; Fix documentation of 'dired-do-open'

* lisp/dired-aux.el (dired-do-open):
* etc/NEWS: Fix documentation of 'dired-do-open'.  (Bug#18132)

2 files changed, 11 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 03a40c11c5b..93cecfe2d32 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -512,8 +512,10 @@ and a universal command such as "open" or "start"
 that delegates to the OS.
 
 *** New command 'dired-do-open'.
-Bound to the context menu "Open", delegates opening the marked files
-to the OS.
+This command is bound to "Open" in the context menu; it "opens" the
+marked or clicked on files according to the OS conventions.  For
+example, on systems supporting XDG, this runs 'xdg-open' on the
+files.
 
 ** Ediff
 
diff --git a/lisp/dired-aux.el b/lisp/dired-aux.el
index 0998e76c410..44e9ae3701e 100644
--- a/lisp/dired-aux.el
+++ b/lisp/dired-aux.el
@@ -1405,10 +1405,13 @@ after adding own commands to the composite list."
 (declare-function w32-shell-execute "w32fns.c")
 
 (defun dired-do-open (&optional arg)
-  "Open the marked files or a file at click/point externally.
-If files are marked, run the command from `shell-command-guess-open'
-on each of marked files.  Otherwise, run it on the file where
-the mouse is clicked, or on the file at point."
+  "Open all marked (or next ARG) files using an external program.
+This \"opens\" the file(s) using the external command that is most
+appropriate for the file(s) according to the system conventions.
+If files are marked, run the command on each marked file.  Otherwise,
+run it on the next ARG files, or on the file at mouse-click, or on the
+file at point.  The appropriate command to \"open\" a file on each
+system is determined by `shell-command-guess-open'."
   (interactive "P" dired-mode)
   (let ((files (if (mouse-event-p last-nonmenu-event)
                    (save-excursion