'less' doesn't work properly as a file handler in firefox

[Alex Mauer]

firefox tries to use 'less' as a handler for some kinds of files. Unfortunately this doesn't work.

Firefox should either never, ever, ever use less as a handler, or should use it properly (i.e. in a terminal).

At the least, it should provide alternate options for opening those file types.

Example link: http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/admin/ubuntu/postinstall.sh

[Chris Rose (chris-vault5)]

I can confirm this, Firefox wants to open it with less which is... bizarre to say the least. Even more odd, when its downloaded and I click open it attempts to open the file with PyPar...

[Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) (hmontoliu)]

I can confirm this behavior too.

It only works when calling firefox from command line. then less opens on the current terminal.

less should be called on a new xterm (e.g. xterm -x less tmp_file, gnome-terminal -x ...).

Anyhow, when clicking that link the download window opens, and if you select 'Open' then file is opened with gedit.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

When I click that link I get asked whether to open or save to disk.

While choosing "save to disk" and then "open" from the download window does open it in gedit, the default "open" action is still less, and appears to have no effect.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Is this still a problem in Firefox 3? I cannot confirm this problem in Firefox 3.0.10 on Jaunty.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

This is no longer a problem for me in Firefox 3.5