gnome-open

gnome-open [options] ...

--help
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--version
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The gnome-open command is a command-line utility used in GNOME environments to open files and URLs with their associated default applications.

It essentially emulates the behavior of double-clicking a file in a graphical file manager like Nautilus.

Instead of specifying the application to use, gnome-open relies on the system's MIME type associations to determine the correct program to launch.

For example, if you run gnome-open document.pdf, it will open document.pdf with the default PDF viewer configured in your GNOME desktop environment.

Similarly, gnome-open http://www.example.com will open the provided URL in your default web browser.

It offers a convenient way to trigger standard application launch actions from the terminal, maintaining a consistent user experience with the graphical interface.

The functionality of gnome-open depends heavily on correct MIME type associations configured within the GNOME environment. If these associations are incorrect or missing, gnome-open may fail to open the file with the expected application. It also depends on the availability of the gnome libraries that can lead to errors if invoked on systems without gnome.

gnome-open relies on the system's MIME type database to determine which application to use for a given file.

MIME types are identifiers that specify the type of data contained in a file (e.g., image/jpeg for JPEG images, application/pdf for PDF documents).

The system configuration maps these MIME types to specific applications. You can typically modify these associations through the GNOME settings or through specialized tools like mimeopen.

gnome-open was designed as an part of the GNOME desktop environment to improve file access from command line.

It has been used for decades in numerous linux distributions to enable users to easily invoke desktop applications for specific files.

xdg-open(1), mimeopen(1)