Tell HN: macOS's `open` util is nifty

Open current dir in Finder:

  open .

Open a CSV in default spreadsheet program:

  open example.csv

Open the same CSV in TextEdit instead:

  open -a TextEdit example.csv

Neat, thanks, did not know about this!

-a is a good example for opening with the non-default app (tip: leave out the file argument to simply launch the app), but to open specifically with TextEdit there is -e:

    open -e example.csv

And -t opens with the default text editor.

Other useful options include -j to launch the app hidden, -R to reveal the file in the Finder, -W to stop execution until the app exits (useful for scripts), and -n to launch a new instance of the app (new icon will show up in the Dock). You can connect multiple flags for more complex effects.

For example, I have a script which opens iA Writer and waits until I close it before continuing. If I already have it open and editing other stuff, -W will wait for that instance of the app to close, which is a bother. So instead I do:

    open -Wna 'iA Writer' example.txt

Which opens a new instance of the app and waits until that one is closed, thus avoiding interfering with previous work.

Highly recommend taking a look at man open. It isn’t long but it is quite useful.

I’ll throw in here that you can very easily copy a file path in finder by right clicking on the file, and holding down the option key and selecting the menu item that says so.

Alternatively, you can drag a file into the terminal and it will paste the file path there, which is really cool.

It's poor man's plumb(1) from Plan 9: https://9p.io/wiki/plan9/using_plumbing/index.html