MacOS-like 'open'

cloverskull · 2022-08-29 05:56:40

Hey friends, I also posted this over at the arch forums but figured I would post here as well. I find this to be pretty handy.

One thing I enjoy on my work Mac is the 'open' command. For the uninitiated, the command is treated similar to xdg-open. This script, saved as /usr/local/bin/open has basically the same outcome as the Mac 'open' command. Try it in a directory, or try using it on some file.

xdg-open "$1" &> /dev/null &

Sometimes the simplest of things become handy. Figured I would share, cheers.

brontosaurusrex · 2022-08-29 11:58:14

I think I used to have 'open' alias just pointing to thunar, why not "$@" instead of "$1"?

cloverskull · 2022-08-29 15:16:44

I use 'open' on a number of things that aren't just directories - like 'open file.txt' opens the text file in whatever xdg-open thinks a text file should be opened with.

As far as $1, it's just based on my MacOS experience. I have only ever passed a single argument so am just doing that But I may see what MacOS does with multiple args.

brontosaurusrex · 2022-08-29 15:20:24

Actually the direct thunar alias did open text files as well (irc), also coming from macos btw.

johnraff · 2022-08-30 05:12:34

From Debian Buster (ie Beryllium) there is already an "open" command. It's a Debian alternative that points by default to xdg-open, though sysadmins can set the alternative to point anywhere they want.

So you can do 'open <file>' out of the box.

xdg-open doesn't accept more than one argument though. There are various other ***-open utilities available, possibly better.

#1 2022-08-29 05:56:40

MacOS-like 'open'

#2 2022-08-29 11:58:14

Re: MacOS-like 'open'

#3 2022-08-29 15:16:44

Re: MacOS-like 'open'

#4 2022-08-29 15:20:24

Re: MacOS-like 'open'

#5 2022-08-30 05:12:34

Re: MacOS-like 'open'

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