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C++: Open web browser with a URL

I wrote this utility function for my game, in which when the player clicks on a button, it opens their default web browser and opens a URL. For example, when they click a “Log In” button.

This works on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

I would recommend validating the url string before putting it into the function, because otherwise you might execute a system command that you don’t want to.

#include <iostream>

#if defined(WIN32) || defined(_WIN32) || defined(__WIN32__) || defined(__NT__)
static const auto* openUrlCommand = "start";
#elif __APPLE__
static const auto* openUrlCommand = "open";
#elif __linux__
static const auto* openUrlCommand = "xdg-open";
#else
#error "Unknown compiler"
#endif

void openWebBrowser(const std::string_view& url) {
    const auto cmd = fmt::format("{} {}", openUrlCommand, url);
    std::system(cmd.c_str());
}