Launching file from Ruby on Mac OS (as if it was double-clicked in Finder)

Question

I want to 'launch' file from Ruby on Mac OS. I.e., I want to write something like:

launch 'my.pdf'

...and have Preview (default program associated with PDF files) showing it.

Answer 1

You can call

exec 'open my.pdf'

to execute the osx shell command 'open' which will launch the associated application