How do I open a file in its default program - Linux

Question

How do I programmatically open a file in its default program in Linux (im using Ubuntu 10.10).

For example, opening *.mp3 will open the file in Movie Player (or some

Answer 1

You need to run gnome-open, kde-open, or exo-open, depending on which desktop you are using.

I believe there is a project called xdg-utils that attempts to provide a unified interface to the local desktop.

So, something like:

snprintf(s, sizeof s, "%s %s", "xdg-open", the_file);
system(s);

Beware of code injection. It's safer to bypass scripting layers with user input, so consider something like:

pid = fork();
if (pid == 0) {
  execl("/usr/bin/xdg-open", "xdg-open", the_file, (char *)0);
  exit(1);
}
// parent will usually wait for child here