Description Andreas Sewe 2014-07-16 08:32:33 EDT

The problem is best demonstrated as follows:

  - Go to the "General > Web Browser" preferences
  - "Use external browers"
  - Pick an entry other than "Default system web browser"
  - Click "Edit..."
  - Enter a non-existent "Location"
  - Go to "About Eclipse" and click on any link there

Nothing happens. Under the hood, the problem seems to be that ExternalBrowserInstance.openURL(...) performs (under Mac OS X) a 

 open -a $location $url

which *does* execute a process, namely open. Hence, Runtime.getRuntime().exec(...) doesn't fail.

However, the open process does fail. Maybe one could properly react to its return code (1, if $location doesn't exist).

This would enable, e.g., to fall back to the default system browser if an explicitly configured has configuration problems like a non-existent configuration (e.g., after a browser uninstall).