[Pdx-pm] [ANN] App::Open

Erik Hollensbe erik at hollensbe.org
Thu Jul 10 13:18:32 PDT 2008


Errr, I hope these kinds of announcements are ok!

App::Open is a clone of OS X (and formerly NeXT's) `open` tool that is 
platform-independent and makes no assumptions about where it gets the 
MIME/program mapping from, allowing it to be retrieved from multiple backend 
definitions.

For those unfamiliar with the tool, `open` takes a filename or URL and opens 
the file in the default program mapped to it. This has nice applications for 
lazy shell users and in automation (write it once, change the defaults when 
you want to without modifying the script).

f.e., `openit foo.pdf` will run kpdf on my machine, opening foo.pdf in the 
process.

App::Open installs an `openit` script where you like those things installed 
which works similar to the `open` tool, and comes with a backend that will 
work with a custom YAML mapping, and a backend that will work with your 
mailcap files, requiring the optional modules Mail::Cap and MIME::Types.

It's been on CPAN for a week or so, but until now the CPAN testers have been 
beating on it, finding problems with my test suite. There were also 
documentation errors.

I've a KDE backend in the works and a GNOME one planned after that, and there 
is ample (I hope) documentation on how to easily build your own.

CPAN link: http://search.cpan.org/~erikh/App-Open-0.0.4/lib/App/Open.pm

If for some reason you get really obsessed with opening programs based on the 
file they're opening, and wish to track this a little closer, there is a 
public git repository here: git://hollensbe.org/git/open.git

Thanks for your time.

-Erik


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