bachoseven / pdfext

chromium extension to open PDFs externally with a custom script

Open PDFs externally in Chrome

A simple manifest v3 extension which exists solely to let me open a PDF in zathura through a custom script; thought up in a hot afternoon with @aziis98 (his version here).

It uses a custom wza: protocol which I use since I can then redirect it to my wza script which opens the PDF in my favourite reader, Zathura.

Fun tip: to make this work super smoothly, you can tweak Chrom{e|ium}'s policies slightly in order to never ask for permission to open the PDF externally through this custom protocol:

Create a random .json file in

• /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed for Chrome,
• or /etc/chromium/policies/managed for Chromium, and write the following in it:

{
    "URLAllowlist": [
        "wza:*"
    ]
}

Sources for the above:

• https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7532419#zippy=%2Clinux
• https://askubuntu.com/questions/1176389/xdg-open-without-an-option-to-remember
• https://www.chromium.org/administrators/configuring-policy-for-extensions/