Overview

browse provides a single command line executable to open a document from a shell. For instance, you can open a web page into your default browser as follows:

browse http://docs.python.org

or just:

browse docs.python.org

Similarly, you can open an image (it uses the default image viewer):

browse image.png

Or a txt file (or any document provided there is a default executable to open it). It works like a charm under Linux

Warning

tested under linux only. Right now, browse uses the default applications used by your system. Note that under MacOSX, a tool called open can be used. When invoking browse, under MacOSX, it actually tries to call open first and then calls webbrowser, if unsuccessful only. Note tested under Windows but uses webbrowser, so it should work...

You can also look at a directory (starts nautilus under Fedora):

browse ~/Pictures

See more examples below.

The interest of browse is that it can also be used programmatically:

from browse import browse
# open an image with the default image viewer:
browse("image.png")
# or a web page
browse("http://www.uniprot.org")

Installation

browse is available on PyPi.

To install it, type this comamnd in a shell:

pip install browse

Usage

browse comes in two flavours: an executable and a Python function. The underlying code is based on the standard python module webbrowser. With webbrowser module istself, you can already open a URL as follows in a command line interface:

python -m webbrowser -t "http://www.python.org"

However, with browse, you can simply type:

browse http://www.python.org

You can open a global URL into your browser by providing its address. There is no need to enter “http://” that will be added if missing.

browse  thomas-cokelaer.info
browse  http://thomas-cokelaer.info --verbose

You can also open a local html file:

browse local/html/index.html

Or browse a directory (under Linux, konqueror opens the provided argument):

browse  .
browse  /home/user

Alternatively, from a python shell, you can also open a HTML document (just a wrapping of the standard python module webbrowser):

from browse import browse
browse("http://docs.python.org/index.html")