# HG changeset patch
# User paulb
# Date 1127579447 0
# Node ID c81d5b8d261ac12a771c22a43c46524fb4fa332b
# Parent  21f338324a7e870b32dafa19561b12e6c0bf5116
[project @ 2005-09-24 16:30:47 by paulb]
Returned the process identifier of the opener; added docstring to describe
this.
Added an exception around os.startfile usage.

diff -r 21f338324a7e -r c81d5b8d261a desktop.py
--- a/desktop.py	Wed Oct 15 23:17:30 2008 +0200
+++ b/desktop.py	Sat Sep 24 16:30:47 2005 +0000
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@
     guessing or detecting which environment is being used.
 
     Suggested values for 'desktop' are "KDE" and "GNOME".
+
+    The process identifier of the "opener" (ie. viewer, editor, browser or
+    program) associated with the 'url' is returned by this function. If the
+    process identifier cannot be determined, None is returned.
     """
 
     if desktop == "KDE" or \
@@ -29,9 +33,12 @@
         cmd = ["gnome-open", url]
 
     else:
-        os.startfile(url)
-        return
+        try:
+            # NOTE: This returns None in current implementations.
+            return os.startfile(url)
+        except AttributeError, exc:
+            raise OSError, "Desktop not supported (os.startfile could not be used)"
 
-    subprocess.Popen(cmd)
+    return subprocess.Popen(cmd).pid
 
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