module Opener

Ruby library for opening things in an cross-platform way.

Usage¶ ↑

Load this library:

require 'opener'

Open something in the foreground (blocking call):

Opener.system(thing_to_open_in_foreground)

Open something in the background (non-blocking call):

Opener.spawn(thing_to_open_in_background)

Open something in place of the current process:

Opener.exec(thing_to_open_in_place)

Reveal the OS-specific command that is opening things:

puts Opener.command()

Suppression¶ ↑

Open something while detaching terminal (close STDIN):

Opener.system(thing_to_open_in_foreground, 0 => :close)
Opener.spawn(thing_to_open_in_background, 0 => :close)
Opener.exec(thing_to_open_in_place, 0 => :close)

Open something while suppressing output (close STDOUT):

Opener.system(thing_to_open_in_foreground, 1 => :close)
Opener.spawn(thing_to_open_in_background, 1 => :close)
Opener.exec(thing_to_open_in_place, 1 => :close)

Open something while suppressing errors (close STDERR):

Opener.system(thing_to_open_in_foreground, 2 => :close)
Opener.spawn(thing_to_open_in_background, 2 => :close)
Opener.exec(thing_to_open_in_place, 2 => :close)

See Kernel#spawn() documentation for more tips and tricks.

License¶ ↑

This library is distributed under the same terms as Ruby: <www.ruby-lang.org/en/about/license.txt>

Thanks to 2010 David A. Wheeler <www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-files-urls.html>

Public Class Methods

command() click to toggle source

Returns an OS-specific command for opening things.

www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-files-urls.html www.par.univie.ac.at/solaris/cde-www/

# File lib/opener.rb, line 68
def command
  @command ||=
    case host_os = RbConfig::CONFIG['host_os']
    when /darwin/i then 'open'
    when /cygwin/i then 'cygstart'
    when /linux|bsd/i then 'xdg-open'
    when /mswin|mingw/i then 'start'
    when /sunos|solaris/i then '/usr/dt/bin/sdtwebclient'
    else raise NotImplementedError, host_os
    end
end

exec(*arguments) click to toggle source

Opens the given things in place of the current process.

@see Kernel#exec()

Calls superclass method

# File lib/opener.rb, line 105
def exec *arguments
  insert_command_into_arguments! arguments
  super
end

spawn(*arguments) click to toggle source

Opens the given things in the background.

@see Kernel#spawn()

Calls superclass method

# File lib/opener.rb, line 95
def spawn *arguments
  insert_command_into_arguments! arguments
  super
end

system(*arguments) click to toggle source

Opens the given things in the foreground.

@see Kernel#system()

Calls superclass method

# File lib/opener.rb, line 85
def system *arguments
  insert_command_into_arguments! arguments
  super
end

Private Class Methods

insert_command_into_arguments!(arguments) click to toggle source

The first argument to Kernel#system() and Kernel#spawn() can be either:

Hash - containing a mapping of environment variables and values
String - containing the first word of the command to be executed

This method carefully inserts our Opener.command() before that String.

# File lib/opener.rb, line 120
def insert_command_into_arguments! arguments
  insertion_point = (arguments[0].kind_of? Hash) ? 1 : 0
  arguments.insert insertion_point, self.command
end