This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title       : 	Get the current or all Firefox tab urls in Bash
Author      : 	Remy van Elst
Date        : 	01-09-2014
URL         : 	https://raymii.org/s/snippets/Get_the_current_or_all_Firefox_tab_urls_in_Bash.html
Format      : 	Markdown/HTML
---



This snippets gets the current firefox tab url or all the firefox tab url's. It
uses the sessionstore.js file in your profile folder. That file is updated
almost instantly, however it will not always be the correct url.

I use this to track my time on different websites over the day together with
some other shell scripts.

<p class="ad"> <b>Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below:</b><br><br> <a href="https://leafnode.nl">I'm developing an open source monitoring app called  Leaf Node Monitoring, for windows, linux & android. Go check it out!</a><br><br> <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/RaymiiOrg/">Consider sponsoring me on Github. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs.</a><br><br> <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212">You can also sponsor me by getting a Digital Ocean VPS. With this referral link you'll get $200 credit for 60 days. Spend $25 after your credit expires and I'll get $25!</a><br><br> </p>


Get all the open tabs:

    
    
    python2 <<< $'import json\nf = open("/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RANDOM.profile/sessionstore.js", "r")\njdata = json.loads(f.read())\nf.close()\nfor win in jdata.get("windows"):\n\tfor tab in win.get("tabs"):\n\t\ti = tab.get("index") - 1\n\t\tprint tab.get("entries")[i].get("url")'
    

Example output:

http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/commands/classictest
http://monitoring.raymii.nl/nagios/ http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2014-07-16
/iosnoop-for-linux.html http://duplicity.nongnu.org/duplicity.1.html
http://www.routeralley.com/guides.html http://www.hactrn.net/sra/vaxen.html
http://duplicity.nongnu.org/duplicity.1.html
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/list/20140902

Get the current active/open tab number:

    
    
    python2 <<< $'import json\nf = open("/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RANDOM.profile/sessionstore.js", "r")\njdata = json.loads(f.read())\nf.close()\nprint str(jdata["windows"][0]["selected"])'
    

Example output:

    
    
    11
    

Printing that line number from all open tab url's gives you the current open
tab. `sed -n "3p" file` prints line 3 from `file`. Combining the commands with
bash expansion results in the following:

    
    
    sed -n "$(python2 <<< $'import json\nf = open("/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RANDOM.profile/sessionstore.js", "r")\njdata = json.loads(f.read())\nf.close()\nprint str(jdata["windows"][0]["selected"])')p" <(python2 <<< $'import json\nf = open("/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RANDOM.profile/sessionstore.js", "r")\njdata = json.loads(f.read())\nf.close()\nfor win in jdata.get("windows"):\n\tfor tab in win.get("tabs"):\n\t\ti = tab.get("index") - 1\n\t\tprint tab.get("entries")[i].get("url")')
    

Output:

    
    
    http://tweakers.net/nieuws/list/20140902
    

This can also be in your `.bashrc` file:

    
    
    current_firefox_tab_number() {
        python2 <<< $'import json\nf = open("/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RANDOM.profile/sessionstore.js", "r")\njdata = json.loads(f.read())\nf.close()\nprint str(jdata["windows"][0]["selected"])'
    }
    
    current_firefox_url() {
        sed -n "$(current_firefox_tab_number)p" <(python2 <<< $'import json\nf = open("/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RANDOM.profile/sessionstore.js", "r")\njdata = json.loads(f.read())\nf.close()\nfor win in jdata.get("windows"):\n\tfor tab in win.get("tabs"):\n\t\ti = tab.get("index") - 1\n\t\tprint tab.get("entries")[i].get("url")')
    }
    

Example:

    
    
    $ current_firefox_tab_number 
    11
    
    $ current_firefox_url 
    http://tweakers.net/nieuws/list/20140902
    

   [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212

---

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    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational 
purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you 
screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example. 
If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me.

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