bookmarks - Export bookmarks from browsers and files

SYNOPSIS

$ bookmarks [-hVda] [-f format] [file ...]

-h, --help      help
-V, --version   version
-d              debug (sent to STDERR)
-a              all : process arguments and default locations
-f format       export format : csv, csv-noheader, html, html-raw,
                or any combination of characters t,u,d as
                <title> <url> <description> (default : tud)
-s              find schemeless URLs in text files (default : no)

DESCRIPTION

bookmarks is a tool to export bookmarks from files supplied as arguments. Without arguments, or with option -a, bookmarks will attempt to read files from browsers default locations. If file is a dash "-", STDIN is read and processed as plain text source.

Supported sources :

• Safari (*.plist)
• Firefox (*.sqlite)
• Chrome and Edge (*Bookmarks)
• Internet Explorer (*Favorites)
• Netscape Bookmarks File Format (*.html)
• Markdown (*.md)
• Gemini (*.gmi)
• Surfraw (same as plain text)
• Plain text (any other extension)

Supported fields :

• <title> is the name, alias or title.
• <url> is the address, URL or URI.
• <description> is only supported for Safari 'Description', Firefox 'Tags' and Markdown 'Title' (just the tooltip, actually).

Markdown, Gemini and plain text files are processed line by line (as UTF-8) :

  [markdown example](http://example.md/ "with description")
  => gemini://example.gmi gemini example
  plain text example http://example.txt with description

Output format :

By default, fields <title> <url> <description> are exported as plain text. This can be changed by using option -f and specifying any combination of characters t,u,d. Other possible values :

• csv : Comma-separated values with double-quotes and CR NL (RFC 4180).
• csv-noheader : same as above, without header line.
• html : Netscape Bookmarks File Format.
• html-raw : raw list of HTML elements.

Install the wonderful fzf (available in Homebrew), URI::Find (CPAN), App::uricolor (CPAN), and add these aliases to your shell :

Open link(s) with default application :

alias lk="bookmarks | uricolor | fzf --ansi --exact --multi | urifind | xargs open"

• uricolor colorizes URIs to distinguish them from title and description.
• fzf is a fuzzy finder : use TAB for multiple selection, press ENTER to confirm, or ESC to cancel.
• urifind extracts all URIs. Try uricolor -s and urifind --schemeless to find schemeless URLs.
• Selected URIs will open with your default browser or application.
• Since open uses macOS Launch Services to determine which program to run, most common schemes such as ftp:// or ssh:// are automatically recognized.

N.B. On Windows, I use busybox-w32 and a file lk.bat containing :

@echo off

bookmarks | uricolor | fzf --ansi --exact --multi | urifind | busybox xargs -n1 cmd /c start ""

Copy link(s) to clipboard :

alias lkc="bookmarks | uricolor | fzf --ansi --exact --multi | urifind | pbcopy"

CHECK LINKS STATUS

These examples use the tool http_status provided by HTTP::SimpleLinkChecker (CPAN).

Check links and show status :

bookmarks -f u | xargs http_status

Show only broken links (parallel) :

bookmarks -f u | xargs -n10 -P16 http_status 2>/dev/null | perl -ne 'print if not /200$/'

INSTALLATION

To install this module automatically from CPAN :

cpan App::bookmarks

To install this module automatically from Git repository :

cpanm https://github.com/kal247/App-bookmarks.git

To install this module manually, run the following commands :

perl Makefile.PL
make     
make test
make install

PREREQUISITES

All are optional.

• Safari : macOS
• Firefox : DBI, DBD::SQLite
• Chrome : File::Slurper, JSON
• Internet Explorer : Config::Any, Config::Tiny, Win32
• Netscape : Netscape::Bookmarks
• Plain text : URI::Find

SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command :

perldoc bookmarks

You can also look for information at :

• CPAN

  https://metacpan.org/release/App-bookmarks

• GITHUB

  https://github.com/kal247/App-bookmarks

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This software is Copyright (c) 2019-2025 by jul.

This is free software, licensed under:

The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)