Open the default browser in Ruby

Question

In Python, you can do this:

import webbrowser
webbrowser.open_new("http://example.com/")

It will open the passed in url in the default browser

Is there a ruby equivalent?

Answer 1

Windows Only Solution:

require 'win32ole'
shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')
shell.ShellExecute(...)

Shell Execute on MSDN

Answer 2

If it's windows and it's IE, try this: http://rubyonwindows.blogspot.com/search/label/watir also check out Selenium ruby: http://selenium.rubyforge.org/getting-started.html

HTH

Answer 3

Mac-only solution:

system("open", "http://stackoverflow.com/")

or

`open http://stackoverflow.com/`

Answer 4

Cross-platform solution

First, install the Launchy gem:

$ [sudo] gem install launchy

Then, you can run this:

require 'rubygems'
require 'launchy'

Launchy.open("http://stackoverflow.com")

Answer 5

This also works:

system("start #{link}")

Answer 6

Simplest Win solution:

`start http://www.example.com`