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Frequently Asked Questions

Downloads

How do I change the default download location?

In your rc.lua after require "downloads" add (or modify) the following:

downloads.default_dir = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/downloads"

How do I make all downloads save to my default download location without asking?

In your rc.lua after require "downloads" add (or modify) the following:

downloads.add_signal("download-location", function (uri, file)
    if not file or file == "" then
        file = (string.match(uri, "/([^/]+)$")
            or string.match(uri, "^%w+://(.+)")
            or string.gsub(uri, "/", "_")
            or "untitled")
    end
    return downloads.default_dir .. "/" .. file
end)

Behaviour

How do I stop some links opening in new windows?

Add your own new-window-decision webview signal handler which always opens links in new tabs.

In your rc.lua after require "webview" add (or modify) the following:

webview.add_signal("init", function (view)
    view:add_signal("new-window-decision", function (v, uri, reason)
        local w = window.ancestor(v)
        w:new_tab(uri)
        return true
    end)
end)

How do I copy text with Control-C?

Add this snippet of code to your rc.lua. Note that Ctrl-C is already bound to "Stop loading the current tab"; adding this snippet will automatically remove that binding.

modes.add_binds("normal", {
    { "", "Copy selected text.", function ()
        luakit.selection.clipboard = luakit.selection.primary
    end},
})

How do I open certain schemes in other applications?

To open particular schemes in other applications, use the navigation-request webview signal. The generic boilerplate for attaching to this signal is shown here:

webview.add_signal("init", function (view)
    view:add_signal("navigation-request", function (v, uri)
        --- Check URI and open program here
    end)
end)

Replace the inner comment with code that checks the URI and, if it matches the right scheme, opens your external program. If it matches, it is important to return false from the signal handler: this prevents luakit from navigating to the link while your program opens.

Here are some examples:

Opening mailto: links using GMail

if string.match(string.lower(uri), "^mailto:") then
    local mailto = "https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s"
    local w = window.ancestor(v)
    w:new_tab(string.format(mailto, uri))
    return false
end

Opening mailto: links using Mutt in urxvt

if string.match(string.lower(uri), "^mailto:") then
    luakit.spawn(string.format("%s %q", "urxvt -title mutt -e mutt", uri))
    return false
end

Opening magnet: links with Deluge

if string.match(string.lower(uri), "^magnet:") then
    luakit.spawn(string.format("%s %q", "deluge-gtk", uri))
    return false
end

Opening magnet: links with rTorrent

if string.match(string.lower(uri), "^magnet:") then
    luakit.spawn(string.format("%s %q", "mktor", uri))
    return false
end

Styling

A number of page styling tweaks can be made by adding additional page initialization functions. These are placed in the rc.lua file. They must be after require "webview", but before the block where the window or tab creation call is made. This happens near the end of the file, right after the comment End user script loading. This means that you cannot just add these functions to the end of the file, if you do so they will not be executed.

I'm using a dark theme; how do I stop the white flash during the loading of a page?

This is not currently possible, as with WebKit 2 there is no way to give a webview widget a transparent background.

How do I change the default zoom level?

The best way to change the default zoom level is to add a rule to domain_props:

globals.domain_props.all = {
    ...
    zoom_level = 1.5, -- a 50% zoom
    ...
}

How do I set a custom about:blank page?

The easiest way to do this is to customize the newtab_chrome module's options.

You can also do this by watching the "navigation-request" webview signal for navigation to specific addresses (in this case "about:blank"):

webview.add_signal("init", function (view)
    view:add_signal("navigation-request", function (_, uri)
        if uri == "about:blank" then
            local html = ""
            view:load_string(html, "about:blank")
            return true
        end
    end)
end)