To my surprise, there seems to be no option in Inkscape to produce a new file from cli!

How to create the option?

As always, if it doesn't exist, it can be made:

1. Open Inkscape, create a new file drawing.svg
2. Save this file anywhere

3. Copy the code below into an empty file, save it as newinkscape (no extension) in ~/bin. Create the directory if it doesn't exist yet.

   #!/bin/bash
   
   sample="/path/to/drawing.svg"
   dr=$1
   
   cp "$sample" "$dr"
   inkscape "$dr"
   

   Make the script executable

4. Replace in the line:

   sample="/path/to/drawing.svg"
   

   The path by the path to your sample file.

Log out and back in, now:

newinkscape /path/to/newfile.svg

will open a new empty Inkscape file, saved in the location you used in the command.

Whatever problem was encountered last year when trying to register the alias now seems fixed. The same sequence worked on 16.04, and the nearly released 18.04 as well. Versions uses are in the output.

$ sudo snap install blender-tpaw
[sudo] password for dpb: 
blender-tpaw 2.78c-tpaw0 from 'tpaw' installed
$ sudo snap alias blender-tpaw blender
Added:
  - blender-tpaw as blender
$ sudo snap aliases
Command                  Alias         Notes
aws-cli.aws              aws           -
blender-tpaw             blender       manual
conjure-up.conjure-down  conjure-down  -
lxd.lxc                  lxc           -
$ snap version
snap    2.32.3.2+18.04
snapd   2.32.3.2+18.04
series  16
ubuntu  18.04
kernel  4.15.0-15-generic

References:

• I think the following post gives good background on the change that was implemented for those interested in details. https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/improving-the-aliases-implementation/18