SafeURI is an alternative implementation that allows you to open an URI with safer approach - with SafeURI.#open, you can always force to use URI.parse(url).open, or File.open(filename) depending on the provided argument. The pipe character '|' is NOT accepted as it does not delegate to Kernel.#open (falls back to File.#open), unlike URI.#open that falls back to Kernel.#open when un-openable arguments are given.