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javascriptnode.jsurlfile-format

What markup language do .url files use?

I have a .url file like so:

[internetShortcut]
url=http://www.stackoverflow.com

When I double-click on this file, it opens a link in my browser to Stack Overflow, as it should.

I incorrectly thought that the format of this file was TOML, but it's not - quotes cannot surround the url given under internetShortcut.url.

What is the format of the file, and how can I best parse it (in NodeJS)?

Solution

  • It is a Microsoft Internet Shortcut, originally developed to store Internet Explorer favourites. I presume you're supposed to use Windows APIs to interact with it rather than writing your own parser.

    In the context of the Node ecosystem, there seem to be some implementations, probably because the format is not complicated and was easy to support.