Open Finder window from current Terminal location?

Question

If I am in a specific path in a Terminal window, how can I open that same window in a new Finder window?

Note: This is the opposite of opening a Terminal from Finder.

score 256 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '11 at 22:09

256

Typing open . in Terminal will open the current working directory in a Finder window.

answered Jul 30 '11 at 22:09

Gauzy

4,854

Thanks, that was exactly what I was looking for. I'd seen it before, but forgot it. – Jim McKeeth Jul 30 '11 at 22:14
Looks like this is broken in 10.9 Mavericks. Any workaround? – Wolfgang Fahl Nov 11 '13 at 05:19
@WolfgangFahl It still works for me in 10.9 Mavericks. – Jim McKeeth Nov 11 '13 at 21:25
@WolfgangFahl Was your Mavericks install a fresh install or an upgrade? My upgraded install of Mavericks lets me use this command. – Keen Feb 22 '14 at 03:15
of four Mavericks installs i did the problem only happend once for an upgrade install. All otheres were fine. The problem with the upgrade install also went away after a while. Strange ... – Wolfgang Fahl Feb 22 '14 at 16:30
Also working on Yosemite 10.10.5 here. – Henrique de Sousa Aug 28 '15 at 12:13
Works on macOS High Sierra – user1821961 Jul 06 '18 at 17:10
Related: You can switch to the existing Finder window using open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app – Raine Revere Jul 18 '20 at 20:26

ptim · Answer 2 · 2021-03-25T11:36:26.270

Stretch goal!

To expand on the answer above (because the more appropriate related question is marked as a dupe and can't receive new answers)...

I've added a function to my ~/.bash_profile to handle revealing a file or directory:

# Reveal a file or directory in Finder
reveal() {
  # grab the first arg or default to pwd
  local basedir=${1:-${PWD}}
if [[ -f "$basedir" ]]; then
    # ..we passed a file, so use its containing directory
    basedir=$(dirname "$basedir")
  fi
basedir is a directory in now, so open will activate Finder.
The argument is quoted to accommodate spaces in the filename.
open "$basedir"
}

…one liner:

reveal() { local dir=${1:-${PWD}}; [[ -f "$dir" ]] && dir=$(dirname "$dir") || true; open "$dir"; }

To install the function:

paste/save it into ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile or open a new terminal/tab

The context for my use is that I'll be browsing around using ls with tab completion, then when I find what I'm looking for, I can reveal (or cd or subl) the most recent arg, like:

ls dir/subdir<tab tab>
subsubdir  anotherdir
ls dir/subdir/anotherdir
reveal !$

Thanks to @nohillside, @Ed Randall, and Community for improvements!

worth noting that the only thing that this adds to open . is allowing us to pass a filename and get the containing directory :) — ptim, Oct 09 '15 at 02:29
Good plan, I simplified and enhanced this slightly: (1) named the function finder; (2) first line inside the function local basedir=${1:-${PWD}} (3) shortened the if/else to if [[ -f ${basedir} ]] ; basedir=$(dirname ${basedir}) ; fi — Ed Randall, Mar 11 '21 at 09:33
Tx @EdRandall! Maybe someone will come along and help me understand how to also allow piping to this function without waiting for input when stdin is empty ! cf https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/33049/how-to-check-if-a-pipe-is-empty-and-run-a-command-on-the-data-if-it-isnt — ptim, Mar 25 '21 at 11:03

Chad Grant · Answer 3 · 2016-10-29T21:02:55.413

7

open .

As a nice addition, add an alias in .bash_profile or .bash_aliases if you have one.

alias finder='open'

Then you can use finder . which I think is more intuitive.

edited Oct 29 '16 at 21:02

answered Oct 29 '16 at 19:59

Chad Grant

171

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 01 '15 at 16:41

If you have autojump installed, you don't even have to type the full path to the directory. You can simply type jo partialdirectoryname, and autojump will open a new Finder window in the specified directory.

I love this method, because you don't have to remember the entire directory name. Autojump keeps a list of most commonly used locations, and automatically knows which directory you're referring to, even if you only give it part of the name.

I do have autojump installed but I get jo command not found — incandescentman, Mar 21 '17 at 16:25

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 23 '16 at 02:59

3

Typing open . in Terminal will open the current working directory in a Finder window.
But there is also an alternative version

open `pwd`

answered Jun 23 '16 at 02:59

computingfreak

460

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 24 '23 at 03:15

I am afraid just open is not enough, for example, if you have a directory named /Users/hanley/repo/iconnect/MobileDevice.xcframework, you will get error after you use open /Users/hanley/repo/iconnect/MobileDevice.xcframework:

No application knows how to open URL file:///Users/hanley/repo/iconnect/MobileDevice.xcframework/ (Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10814 "kLSApplicationNotFoundErr: E.g. no application claims the file" UserInfo={_LSLine=1608, _LSFunction=runEvaluator}).

So I advise we can use open -b com.apple.finder `pwd` to open current directory in Finder.app.

For more convenience, you can alias it with alias ofd='open -b com.apple.finder `pwd`', then ofd command will directly open current directory in Finder.app

For more usage of open, please read man open

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 24 '23 at 06:04

I know this is very old thread. At the terminal typing open . opens the current directory as others stated. In addition, the following will reveal (but not open) files/folder open -R . A combination of both becomes really powerful and time saver. You can also open all the Text files with open *.txt command in the current directory. How cool is that!

Open Finder window from current Terminal location?

7 Answers7

Stretch goal!

basedir is a directory in now, so open will activate Finder.

The argument is quoted to accommodate spaces in the filename.

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