Ubuntu – How to open a specific application like macOS `open -a`

command line

On macOS in the default Terminal running bash, I can type:

open -a Firefox http://www.wikipedia.org

to open a URL with Firefox, or another browser. It also works to launch a program, e.g. open -a maps, and to open a file in the default program, e.g. open file.pdf.

How can I do the same on Ubuntu in the default GNOME Terminal also running bash? I know that I can open a file or URL with xdg-open /path/to/file, and I can open the default browser with sensible-browser. Does Ubuntu have a general command to open files, applications, or files in specific applications?

I am running bash on both machines, 3.2.57(1)-release on macOS and 4.4.19(1)-release on Ubuntu.

Best Answer

You can specifically use your desired program's name (if it's able to be used as a command line tool).

For example, urls:

firefox duckduckgo.com
chromium-browser askubuntu.com

PDF:

evince foo.pdf
okular bar.pdf

Images:

gpicview foo.png
feh bar.jpeg

Texts:

gedit foo.txt
mousepad /etc/config
leafpad bar.xml

Video/Music:

mpv  foo.mp3
vlc  bar.mp4

If you want the program to be run detached from the terminal then this is the way that I prefer doing it:

nohup program args &

For example:

nohup firefox askubuntu.com &

Remember that you can always redirect the outputs as usual, e.g. :

nohup firefox duckduckgo.com &> /dev/null &

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to open a directory/folder and a URL through Terminal

To Open Directory:

To open a Folder from terminal type the following,

nautilus /path/to/that/folder

xdg-open /path/to/the/folder

i.e

nautilus /home/karthick/Music
xdg-open /home/karthick/Music

Simply typing nautilus will take you file browser,
```
nautilus
```

To Open URL:

You can type any one of the following in terminal,

xdg-open http://google.com       
google-chrome http://google.com                 
opera http://google.com
firefox http://google.com

If you want to open two URL's at the same time then leave some space after the first URL and type the second,
```
firefox www.google.com www.gmail.com
```

Note:

Linux is case-sensitive, so type the file name correctly.
You can also add an alias to short the command,for example if you need openurl instead of x-www-browser you should edit the .bashrc file
gedit ~/.bashrc
In the bottom of the file add the following lines
```
alias openurl=x-www-browser
```
Save and close the file.
Now you can open URLs by typing,
```
openurl http://google.com
```

Ubuntu – How to open a file or folder from Terminal with mouse

Gnome-terminal doesn't do this, as you are aware; unlike Nautilus, it doesn't have those sorts of extensions like open-terminal here. This is probably an undesirable feature anyway; URL recognition can be annoying as it is, but can you imagine doing a find and having everything clickable?

For your pwd example,

nautilus `pwd`

works, (but then so does nautilus .) For this task, I have a bash alias:

alias n="nautilus ."

so that whenever I type n, it opens nautilus wherever I am.

Otherwise, the format:

nautilus `<insert command that prints a directory here>`

works, but doesn't get you the feature you're looking for.

A workaround would be:

highlight the path with the mouse (which stores it in the buffer)
type nautilus<space> at the prompt
middle-click somewhere in the terminal (which pastes the buffer to the end of the prompt).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to open a directory/folder and a URL through Terminal

Ubuntu – How to open a file or folder from Terminal with mouse

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