Modern Python Standard Library Cookbook

How to do it...

The steps for this recipe are as follows:

1. Given a path that points to a supported file, we can build a file:// url out of it and then use the webbrowser module to open it:

import pathlib
import webbrowser

def playfile(fpath):
    fpath = pathlib.Path(fpath).expanduser().resolve()
    webbrowser.open('file://{}'.format(fpath))

2. Opening an image should display it:

>>> playfile('~/Pictures/avatar.jpg')

3. Also, opening an audio file should play it:

>>> playfile('~/Music/FLY_ME_TO_THE_MOON.mp3')

So, we can use this method on most systems to show the content of a file to the user.