Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Firefox doesn't recognize file://~?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

When I type / in the address bar Firefox immediately realizes that it's a local path and suggests file:///. But neither ~ nor file://~ points to my home directory. I hope Firefox will recognize ~ and save me from typing /home/my_username in the address bar myself.

When I type / in the address bar Firefox immediately realizes that it's a local path and suggests file:///. But neither ~ nor file://~ points to my home directory. I hope Firefox will recognize ~ and save me from typing /home/my_username in the address bar myself.

Modified by sw

Chosen solution

Hi, Firefox is actually governed by standards here, and they explicitly call out that `~` expansion isn't supported in file:// URIs:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8089#appendix-D.1

Unfortunately, I doubt there is much that can be done about that - it isn't a common feature across all operating systems, which is probably why the RFC has specified it in that manner.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

Hi, Firefox is actually governed by standards here, and they explicitly call out that `~` expansion isn't supported in file:// URIs:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8089#appendix-D.1

Unfortunately, I doubt there is much that can be done about that - it isn't a common feature across all operating systems, which is probably why the RFC has specified it in that manner.

more options

A possible workaround is to use a keyword (fh) bookmark that adds the file path.

  • file:////home/my_username/%s