Open files, folder or links from terminal in linux using xdg-open

Open files, folder or links from terminal in linux using xdg-open.md

You can alias anything you like (but check that the command you want to use doesn't already exist first: type open should tell you not found) Make a backup of your ~/.bashrc and define the alias:

cp .bashrc .bashrc.bak

nano .bashrc

Add at the end

alias open='xdg-open'

Or if you want to avoid seeing any warnings from the program that is called, discard output with a redirection as suggested by TalkLittle:

alias open='xdg-open &>/dev/null'

source .bashrc

Save and exit, then type source .bashrc to use the alias immediately. The alias will take arguments just like the full command, of course.

open 'https://www.google.com/' or open https://www.google.com/

Opens the freedesktop.org website in the user's default browser.

open /tmp/foobar.png

Opens the PNG image file /tmp/foobar.png in the user's default image viewing application.