Mac Terminal Launch App From Command Line

Aug 15, 2019  However, in the last couple of updates to the Windows Terminal app, it got to a state which already. In this blog post, I am just going to show you how you can open the Windows Terminal from Command Line or Run (WIN + R), check it out now! To open Windows Terminal from the command line (cmd) or in Windows Run (WIN +R) type: wt. In the Terminal app on your Mac, enter the complete pathname of the tool’s executable file, followed by any needed arguments, then press Return. If a command is located in one of the shell’s known folders, you can omit path information when entering the command name. The list of known folders is stored in the shell’s PATH environment variable and includes the folders containing most command-line tools.

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But for older versions of Mac OS X, and because app bundles aren't designed to be passed command line arguments, the conventional mechanism is to use Apple Events for files like here for Cocoa apps or here for Carbon apps. You could also probably do something kludgey by passing parameters in using environment variables. The command line is not only powerful, it can also be dangerous. Learn how to use commands for deleting files and folders correctly to make sure your time with Terminal is a productivity godsend.

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Terminal User Guide

You can use the command-line environment interactively by typing a command and waiting for a result, or you can use the shell to compose scripts that run without direct interaction.

Execute commands in the shell

  • In the Terminal app on your Mac, enter the complete pathname of the tool’s executable file, followed by any needed arguments, then press Return.

If a command is located in one of the shell’s known folders, you can omit path information when entering the command name. The list of known folders is stored in the shell’s PATH environment variable and includes the folders containing most command-line tools.

For example, to run the ls command in the current user’s home folder, enter the following at the command prompt, then press Return:

To run a command in the current user’s home folder, precede it with the folder specifier. For example, to run MyCommandLineProg, use the following:

App
% ~/MyCommandLineProg

To open an app, use the open command:

When entering commands, if you get the message command not found, check your spelling. Here’s an example:

% opne -a TextEdit.app zsh: opne: command not found

Terminate commands

  1. In the Terminal app on your Mac, click the Terminal window that is running the command you want to terminate.

  2. Press Control-C.

    This sends a signal that causes most commands to terminate.

Repeat previously entered commands

The commands you enter during a session are saved so you can repeat a previously used command without retyping it.

  1. In the Terminal app on your Mac, press the Up Arrow key.

    The last command you entered appears on the command line.

  2. Continue pressing the Up Arrow key until you see the command you want, then press Return.

See alsoSpecify files and folders in Terminal on MacRedirect Terminal input and output on MacDrag files into a Terminal window to specify paths on MacKeyboard shortcuts in Terminal on MacApple Developer website: Command Line Primer

In some flavors of Unix, you feel as if you've been cast into an alternate universe when you open a terminal window and work on the command line. But with OS X and its Darwin core, there's often an elegant integration between the two. In this how-to I'll show you how to launch an OS X app from the command line with the open command.

[Note: A little bit of prior UNIX experience will be helpful here.]

First off, I will admit this technique is fairly geeky. In my [Mac] OS X career, I've only used this trick a handful of times. However, it's so darn cool and charming that one just aches to use it at any opportunity.

Actually, upon reflection, there are some useful scenarios for this technique.

  1. The Finder acts up, a terminal window is already open, and you'd like to be able to launch a GUI app that might help you diagnose the problem.
  2. You're a UNIX professional, live and breathe the command line, but you'd rather use a GUI text editor for coding instead of the raw and ugly vi or Emacs editors.
  3. You're writing, say, a Perl or Python script, for another user and, at some point in the script, you'd like to launch a GUI app that carries the workflow forward.
  4. You want to quickly run a utility with admin privileges without the restriction of the account you're logged into. See, for example, 'How to Find & Recover Missing Hard Drive Space.' In that case, you must bypass the open command and drill into the Package Contents to run the app with sudo and admin privileges. But I've digressed.

The Man Page

The terminal app is in the Utilities folder—which is found the Applications folder. Launch it now. The BSD UNIX command we'll be using is open. Below is the manual page ('man' for short), shown by typing:

I've printed most of the man page for the open command here for your perusal, but I'm not going to explore every argument. And feel free to jump right to the examples below to whet your appetite.

For this limited how-to, one interesting way to use the open command in this context is to use the [-a] option. Some other useful variations and arguments are in the examples below.

Typical Examples

Here are some short and sweet examples of the open command with the -a, -e, and -t arguments. They're easy to try. [If you don't have BBEdit installed, use any other favorite a text editor in /Applications.]

Open Doors

These are just a few of the cool things you can do on the command line with the open command. To keep things simple, I haven't delved into creating a search path or other Unix tricks like aliases. All that's been left for you to explore on your own.

I think this is one of the neatest tricks in OS X.

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Mac Terminal Launch App From Command Line Download

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