[Pkg-kbd-devel] Bug#732796: ProposalL /usr/bin/open as an alternative for xdg-open and run-mailcap.

[Charles Plessy]

Hello kbd maintainers, xdg-utils maintainers and everybody,

The “kbd” package ships a symbolic link from /bin/open to /bin/openvt.

“openvt” is used to start a program on a new virtual terminal, and according to
its manual page, it has been renamed from “open” at the end of the XXth
century.  The changelog of the kbd package confirms the impression that it
has been phased out efficiently (thanks !).

I propose to harvest the fruit of this effort and introduce a /usr/bin/open
command to open files.

In Debian, there are multiple commands to causally open a file after guessing
its contents, in particular “see” from the “mime-support” package and
“xdg-open” from the “xdg-utils” package.  On Macintoshes, the command “open”
does something similar.

I propose that to use the alternatives system to provide /usr/bin/open by
xdg-utils and mime-support (at a lower priority), after kbd would drop the
symbolic link to openvt.  The common interface would be to run “open” on
filenames, with no URLs and no command-line options.

PS: I just see that it has been proposed already in the BTS (bug CCed) and
    discused on a FreeDesktop mailing list.
    <http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2013-December/012969.html>

I volunteer to contact them in case the idea takes momentum here.

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Maintainer of the mime-support package
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan