How to open a folder (with GUI) from terminal?

Question

I want to place a link/shortcut/launcher in my unity panel (ubuntu 12.10).

I followed this tutorial on handytutorial.com to create a custom launcher and drag it to the panel.

I just need to know which command do I have to input. Is this possible?

I think he is trying to add an URL as launcher. Midori used to have this, maybe I'll check it out again. — userDepth, Jun 06 '16 at 19:58

score 175 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 08 '13 at 21:17

175

gnome-open does not work for me on 12.04 but nautilus /path to open does work.

example: nautilus /home/john/Downloads.

edited Mar 08 '13 at 21:17

Eric Carvalho

54,385

answered Mar 08 '13 at 20:12

Themiddaysun

1,881

Weird... I'm on 12.04 right now. gnome-open works for me. Are you using Lubuntu? Or Xubuntu? – Eric Carvalho Mar 08 '13 at 20:14
Tried it on my box (12.04 LTS running Unity 3D). gnome-open doesn't seem to be installed (but you can install it easily). I still prefer doing nautilus <path> though, since it requires 0 additional effort. – oaskamay Mar 08 '13 at 20:35
27

Try xdg-open instead – elias Mar 08 '13 at 21:00
3

@oaskamay I found out why I have gnome-open. I installed gnu-cash, which installed libgnome2-bin (gnome-open is in it) as one of its dependencies. – Eric Carvalho Mar 08 '13 at 21:17
The answer from @EricCarvalho works perfectly, thank you very much, and all others as well! – Tiago Mar 09 '13 at 00:02
ubuntu 16, nautilus dir still works perfectly – Alleo Apr 12 '18 at 15:39
2

Works on 18.04, too. – Célestin Taramarcaz Jun 13 '18 at 08:36
I like this answer, particularly because after it opens the path in the gui, it ends the process running in the terminal. Running xdg-open keeps a running process in the terminal, even after closing the folder gui. – Alkarin Nov 28 '18 at 19:16
4

For ubuntu 20.04, need to use xdg-open instead, because I can't find a way to install gnome-open any more, and xdg-open is installed by default. – Eric Jun 29 '20 at 11:35
At Ubuntu 22.04 is enough use open <path/to/directory> as macOS – Manuel Jordan Feb 23 '23 at 20:56

score 117 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 09 '13 at 02:37

117

If the question is how to open a file/folder, the answer is always xdg-open.

From man xdg-open:

xdg-open opens a file or URL in the user's preferred application. If a URL is provided the URL will be opened in the user's preferred web browser. If a file is provided the file will be opened in the preferred application for files of that type. xdg-open supports file, ftp, http and https URLs.

In this specific case the commmand

xdg-open folder

opens folder in your default file manager, be it Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar or anything else.

answered Mar 09 '13 at 02:37

Dennis

1,839

Actually I think most applications will behave normally and open a file/url/binary being it the default file type to handle. Eg: blender untitled.blend – userDepth Jun 06 '16 at 19:56
This tool has been deprecated, use 'gio open' instead. – ktec Oct 29 '17 at 12:22
as of 2020 it is not deprecated – vampiire May 31 '20 at 04:34
2

I'm on Ubuntu 20.10 and can confirm that it still works. I find it more convenient than nautilus since it starts the process and let it alone. – Amani Apr 15 '21 at 13:46
this still works on Fedora 37 2023. – Rami Mar 26 '23 at 19:38

Eric Carvalho · Answer 3 · 2013-03-08T21:19:37.973

19

A shortcut to open a folder? If this what you want, the command is:

gnome-open </path/to/folder>

For example: gnome-open /home/Tiago/Downloads.

If it isn't installed run sudo apt-get install libgnome2-bin.

edited Mar 08 '13 at 21:19

answered Mar 08 '13 at 20:06

Eric Carvalho

54,385

works for me on Ubuntu 15.05 – Evgenia Karunus Dec 31 '15 at 22:27
Also works on Ubuntu 16.04 GNOME Flashback. – chus May 03 '18 at 07:19

score 16 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 08 '13 at 20:39

Use the command nautilus <path>.

So for example: nautilus /home/oaskamay will open up my home (~) folder.

In addition, if you need to open-up the GUI with root permissions, run gksu nautilus <path>. It works with every GUI front-ends too (e.g. gksu gedit /etc/default/grub).

It's important to note that you should never start GUI apps like so sudo gedit /etc/default/grub.

score 10 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 06 '16 at 19:24

10

xdg-open works for me on ubuntu 16.04. I only made a copy of this command as open:

sudo cp /usr/bin/xdg-open /usr/bin/open
sudo chmod 775 /usr/bin/open

Now you can use it just like on mac os:

open ./

answered Jun 06 '16 at 19:24

Oleg Mikhailov

209

This might answer the question title, but I fail to see how this lines up with the question. – anonymous2 Jun 06 '16 at 19:39
Answering the question title seems more important, I found this answer while searching for what was asked in the title. A pity it's just a copy of another answer on the same question, given 3 years earlier... – Jan 12 '18 at 10:08
1

At Ubuntu 22.04 is enough use open <path/to/directory> as macOS – Manuel Jordan Feb 23 '23 at 20:56

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 17 '19 at 15:34

1

You can make a simple alias named as "open" or "o" etc... in .bashrc

sudo nano ~/.bashrc

# add personaly open alias
alias open='xdg-open ./'

log out account, sign in, open the terminal and write open

edited Jul 17 '19 at 15:34

user68186

33,360

answered Jul 17 '19 at 15:16

henks

11

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 06 '16 at 20:03

-1

Use Midori's app function. When I make an app this way it is added to launchers.

answered Jun 06 '16 at 20:03

userDepth

2,010

Create a new file with a name of you choice: sudo nano /usr/local/bin/myCommand . Paste the following command there: nautilus $PWD Once you have written the code for your command, save and close the file. sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mycommand. Test your new command: Add your command to the PATH (If you want to be able to execute your command from any directory, you need to add it to the PATH environment variable):
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin to your .bashrc file.
Restart your terminal or run source ~/.bashrc
– Ali Mar 11 '23 at 13:06

How to open a folder (with GUI) from terminal?

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