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withExEditorHost

Native messaging host for browser extension withExEditor. The browser interacts with the host via messages, and the editor is executed by this host.

Supported browsers

Browser	Windows	Linux	Mac
Firefox	✓	✓	✓
Waterfox Current	✓	✓	✓
LibreWolf	✓ *1	✓
Chrome	✓	✓	✓
Chrome Beta	✓ *2	✓	✓
Chrome Canary	✓ *2		✓
Chromium		✓	✓
Brave	✓ *2	✓	✓
Edge	✓	✓	✓
Opera	✓ *2		✓ *2
Vivaldi	✓ *2	✓	✓

*1: Shares host with Firefox. *2: Shares host with Chrome.

If your browser is not listed or OS for that browser is left blank, file an issue for adding support. When filing an issue, if you know where to save the application manifest in that browser, please let me know.

Host setup

NOTE: If you already have Node.js installed, it is recommended to get the host from npm. Also, if you are using 32bit Windows or 32bit Linux, please install Node.js and get the host from npm. Refer to Host setup from npm below.

When setting up the host, disable withExEditor installed in the browser.

Download a zip file (a tar.gz file on Linux / Mac) for your OS from Releases, after decompressing, save it in an arbitrary place under your home directory (for example, C:\Users\XXX\withExEditorHost\).

Next, open "cmd.exe" on Windows, "terminal" on Linux / Mac, change directory to where you saved withExEditorHost, execute the following command.

cd path/to/withExEditorHost
index setup

Then you will be asked which browser you want to setup the host for, so please select from the browsers listed.

After that, you will be prompted for the following, please input as appropriate.

Enter editor path
Enter command line options
- NOTE: Quote the argument if it contains spaces or backslashes. For example: -a -b "C:\Program Files"
- NOTE: You can use the temporary file placeholder ${file} in the arguments. For example: -a ${file} -b

If config files are created successfully, enable withExEditor again. The browser and the host get connected and the editor will be ready to use.

NOTE: If you have enabled Mandatory Access Control (for example, AppArmor) for your web-browser, ensure the profile allows the withexeditorhost.sh script to be executed.

Options

In the setup script you can specify some options.

-b --browser

To specify the browser, please use -b or --browser option.

index setup --browser=firefox

-c --config-path

By default, configuration files are saved under user's home directory.

Windows: C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\withexeditorhost\config\
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/withexeditorhost/config/
Linux: ~/.config/withexeditorhost/config/

If you want to save configuration files in different location, use --config-path option. Quote path if it contains spaces or backslashes.

index setup --config-path="C:\Users\XXX\path\to\another\location"

Other options

See help for other options.

index setup --help

Upgrade

Before upgrading a host, disable withExEditor installed in your browser. To upgrade, just overwrite binary files, that's all. There is no need to run the setup script again after the upgrade. Enable withExEditor after the upgrade.

Automated installation

Linux

Executing the following script (requires cURL and jq) will download and install the latest host version:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Make the script fail immediately when a command fails and don't allow unset variables
set -euo pipefail

function main {
  # Install the host for withExEditor that allows editing text in the browser using an editor like Vim
  # After executing this script, reload the browser plugin

  # See https://github.com/asamuzaK/withExEditorHost/releases for supported operating systems
  os="linux-x86_64"

  # Possible values: firefox, waterfoxcurrent, chrome, chromebeta, chromium, brave, vivaldi
  browser="firefox"

  # Allowed tags: "latest" and "next" (pre-release)
  versionTag="latest"
  # The host's version number
  version=$(curl --silent https://registry.npmjs.org/withexeditorhost | jq --raw-output ".\"dist-tags\".\"${versionTag}\"")

  withExEditorHostRemoteFile="https://github.com/asamuzaK/withExEditorHost/releases/download/v${version}/${os}.tar.gz"
  withExEditorHostLocalArchive="/tmp/withExEditorHost.tar.gz"
  withExEditorHostDir="${HOME}/.local/bin/withExEditorHost"

  echo "Downloading withExEditorHost ${version} for ${browser}"

  # Create the dir for the host's index file, download the archive and extract it
  mkdir --parents "${withExEditorHostDir}"
  # If the URL returns 404, make cURL fail. This prevents the archive extractor from trying to extract an HTML error page
  if curl --fail -L -o "${withExEditorHostLocalArchive}" "${withExEditorHostRemoteFile}"\
  && extractTarGz "${withExEditorHostLocalArchive}" "${withExEditorHostDir}"; then

    indexFile="${withExEditorHostDir}/index"
    hostScript="${HOME}/.config/withexeditorhost/config/${browser}/withexeditorhost.sh"

    # The browser plugin will use this shell script to call the host's index file
    printf "#!/usr/bin/env bash\n%s\n" "${indexFile}" > "${hostScript}"

    chmod +x "${indexFile}" "${hostScript}"
  fi
}

# Extracts the files of a tar.gz archive (first parameter) to a destination directory (second parameter).
# Uses either bsdtar (from libarchive), tar, or 7z.
function extractTarGz {

  if hash bsdtar 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "Extracting with bsdtar to $2"
    bsdtar -xf "$1" --directory "$2"

  elif hash tar 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "Extracting with tar to $2"
    tar -zxf "$1" --directory "$2"

  elif hash 7z 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "Extracting with 7z to $2"
    7z x "$1" -o"$2"

  else
    echo "No program found to extract a tar.gz archive. Please install bsdtar, tar, or 7z."
  fi
}
main

Host setup from npm

NOTE: Node.js is required. Use maintenance LTS or higher.

When setting up the host, disable withExEditor installed in the browser.

Get host from withexeditorhost - npm and install globally, move to installed path.

NOTE: The installation path on Windows is basically C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\withexeditorhost, and on macOS and Linux it should be /usr/local/lib/node_modules/withexeditorhost. If you can't find it, you can get the global installation path for npm with npm root -g. Ref: Where does npm install the packages?

npm i -g withexeditorhost
cd path/to/npm/node_modules/withexeditorhost

Run the setup command npm run setup.

npm run setup