As pointed in the comments, it is a current bug that is still open. There is a workaround: Add in the vimrc configuration file: nnoremap gx :!xdg-open <cWORD> &<CR><CR> (The original github discussion was referencing to this one below, but comments made it possible an improved version.) nmap gx yiW:!xdg-open <cWORD><CR> <C-r>" & <CR><CR>