Lauch default editor (like 'webbrowser' module)

Question

Is there a simple way to lauch the systems default editor from a Python command-line tool, like the webbrowser module?

Answer 1

If you need to open a file for editing, you could be interested in this question.

Answer 2

Under windows you can simply "execute" the file and the default action will be taken: os.system('c:/tmp/sample.txt'). For this example a default editor will spawn.

Under UNIX there is an enviroment setting called EDITOR, so you need to use something like: os.system('%s %s' % (os.getenv('EDITOR'), filename))

Answer 3

The modern Linux way to open a file is using xdg-open; however it does not guarantee that a text editor will open the file. Using $EDITOR is appropriate if your program is command-line oriented (and your users).