File Opener

Question

There are many file openers out there, but each one lacks some features that I really need. Here's what my ideal file opener should be like:
1. Store configuration in plain text in a simple parseable format. Ideally, 1 line per type or program or method of opening, so a script can simply extend the configuration by adding another line
2. Allow the user to open the same file in different ways. (e.g. open a video windowed, fullscreen, audio-only, etc. configurable by the user)
3. Allow running the same file file with different programs (videos with mplayer, mlpayer2, VLC, totem,...)
$ open --with mplayer foo.avi # runs mplayer
$ open --with vlc foo.avi # runs VLC
$ open foo.avi # runs the default program
4. Ship with a configuration that recognizes the type of most files and opens them out of the box.
$ open asdfjkl # AND IT JUST WORKS
5. Support determining file types based on multiple factors: mime type, extension, full file name and path
$ open foo.c # runs "gcc foo.c && ./a.out"
$ cd myproject; open bar.c # runs "make && ./bar"
6. Run different programs, depending on whether X runs or not, whether STDIN is a keyboard,...
$ open foo.html # runs "firefox foo.html"
$ DISPLAY= open foo.html # runs "elinks foo.html"
$ : | open foo.html # runs "elinks -dump foo.html"
7. Enumerate all possible methods to open a file, and choose the method based on an entered number
$ open --list foo.png
0: feh (windowed)
1: feh (fullscreen)
2: gimp
$ open --method=2 foo.png # runs gimp
8. Have an unnoticable startup time
9. Have GUIs for curses and for X that allow you to quickly pick a program and add new file types/programs.
Ranger has a file opener that can do most of those, but fails at #1, #6 (fails if STDIN is no keyboard), #7 (no listing), #8 and #9.
AFO (Automatic File Opener) is a prototype that improves in #1, #7 and #8 over ranger, but I'm still not quite satisfied.
Some day I want to code a file opener that can do it all, but first I want to ask you:
What do you value in a file opener? Are there important features that I missed? What's the best file opener that you came across?

Answer 1

I fixed a few bugs and improved the ability to accept input. The syntax is now a bit different.
open foo.bar                               # opens foo.bar in first match of "bar" in config
open -m auto|manual|list foo.bar  # changes selection mode (the -m option also takes a|m|l)
open -n 2 foo.bar                        # opens foo.bar in second match of "bar" in config
Here's the code:
#!/bin/sh
# Simple file opener based on file extension
# Depends: libnotify, dmenu, slmenu, cut, sed, grep, tr
# --CONFIG--
extlist="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/open/extlist" # Location of list of extensions
delim=":" # Which character to use for delimiter in extlist file
default_mode="auto" # auto/manual (set to auto for automatic program selection)
dmenu_default=1 # Controls whether dmenu is used by default in X
# ---END----
number=""
mode="$default_mode"
explicitmode=0
stdredirected=0
if [ -t 0 ]
then
interactive=1
else
interactive=0
fi
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ]
then
dmenu_default=0
X=0
else
X=1
fi
eval set -- `getopt -n open -o m:n: -- "$@"`
while true
do
case "$1" in
-m) mode="$2"; shift 2; explicitmode=1;;
-n) number="$2"; shift 2;;
--) shift; break;;
*) echo "Invalid option"; exit 1;;
esac
done
case "$mode" in
a) mode="auto";;
m) mode="manual";;
l) mode="list";;
esac
if [ -n "$number" -a ! "$mode" = "list" ]
then
mode="auto"
fi
if [ $interactive = 1 -a $dmenu_default = 0 ]
then
if [ -e $HOME/.slmenurc ]
then
. $HOME/.slmenurc
else
SLMENU="slmenu -i"
fi
menu="$SLMENU"
else
if [ -e $HOME/.dmenurc ]
then
. $HOME/.dmenurc
else
DMENU="/usr/bin/dmenu -i"
fi
menu="$DMENU"
fi
fn=${@: -1}
if [ -z "$fn" ]
then
while read input
do
fn="$input"
done < /dev/stdin
stdinredirected=1
fi
if [ -z "$fn" ]
then
if [ $interactive = 1 ]
then
echo "No filename given"
else
notify-send "No filename given"
fi
exit 1
fi
if [ ! -e "$fn" ]
then
if [ $interactive = 1 ]
then
echo "Invalid filename"
else
notify-send "Invalid filename"
fi
exit 1
fi
hasext=$(echo "$fn" | sed -e '/\(\.\)\?\(.\)\+\.[a-zA-Z0-9]\+$/! {d}')
if [ -z "$hasext" ]
then
if [ $interactive = 1 ]
then
echo "'$(basename $fn)' has no extension"
else
notify-send "'$(basename $fn)' has no extension"
fi
exit 1
fi
ext=${fn##*.}
all=$(sed '/^\#/d' "$extlist")
suitable=$(echo "$all" | sed -e "/$delim *\(\([a-zA-Z0-9,]*,\)\?$ext\(,[a-zA-Z0-9,]*\)\?$\)/I! {d}")
if [ "$stdinredirected" = 1 ]
then
noninteractive=$(echo "$suitable" | sed -e '/^|/! {d}')
if [ -n "$noninteractive" ]
then
suitable="$noninteractive"
fi
else
suitable=$(echo "$suitable" | sed -e '/^[^|]/! {d}')
fi
if [ $X = 1 ]
then
suitable=$(echo "$suitable" | sed -e '/^[^@]/! {d}')
else
suitable=$(echo "$suitable" | sed -e '/^[%@]/! {d}')
fi
if [ -z "$suitable" ]
then
if [ $interactive = 1 ]
then
echo "No program found for extension '.$ext'"
else
notify-send "No program found for extension '.$ext'"
fi
exit 1
elif [ -n "$number" ]
then
if [ $(echo "$suitable" | wc -l) -lt "$number" ]
then
if [ $interactive = 1 ]
then
echo "Invalid number: '$number' (Not enough options)"
else
notify-send "Invalid number: '$number' (Not enough options)"
fi
exit 1
fi
fi
if [ $(echo "$suitable" | grep -e "^ *$delim$delim") ]
then
if [ "$explicitmode" = 0 ]
then
mode="manual"
fi
fi
namelist=$(echo "$suitable" | cut -d "$delim" -f 1 | tr -s ' ')
if [ "$mode" = "auto" ]
then
if [ -z "$number" ]
then
number=1
fi
command=$(echo "$suitable" | sed -n "$number"p | cut -d "$delim" -f 2 | tr -s ' ')
elif [ "$mode" = "list" ]
then
if [ -n "$number" ]
then
echo "$namelist" | cat -n | sed -n "$number"p | cut -d "$delim" -f 1
exit 0
else
echo "$namelist" | cat -n
exit 0
fi
elif [ "$mode" = "manual" ]
then
if [ $(echo "$namelist" | wc -l) -gt 1 ]
then
selection=$(echo "$namelist" | eval $menu -p "Program:")
if [ -z "$selection" ]
then
exit 1
fi
else
selection="$namelist"
fi
selectionln=$(echo "$namelist" | grep -xn "$selection" | cut -d "$delim" -f 1)
if [ "$selectionln" ]
then
command=$(echo "$suitable" | sed -n "$selectionln"p | cut -d "$delim" -f 2)
else
command="$selection"
fi
fi
case "$command" in
*\"\$fn\"*) eval $command;;
*\$fn*) command=$(echo "$command" | sed 's/\$fn/"\$fn"/g')
eval "$command";;
*) eval "$command \"$fn\"";;
esac
The config file looks like this:
# Format = Name:Command:Extensions
# Use commas to separate extensions
# Begin a name with % to make it available outside of X
# Begin a name with @ to make it available ONLY outside of X
# Begin a name with | for it to be used when stdin is redirected (implies %)
# Movies
%Mplayer : mplayer : avi,wmv,asf,mp4
%Mplayer (Fullscreen): mplayer -fs : avi,wmv,asf,mp4
VLC : vlc : avi,wmv,asf,mp4
# Music
%Mplayer : mplayer : mp3,ogg,flac,wav
%Mp3blaster : mp3blaster : mp3,ogg
%Aplay : aplay : wav
# Images
Viewnior : viewnior : jpg,png
Gimp : gimp : jpg,png,xcf
@Fbv : fbv : jpg,png
# Text
Gvim : gvim : txt,conf,c,py
@Vim : vim : txt,conf,c,py
%GCC : gcc "$fn" -o a.out : c
# HTML
Firefox : firefox : html
@Links : links : html
# Redirected input
|Cat : cat : c
|Links Dump : links -dump : html
# User input will always be required for extensions prefixed with double colons
::avi,c
@ indicates a program that will only be run when not in X.
% indicates a program that doesn't care if X is running or not
| indicates a program that will only be run if the input was originally redirected to the script, eg. "echo foo.bar | open" or "open < input.txt"
For now, these symbols appear in lists and selection menus.
As before, mimetypes aren't handled, behaviour doesn't change based on the path, and the code is a bit hacky. Tested on bash, zsh and ksh.
@hut I had a go at the item on your list where you wanted ": | open foo.bar" to behave differently to "open foo.bar". How would you do that? The only way I can think of is to check for an interactive shell, but then it flags things like gmrun and dmenu_run as non-interactive, which limits what you can do with those tools. I've included a check for whether the input was given as an argument or redirected. That way, "echo foo.html | open" can behave differently to "open foo.html". But my shell scripting skills aren't capable of anything more than that!
Last edited by mutantpineapple (2012-02-16 22:21:30)