desktop-launch

node-desktop-launch

Open files using freedesktop's Desktop Entry and Shared-MIME specifications

parse the Exec key of desktop entry files to launch a program opening the target file.

Usage :

var Launcher = require("desktop-launch");
var launcher = new launcher();
launcher.start("path/to/file");

A convenience launcher.killChild() method is provided. The launcher class is designed to launch exactly one child at a time and will kill any remaining process on subsequent launcher.start("file") calls. It's safe to call launcher.killChild() without knowing if the child_process is still alive.

API

High Level

Methods

Only 2 methods should generally be used :

launcher.start("filepath"); //To start a file using default associated app
launcher.killChild(); //To force kill the child_process.

Events

the launcher will emit a few events in it's lifecycle. They are used internally and you can listen to them to know what's happening.

end

When the child process is closed. equivalent to spawn() exit event. It is not emitted when the child is killed with killChild() or by starting another child process to prevent race conditions : an end event dispatched after a new child is requested will lead the requester to think his child is terminated.

error

Transmit child process's errors.

Examples

//You can give it a binary file :
launcher.start("/usr/bin/chromium") //open chromium with no args
//or a well known mimetype :
launcher.start("/path/to/index.html") //open your default browser at index.html

Low Level

Once can access member class Finder to provide it's own API:

launcher.finder

It's behaviour is documented in the xdg-aps module. It's where most of the logic is.

To Do

• Use dbus launch when available. I don't want to have dbus as a requirement though.

How it works

The xdg-aps module yields a default opener for the given file. We build a command line from it's Exec informations and execute it. This module also provides (really simple) hypervisor functions, doing it's best to manage spawned processes.