It Opens Stuff
That is, in your desktop environment. This will make actual windows pop up, with stuff in them:
npm install opener -g
opener http://google.com
opener ./my-file.txt
opener firefox
opener npm run lint
Also if you want to use it programmatically you can do that too:
var opener = require("opener");
opener("http://google.com");
opener("./my-file.txt");
opener("firefox");
opener("npm run lint");
Plus, it returns the child process created, so you can do things like let your script exit while the window stays open:
var editor = opener("documentation.odt");
editor.unref();
// These other unrefs may be necessary if your OS's opener process
// exits before the process it started is complete.
editor.stdin.unref();
editor.stdout.unref();
editor.stderr.unref();
Use It for Good
Like opening the user's browser with a test harness in your package's test script:
{
"scripts": {
"test": "opener ./test/runner.html"
},
"devDependencies": {
"opener": "*"
}
}
Why
Because Windows has start, Macs have open, and *nix has xdg-open. At least according to some guy on StackOverflow. And I like things that work on all three. Like Node.js. And Opener.