XDG-OPEN(1) xdg-open Manual XDG-OPEN(1)
NAME
xdg-open - opens a file or URL in the user's preferred application
SYNOPSIS
xdg-open {file | URL}
xdg-open {--help | --manual | --version}
DESCRIPTION
xdg-open opens a file or URL in the user's preferred application. If a
URL is provided the URL will be opened in the user's preferred web
browser. If a file is provided the file will be opened in the preferred
application for files of that type. xdg-open supports file, ftp, http
and https URLs.
xdg-open is for use inside a desktop session only. It is not recommended
to use xdg-open as root.
As xdg-open can not handle arguments that begin with a “-” it is
recommended to pass filepaths in one of the following ways:
• Pass absolute paths, i.e. by using realpath as a preprocessor.
• Prefix known relative filepaths with a “./”. For example using sed
-E 's|^[^/]|./\0|'.
• Pass a file URL.
OPTIONS
--help
Show command synopsis.
--manual
Show this manual page.
--version
Show the xdg-utils version information.
EXIT CODES
An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates
failure. The following failure codes can be returned:
1
Error in command line syntax.
2
One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.
3
A required tool could not be found.
4
The action failed.
In case of success the process launched from the .desktop file will not
be forked off and therefore may result in xdg-open running for a very
long time. This behaviour intentionally differs from most desktop
specific openers to allow terminal based applications to run using the
same terminal xdg-open was called from.
REPORTING ISSUES
Please keep in mind xdg-open inherits most of the flaws of its
configuration and the underlying opener.
In case the command xdg-mime query default "$(xdg-mime query filetype
path/to/troublesome_file)" names the program responsible for any
unexpected behaviour you can fix that by setting a different handler.
(If the program is broken let the developers know)
Also see the security note on xdg-mime(1) for the default subcommand.
If a flaw is reproducible using the desktop specific opener (and isn't a
configuration issue): Please report to whoever is responsible for that
first (reporting to xdg-utils is better than not reporting at all, but
since the xdg-utils are maintained in very little spare time a fix will
take much longer)
In case an issue specific to xdg-open please report it to
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils/-/issues .
SEE ALSO
xdg-mime(1), xdg-settings(1), MIME applications associations
specification[1]
EXAMPLES
xdg-open 'http://www.freedesktop.org/'
Opens the freedesktop.org website in the user's default browser.
xdg-open /tmp/foobar.png
Opens the PNG image file /tmp/foobar.png in the user's default image
viewing application.
AUTHORS
Kevin Krammer
Author.
Jeremy White
Author.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2006
NOTES
1. MIME applications associations specification
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-apps-spec/
xdg-utils 1.0 11/29/2024 XDG-OPEN(1)
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