How to open any file through the command line?

Question

I would like to know if there is a command to open any file in Linux independently of their extension, just as if you were double-clicking it.

this is more associated with the mime types which are registered by your window manager desktop than to an application per se. In short, afaik there is no "double click" equivalent in command line as the double click is in fact a combination of a file picker + a list if registered mime types. — vfbsilva, Jul 19 '15 at 00:01
Related: (if you don't have xdg-open) [How does xdg-open do its work](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/144047/how-does-xdg-open-do-its-work) — Mark Plotnick, Jul 19 '15 at 00:34

robert · Answer 1 · 2019-10-17T18:59:06.367

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There are commands that are similar to the double-click: xdg-open is a fairly standard command that is shipped with many linux GUIs. On Debian distros, there is also see and open.

It would be good to point out that extensions are actually kind of arbitrary. There are so many esoteric extensions out there; no program, including the "double-click" can possibly know how to interpret every file out there.

And if you know the contents of file and the right program to run it, you should be able to execute/use the file regardless of its extension.

edited Oct 17 '19 at 18:59

answered Jul 19 '15 at 02:37

robert

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`xdg-open` is much more standard than what you suggest. – Basile Starynkevitch Jul 19 '15 at 02:45
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`see` and `open` are specific to Debian and derivatives. `xdg-open` is pretty much de facto standard nowadays (it's a Freedesktop standard). – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Jul 19 '15 at 21:25

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 23 '17 at 13:31

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gnome-open "filename"

works like a charm

edited Jul 23 '17 at 13:31

Jeff Schaller

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answered Jul 23 '17 at 12:19

Nithin Vasisth

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How to open any file through the command line?

2 Answers2