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                                      02/11/2025                                        XDG-OPEN(1)