Superfast, hackable and reliable alternative to xdg-open, both user-friendly and easily customizable. Xdg-open is bad. Use openwith instead!
It follows the Unix philosphy: "doing one thing and doing it well". Openwith uses a configuration file to determine which application should be used to open a file. Each rule in the config file associates a file extension or a mime type with a list of applications (commands, bin files), the first one of the list being the default one. The config file syntax is really simple, focusing on readability and efficiency.
$(openwith <file>) <file> : the file will be opened with the default application.
- It works on multiples files:
$(openwith <file1> <file1> <...>) <file1> <file2> <...> - It can check mimetype if the extension of the file doesn't match any application:
$(openwith -m <file>) <file>
! Warning: checking the mime type is MUCH slower the just checking the extension. My tests: ~1.5 sec for 200 files instead of < 0.050 sec by the extension.
openwith -a <file> : list all the possible applications you defined for a file type
It is recommanded to combine the -a flag with -o flag for multiples files.
In the config file, you can wrap complex command between quotes : kitty -e ranger. You can also create a script running a command in /usr/local/bin and run this script instead with openwith.
The principle of openwith is to check the file type by the file extension instead of the mime type, to be faster and more customizable than xdg-open (not every file extension has a specific mime type, especially rare file extension like the camera raw files).
Instead of using the mimeapps.list file to associate a mimetype to a .desktop file executing the application, it associates a file extention to a list of possible applications, the first one being the default one. This list of rules is set in a file named by default ~/.config/openwith.conf (can be anything, just edit the script to change that).
Rule format:
extension <default app> <secondary apps
examples: see openwith.conf
But you can ALSO associate apps to mimetype, in the section [mime] of the config. All the following associations will be used only with the -m flag if the file extension doesn't match any one in the config, or if the file extension is not found.
NOTES:
You can associate applications to open directories with the directory type.
You can define applications by default if the file extension if not found, neither the mime type when -m is used, by setting the unknown type.
cf. openwith.conf for an example...
-m : if the file extension is missing or not found in openwith.conf, openwith will check the mime type of the file using the command file -Lb --mime-type <file>.
This process if much slower than checking the file extension, that's why is recommanded to add as much as possible of extension types in openwith.conf to avoid the need of checking the mime type.
-a : print the all list of applications associated with a file extension/mime type.
-o : print the output on one line only (but associated with -a, it will be one line per file).
-n : if the file extension if not found (and neither the mime type if -m is used), openwith open the file with the application associated with the type unknown in openwith.conf. This flag overwrites this behavior and print null instead. It is designed to be use in scripting.
-d : debug.
-h/--help : help.
Copy openwith to /usr/local/bin.
Copy openwith to ~/.config/openwith.conf (to change its location/name, just edit /usr/local/bin/openwith).
The main problem with xfg-open is it not recognized rare file types. Many rare file extensions have not a specific mime type, and xdg-open just don't find them. Moreover, the .desktop files used by xdg-open to run applications is uselessly complicated (with openwith, just wrote shell scripts to run complex commands). Another sad thing if xdg-open can't be used to choose between a list of possibles applications (openwith can do that very simply). MOREOVER it cannot deal with multiple files, you have to run multiple time the command and then it is slow...
Many alternatives to xdg-open exist on github (slopen, jaro, mimi, semame, prodigy, or rifle with ranger), BUT
- some are not writed in a 'user-friendly' language (sesame is in rust, jaro in scheme, ...)
- most of them have a (uselessly) complex syntax (sesame, jaro, but even slopen)
- some need dependencies
- most of them just set a default application, but not a list of possibles applications (usefull to use in other scripts, like a fzf-menu!)