R: Open a file or URL using Windows File Associations

shell.exec2 {R.utils} | R Documentation

## Open a file or URL using Windows File Associations

### Description

Open a file or URL using Windows File Associations using `shell.exec()` but makes some tweaks to filenames to make them more likely to be opened properly.

This function is only applicable on Windows systems.

### Usage

    shell.exec2(file)

### Arguments

`file` | A `character` string specifying a file or an URL.

### Details

Before passing a file on the file system to `shell.exec()`, this function: (i) unmaps any mapped drive letters used in the pathname (e.g. 'X:/foo.bar.html' to 'C:/Users/Joe/bar.html'), (ii) and replaces any forward slashed with backward ones (e.g. 'C:/Users/Joe/bar.html' to 'C:\Users\Joe\bar.html'). URLs are passed as is to `shell.exec()`.

The reason for (i) is that some web browsers (e.g. Google Chrome) will not open files on mapped drives. The reason for (ii) is that if forward slashes are used, then `shell.exec()` will give an error that the file was not found (at least with the default Windows shell).

### Value

Returns nothing.

### Setting on startup

The intended usage of this function is to set it as the default browser for `browseURL`. Just add the following to your `.Rprofile` file:

        if (.Platform$OS.type == "windows")
          options(browser=function(...) R.utils::shell.exec2(...))

This will only load (not attach) the R.utils package when the browser function is actual used.

### Author(s)

Henrik Bengtsson

[Package R.utils version 2.7.0 Index]