"Couldn't find a file descriptor referring to the console" on Ubuntu bash on Windows

Question

I'm new in here and it's my first post.

I have a problem with Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. If I type "open (filename)" on Mac terminal, it opens the file with the right program but if I try to use it on Windows bash, it says: "Couldn't find a file descriptor referring to the console".

I have also tried xdg-open and gnome-open but none of them works. Can someone explain how to fix the issue and how open command works?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Instead of open u can use xdg-open which does the same thing, independently of application i.e. pdf, image, etc. It will open a new virtual terminal (I have tried this on Linux)

Example:

xdg-open ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/myPic.jpg

xdg-open ~/Docs/holidays.pdf

Answer 2

For linux, use xdg-open. open is for Mac OS. open in linux is an name alias of openvt (open virtual terminal).

To simplify it, you can append the following line to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc depends on the shell you are using.

alias o="xdg-open" # o stands for open 

Then next time you can just type like the following to reduce some keyboard strokes.

o file_name.pdf

Answer 3

That's because open is a Mac specific command, it is not available under Linux (ubuntu), Mac open can execute a file (if the file is executable), or open the file into a text editor (if it is a document or text file) or open a directory.