Google Mail as default mail client

This is mainly for my dad who hasn't worked out how to stop Evolution from starting every time he clicks a mailto: link and uses Google mail. So here's how to use Google Mail's web interface as your default mail client.

First of all create a empty text file called gmail_compose in your home folder (or wherever), make it executable, and then copy and paste the following into it…

#!/usr/bin/env bash
uri=$( echo "$1" | sed -e "s/subject=/su=/" -e "s/^mailto:\([^&?]\+\)[?&]\?\(.*\)$/\1\&\2/" )

firefox "https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=${uri}"

Of course you can substitute Firefox for whatever browser you use. Or, if multiple users have access to the script, try xdg-open.

Then set this script as your default mail client for whatever desktop you're using. For example in Gnome go to System > Preferences > Preferred Applications, and then in the "Mail Reader" section select Custom from the drop down box and in the "Command" box put /location/to/gmail_compose %s, e.g. /home/<username>/gmail_compose %s.