mangle this, but it's short): 
 
--- webbrowser.py       2003-08-20 10:28:07.000000000 +1000 
+++ /usr/lib/python2.3/webbrowser.py    2003-08-04 
10:18:17.000000000 +1000 
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ 
 if "BROWSER" in os.environ: 
     # It's the user's responsibility to register handlers for any unknown 
     # browser referenced by this value, before calling open(). 
-    _tryorder[0:0] = os.environ["BROWSER"].split(os.pathsep) 
+    _tryorder = os.environ["BROWSER"].split(os.pathsep) 
 
 for cmd in _tryorder: 
     if not cmd.lower() in _browsers: 
 

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Please, could you verify if this problem persists in Python 2.3.4
or 2.4?

If yes, in which version? Can you provide a test case?

If the problem is solved, from which version?

Note that if you fail to answer in one month, I'll close this bug
as "Won't fix".

Thank you! 

.    Facundo

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This is still an issue. 
 
python -c 'import 
webbrowser;webbrowser.open("http://www.google.com/")' 
on a system using KDE will exhibit the break. 
 
I posted a patch to fix the behaviour in my last message. I just 
noticed that I invoked diff the wrong way around (though the 
explanation still stands) - a correct invocation: 
 
--- /tmp/webbrowser.py  2005-01-17 08:59:50.697657208 
+1100 
+++ /usr/lib/python2.3/webbrowser.py    2005-01-17 
08:59:58.269989095 +1100 
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ 
 if "BROWSER" in os.environ: 
     # It's the user's responsibility to register handlers for any 
unknown 
     # browser referenced by this value, before calling open(). 
-    _tryorder = os.environ["BROWSER"].split(os.pathsep) 
+    _tryorder[0:0] = os.environ["BROWSER"].split(os.pathsep) 
 
 for cmd in _tryorder: 
     if not cmd.lower() in _browsers: 
 

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richard seems to reproduced it on Py2.3, changing the group
to it.

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The problem still exists in Python 2.4.1

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Corrected in webbrowser.py r1.37.4.1. For the 2.5 branch, a
new patch will be checked in which corrects this too.