Uzbl

Uzbl is a lightweight browser based on uzbl-core. Uzbl adheres to the UNIX philosophy of "Write programs that do one thing and do it well". The uzbl-browser package includes uzbl-core, uzbl-browser and uzbl-event-manager. Most users will want to use uzbl-browser or uzbl-tabbed as they provide the fullest set of tools for browsing. Uzbl-browser allows for a single page per window (with as many windows as you want), while uzbl-tabbed provides a wrapper for uzbl-browser and implements basic tabs with multiple pages per window.

Installation

Install the uzbl-browser-next-git^AUR or uzbl-tabbed-next-git^AUR package.

Plugins

Uzbl can make use of outside browser plugins like Flash and Java. Installing these packages will enable their use in uzbl-browser and uzbl-tabbed.

Commands

One of the biggest advantages of using Uzbl is that nearly everything can be controlled by the keyboard. This is preferable to the traditional mouse/keyboard combo because less moving around of the hands is needed. Vim users will find Uzbl much easier to pick-up, especially as the default bindings loosely resemble Vim keystrokes. For instance, following a link requires the user to type fl, and then the keystrokes in the box that appears next to each link on the page. Shortening the command to just f in the configuration file allows for even faster navigation.

Below are basic, default commands that can be used with uzbl-browser and uzbl-tabbed. These commands can all be found in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/uzbl/config (which is usually located in ~/.config/uzbl/config). The default settings work well, but many users like to edit them to suit their preferences and in fact, it is encouraged to change this file to suit your needs. More help with editing the configuration file can be found on the Uzbl readme.

Navigation

Command	Doing what
o	enter url
O	edit url
b	back
m	forward
S	stop
r	reload
R	reload ignoring cache
fl	spawn numbers next to each hyperlink. Type the number after typing fl to follow the link.
gh	go home

Page Movement

Command	Doing what
j	scroll up
k	scroll down
h	scroll left
l	scroll right
PgUp	scroll page up
ctrl+b	scroll page up
PgDn	scroll page down
ctrl+f	scroll page down
Home	vertical beginning of the page
<<	vertical beginning of the page
End	vertical end of the page
>>	vertical end of the page
Space	vertical end of the page
^	horizontal beginning of the page
$	horizontal end of the page
/	find in page
?	find backwards in page
n	repeat find forward
N	repeat find backwards

Zooming

Command	Doing what
+	zoom_in
-	zoom_out
T	toggle_zoom_type
1	set zoom_level = 1
2	set zoom_level = 2

Searching

Command	Doing what
ddg	search term in DuckDuckGo
gg	search term in Google
\wiki	search term in Wikipedia

Inserting Text

Command	Doing what
i	toggle_insert_mode (Esc works to go back to command mode much like vim)
fi	go to the first input field and enter insert mode

Bookmarks and History

Command	Doing what
M	insert bookmark (bookmarks are saved in ~/.local/share/uzbl/bookmarks
U	load url from history via dmenu
u	load url from bookmarks via dmenu

Tabs (when using uzbl-tabbed)

Command	Doing what
go	load uri in new tab
gt	go to next tab
gT	go to previous tab
gn	open new tab
gi+n	goto 'n' tab
gC	close current tab

Other

Command	Doing what
t	show/hide status bar
w	open new window
ZZ	exit
:	enter command
Esc	back to normal mode
ctrl+[	back to normal mode

Tips and tricks

Caching

Due to its lightweight nature, uzbl does NOT contain caching functionality. You can install Squid to speed up page loading.

Troubleshooting

Parcellite

Parcellite can cause problems at the time of selecting text under uzbl - just disable it.

TLS certificates

Per https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=185014, adjust the configuration file:

~/.config/uzbl/config

set ssl_ca_file /etc/ssl/cert.pem
set ssl_policy fail