diff --git a/python/obitools3/files/universalopener.pxd b/python/obitools3/files/universalopener.pxd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7743db6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/obitools3/files/universalopener.pxd
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#cython: language_level=3
+
+from .uncompress cimport CompressedFile
+
+cpdef CompressedFile uopen(str name, mode=?)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/python/obitools3/files/universalopener.pyx b/python/obitools3/files/universalopener.pyx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3aefb92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/obitools3/files/universalopener.pyx
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#cython: language_level=3
+
+'''
+Created on 25 mars 2016
+
+@author: coissac
+'''
+
+from urllib.request import urlopen
+
+
+cpdef CompressedFile uopen(str name, mode='r'):
+    cdef CompressedFile c
+    
+    try:
+        f = urlopen(name)
+    except ValueError:
+        f = open(name,mode) 
+        
+    c = CompressedFile(f)
+    
+    return c
+    
\ No newline at end of file