- Use command-line text editors in Terminal on Mac
- How to Open Any Folder from the Mac Terminal
- Why You’d Want to Open a Folder From the Mac Terminal
- How to Open Any Folder from the Mac Terminal
- Open a Folder in Terminal from a Shortcut Menu
- In Summary
- How to open a file from Mac Terminal [Easy Guide]
- How can I open a file in Terminal?
- 1. Use the open command
- 2. Edit the .bash_profile file
- Open or quit Terminal on Mac
- Open Terminal
- Quit Terminal
- Quit a shell session
- Keyboard shortcuts in Terminal on Mac
- Work with Terminal windows and tabs
- Edit a command line
- Select and find text in a Terminal window
- Work with marks and bookmarks
- Other shortcuts
Use command-line text editors in Terminal on Mac
To edit a plain text file in Terminal, you can use a command-line text editor.
For general-purpose work, it’s easiest to use one of the text editors included with macOS. If you want to use a graphical text editor, use TextEdit (in Launchpad). Otherwise, use one of the command-line editors included with macOS:
Nano nano is a simple command-line editor. It’s a good introduction to using a command-line editor because it includes easy-to-follow on-screen help. See the nano man page.
Vim vim is a vi -compatible text editor. It has many powerful enhancements for moving around, searching, and editing documents. Basic editing is simple to learn, and there’s additional functionality to explore. You can access most of the functionality by using keystroke combinations that trigger certain behaviour. vim , or the editor it’s modelled after, vi , is found in most UNIX-based operating systems. See the vim man page.
If you’re new to using the command line and don’t anticipate using it much for editing, nano is probably your best choice. If you expect to spend a lot of time using the command-line environment, it’s probably worth learning vim . They have very different design philosophies, so spend some time with each of them to determine which works best for you.
In the Terminal app on your Mac, invoke a command-line editor by typing the name of the editor, followed by a space and then the name of the file you want to open. If you want to create a new file, type the editor name, followed by a space and the pathname of the file.
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How to Open Any Folder from the Mac Terminal
The standard way to open any directory within macOS is to open a Finder window and use it to navigate to a specific location on your hard drive. There’s also another way to open folders: use the Terminal. It may not be something you use every day unless you’re a developer, but the power is there if you need to call on it.
As such, this post will show you how to open any folder from the macOS Terminal. We also show you how to create a custom shortcut to carry out this command.
Also read: How to Customize Your Mac’s Terminal for Better Productivity
Why You’d Want to Open a Folder From the Mac Terminal
As we noted, the preferred way of opening a folder is by using Finder. This is a Graphical User Interface (GUI), and it’s macOS’s directory navigation de jure. But it’s not the only way to access files or folders within macOS.
We admit, using the Terminal to open folders isn’t a natural way to get around macOS. Though, you’ll find it will come in handy in the following situations:
- If you’re a command line user, it may be something you have in your toolbox.
- Developing for Mac often means working within the Terminal. If this is the case, it may be the path of least resistance to stay inside the Terminal as much as possible.
- If you’re in a rare situation where macOS is acting as server software, you may only be able to use the Terminal to navigate the Operating System (OS).
Given the above, it’s easy to see why you may want to have the knowledge. Next, we show you how to get the job done.
How to Open Any Folder from the Mac Terminal
To begin, you’ll need to open the Terminal. This can be found either through the “Application -> Utilities” folder
or by typing “Terminal” in Spotlight. Once it’s open, you won’t need any dependencies to open any folder from the Mac Terminal. You’ll only need the open command. The general syntax is as follows:
For example, to open the Pictures folder, you’d use the following:
This will open the Pictures folder in a Finder window, which you can then use to access its files.
There are a bunch of other short commands you can use to access specific folders. For example:
- To open the Root directory, use open / .
- For your Home folder (i.e. the folder containing Desktop, Documents, and other folders specific to the user), type open
.
To touch on this last point further, you may be navigating your files using the Terminal and have a need to open the folder you’re in.
While the commands so far open specific folders, you can also launch (and update) applications from the Terminal without using Finder. For example, to open Safari, type open /Applications/Safari.app .
Of course, you’re able to replace Safari with any app on your system as long as you know its file name.
Open a Folder in Terminal from a Shortcut Menu
It may be that you want to reverse the situation and open a Finder directory in the Terminal. In other words, make it the current working directory. You can do this by adding a right-click shortcut.
To do this, head to System “Preferences -> Keyboard.”
Next, navigate to the Shortcuts tab. Here, select the Services menu and scroll down to find “New Terminal at Folder.”
If you select any folder within Finder, open the Services menu from the Toolbar and choose “New Terminal at Folder.”
This is going to be ideal if you often switch between a GUI and the Terminal.
In Summary
The Mac Terminal isn’t something you’ll encounter often. In contrast, a developer or sysadmin might spend most of their time using a Terminal app. Given this, opening a folder is a basic task that can keep you on the command line as long as possible. All you need is the open command and the path to your folder.
If you’re looking for more to do with the Terminal, we’ve looked at searching the Web without a browser, direct from the command line. Will this inspire you to use the Mac Terminal more? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Tom Rankin is a quality content writer for WordPress, tech, and small businesses. When he’s not putting fingers to keyboard, he can be found taking photographs, writing music, playing computer games, and talking in the third-person.
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How to open a file from Mac Terminal [Easy Guide]
- If you’re a Mac user, you probably encountered Terminal at least once.
- The Terminal can be a great tool, and in this article, we’ll show you how to open a file in Terminal.
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The Terminal can be an incredibly useful tool, especially for advanced users. Unfortunately, many users aren’t familiar with the Terminal at all.
In this article, we’re going to change that, and we’re going to show you how to open a file in Terminal. It’s easier than you think, so let’s get started.
How can I open a file in Terminal?
1. Use the open command
- Navigate to Applications > Utilities.
- Start the Terminal.
- Run the following command:
open
After running this command, you’ll open the selected file with the default application for that file type.
You can also open multiple files simply by doing the following:
- Navigate to the folder where the files are stored using the cd command in Terminal.
- Now run the following command:
open «file1.mp4» «file2.mp4» «file3.mp4»
You can also open all files with the same file type by using the following command:
By using this command, you’ll open all .jpg files that are located in the Desktop folder.
To open a file with specific software, you need to slightly adjust the command by adding the -a parameter followed by the name of the software that you want to use to handle the file.
In practice, the command would look something like this:
open -a «QuickTime Player»
If you want, you can even use a specific path for the app that you want to use to open the file. You can do that like this:
open -a /path/to/chosen_app.app filename.mp4
You can also open a file in the Terminal but choose not to bring the file to the foreground. This can be done with the -g parameter like this:
2. Edit the .bash_profile file
/.bash_profile file and open it.
alias WindowsReport=’open -a TextEdit’
Now you have created an alias, and you can use to quickly enter certain commands. This can be useful if you’re working with multiple files or long file paths.
To use the alias to open a certain text file, do the following:
- Open the Terminal.
- Run the following command:
WindowsReport textfile.txt
Basically, by using this method you can make commands shorter and easier to remember. You can create various aliases by using the commands that we mentioned above.
Also, you can use the Tab key while typing the alias name to quickly add it, which will make the process a lot faster.
Opening files in Terminal isn’t that hard, and you should be able to do it with ease after following the instructions from this article.
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Open or quit Terminal on Mac
Each window in Terminal represents an instance of a shell process. The window contains a prompt that indicates you can enter a command. The prompt you see depends on your Terminal and shell preferences, but it often includes the name of the host you’re logged in to, your current working folder, your username and a prompt symbol. For example, if a user named michael is using the default zsh shell, the prompt appears as:
This indicates that the user named michael is logged in to a computer named MacBook-Pro, and the current folder is his home folder, indicated by the tilde (
Open Terminal
On your Mac, do one of the following:
Click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Terminal in the search field, then click Terminal.
In the Finder , open the /Applications/Utilities folder, then double-click Terminal.
Quit Terminal
In the Terminal app on your Mac, choose Terminal > Quit Terminal.
Quit a shell session
In the Terminal app on your Mac, in the window running the shell process you want to quit, type exit , then press Return.
This ensures that commands actively running in the shell are closed. If anything’s still in progress, a dialogue appears.
If you want to change the shell exit behaviour, see Change Profiles Shell preferences.
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Keyboard shortcuts in Terminal on Mac
Use these shortcuts to save time when using Terminal.
Work with Terminal windows and tabs
New window with same command
New tab with same command
Show or hide tab bar
Show all tabs or exit tab overview
New remote connection
Show or hide Inspector
Edit background colour
Make fonts bigger
Make fonts smaller
Split window into two panes
Close split pane
Close other tabs
Scroll to bottom
Edit a command line
Reposition the insertion point
Press and hold the Option key while moving the pointer to a new insertion point
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the line
Move the insertion point to the end of the line
Move the insertion point forwards one character
Move the insertion point backwards one character
Move the insertion point forwards one word
Move the insertion point backwards one word
Delete the line
Delete to the end of the line
Delete forwards to the end of the word
Option-D (available when Use Option as Meta key is selected)
Delete backwards to the beginning of the word
Delete one character
Forward-delete one character
Forward Delete (or use Fn-Delete)
Transpose two characters
Select and find text in a Terminal window
Select a complete file path
Press and hold the Shift and Command keys and double-click the path
Select a complete line of text
Triple-click the line
Double-click the word
Press and hold the Shift and Command keys and double-click the URL
Select a rectangular block
Press and hold the Option key and drag to select text
Copy without background colour
Copy plain text
Paste the selection
Paste escaped text
Paste escaped selection
Find using the selected text
Jump to the selected text
Open the character viewer
Work with marks and bookmarks
Mark as bookmark
Mark line and send return
Send return without marking
Insert bookmark with name
Jump to previous mark
Jump to next mark
Jump to previous bookmark
Jump to next bookmark
Clear to previous mark
Clear to previous bookmark
Select between marks
Other shortcuts
Enter or exit full screen
Show or hide colours
Open Terminal preferences
Typing Command-Full Stop (.) is equivalent to entering Control-C on the command line
Soft reset terminal emulator state
Hard reset terminal emulator state
Hold down the Command key and double-click the URL
Add the complete path to a file
Drag the file from the Finder into the Terminal window
Export selected text as
Reverse search command history
Toggle “Allow Mouse Reporting” option
Toggle “Use Option as Meta Key” option
Show alternate screen
Hide alternate screen
Open man page for selection
Search man page index for selection
Complete directory or file name
On a command line, type one or more characters, then press Tab
Display a list of possible directory or file name completions
On a command line, type one or more characters, then press Tab twice
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