[issue25727] os.startfile implementation for other OS'es besides Windows

[Elizabeth Myers]

New submission from Elizabeth Myers:

os.startfile can be implemented on other OS'es besides Windows relatively easily (although the operation parameter should probably be limited to Windows; it can be implemented elsewhere, but is probably not worth the trouble).

On Unix-like operating systems besides OS X, an attempt to use xdg-open can be used and will attempt to open the file in a chosen program; this is the freedesktop.org standard open utility. See also http://linux.die.net/man/1/xdg-open and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xdg-open (not specific to ArchLinux).

On OS X, open can be used, with similar results to xdg-open (in fact, xdg-open seems inspired by it). See also https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/open.1.html.

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components: Library (Lib)
messages: 255306
nosy: Elizacat
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: os.startfile implementation for other OS'es besides Windows
type: enhancement
versions: Python 3.6

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue25727>
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