xdg-open - Man Page
opens a file or URL in the user's preferred application
Examples (TL;DR)
- Open the current directory in the default file explorer:
xdg-open .
- Open a URL in the default browser:
xdg-open https://example.com
- Open an image in the default image viewer:
xdg-open path/to/image
- Open a PDF in the default PDF viewer:
xdg-open path/to/pdf
- Display help:
xdg-open --help
Synopsis
xdg-open {file | URL}
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:
- Error in command line syntax.
- One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.
- A required tool could not be found.
- The action failed.
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/
Referenced By
fldigi(1), gapplication(1), hman(1), mpris-scrobbler-signon(1), xdg-email(1), xdg-settings(1).