xdg-open is bloated.
It is hard to configure, easy to mess up and its configuration is not portable.
pso is a portable POSIX-compliant shell script that is suppose to be a drop-in replacement for xdg-open.
pso have no dependencies other than the GNU Operating System.
It supports regular expressions, URIs and mime types.
It can be easily configured by hand and it is capable autoconfigure itself while using it.
pso is a ~100 lines self explanatory script that can be collocated in the suckless spectrum
Clone this repository somewhere (in this example $HOME/.local/opt )
mkdir -p $HOME/.local/opt && cd $HOME/.local/opt
git clone https://github.com/galatolofederico/pso.git && cd pso
Copy the configuration files
cp -r config.def/* ~/.config
Create a symbolic link named xdg-open
ln -s pso xdg-open
Add the folder to the $PATH of your X instance as first element (in order to override xdg-open). For example if you are using .xinitrc you have to add
export PATH=$HOME/.local/opt/pso:$PATH
The base configuration file is located in $HOME/.config/pso.config (although this can be changed setting the PSO_CONFIG_FILE environment variable).
It defines:
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PSO_REGEX_CONFIG | Location of the files regular expression association rules file |
| PSO_MIME_CONFIG | Location of the mime types association rules file |
| PSO_URI_CONFIG | Location of the URIs regular expression association rules file |
| PSO_FOLDER_CMD | Command for opening the folders |
| PSO_ASK_MENU | Command for the application chooser menu (or "false" for disabling it) |
| PSO_ASK_AUTOSAVE | Should pso save mime type associations when chosen? (true/false) |
| PSO_LOG | Location of the log file (or "false" for disabling it) |
you can check out the default values here
pso behaves in this way:
- IF it have to handle a folder
- Use the command specified in
PSO_FOLDER_CMD
- Use the command specified in
- If it have to handle a file:
- Check the file name against the
files regular expression association rules - Check the mime type against the
mime types association rules
- Check the file name against the
- If it have to handle a URI:
- Check the URI against the
URIs regular expression association rules
- Check the URI against the
Each rule is in the form:
parametric_command:rule
If you want to open all your pdf with zathura you have to add
zathura %s:application/pdf
to the $PSO_MIME_CONFIG file.
If you want to open all your .log files with st -e vim you have to add
st -e "vim %s":*\.log$
to the $PSO_REGEX_CONFIG file
If you want to copy to your clipboard the magnet: links you have to add
echo "%s" | xclip -selection clipboard:magnet:(.+)
to the $PSO_URI_CONFIG file.
If you want to open your folders with set -e ranger you have to set $PSO_FOLDER_CMD as:
PSO_FOLDER_CMD="st -e ranger %s"
The parametric_command are evaluated using GNU printf
The regular expressions are evaluated using grep -E extended regular expressions engine.
pretty straightforward, isn't it?
This code is released under an open source license (in this case GPLv3) as all the code should be. Feel free to do whatever you want with it :D