How to open a file manager of the current directory in the terminal?

Question

When I work in terminal, sometimes I want to open the current directory in a GUI file manager. And then to click the items in the window to run the application. How can I do this?

I don't think this question is an exact duplicate. There are [many similar questions](http://askubuntu.com/search?page=1&tab=relevance&q=xdg-open) with some identical answers but none of the questions have the exact same focus as this question. The closest question is [How to open a directory/folder and a URL through Terminal](http://askubuntu.com/q/17062/667) — dv3500ea, Mar 19 '11 at 14:52
Tried all the answers below. The ones that worked on Ubuntu 20.04 are: `xdg-open .`, `nautilus .`, `browse .`. But `gnome-open .` did not work as-is (I guess either gnome is not installed or there's some other reason for that). Nonethless, this is to confirm what worked as of 01-Feb-2022. — CypherX, Feb 01 '22 at 10:19

score 291 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 19 '11 at 14:42

291

The following works in all desktop environments by using the default file manager:

xdg-open .

You can also open files from the terminal as if you had double clicked them in the file manager:

xdg-open file

answered Mar 19 '11 at 14:42

dv3500ea

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Doesn't work for Ubuntu 16 – The Godfather Jun 14 '17 at 07:45
Works in CentOS 6.10 as well. – рüффп Oct 19 '18 at 06:25
@TheGodfather it works it Ubuntu 18.04 – Nino Filiu Apr 29 '19 at 21:23
for ubuntu, uses: `caja`, or `nautilus` – danilo May 25 '19 at 17:44
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Works like a charm in Ubuntu 18. :) Thanks for this! – cbloss793 Jun 04 '19 at 18:14
Works for me in Ubuntu 16.04 – Drazen Cika Sep 26 '19 at 08:30
This shows a deprecation warning, the newer command is `gio open .` (Centos 7) – vulpxn Jul 13 '20 at 03:29
Is there a similar command to "Choose a file"? e.g. It will open the default file manager and you can choose/select a file and it'll return the file's absolute path? More like a "File-picker"? – zean_7 Jun 18 '21 at 13:38

score 52 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 20 '11 at 15:07

Problem

This tip will explain How to open a file manager of the current directory in the terminal

Solution 1

The following works in all desktop environments by using the default file manager:

xdg-open .

Solution 2

You can also open files from the terminal as if you had double clicked them in the file manager:

xdg-open file

Solution 3

If you are using Gnome, you can use the gnome-open command, like so:

gnome-open .

Solution 4

You can use nautilus [path]. for current directory -

nautilus .

This is the most complete one and should be the answer. Works in RedHat 7.2 x64. — WesternGun, Nov 10 '16 at 20:35

score 41 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 19 '11 at 14:40

41

You write nautilus [path]. for current directory -

nautilus .

answered Mar 19 '11 at 14:40

MByD

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This has the disadvantage that you have to keep terminal window alive while you are navigating. If you kill the window, the file explorer gets killed too. – gdaras Oct 23 '18 at 15:22
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This is easily solved by adding `&` to the end like this: `nautilus . &` – Vladislav Rastrusny Mar 08 '19 at 14:31
This is easier to remember for me. – Jules Colle Nov 03 '19 at 13:13

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 04 '20 at 18:50

12

In Ubuntu 20.04, you can just say browse . to open the current directory

answered Dec 04 '20 at 18:50

dspyz

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`browse` is just a symlink to `xdg-open`. So you can use both of them in the same way. (i.e you can also open files with `browse`) – Asocia Apr 13 '21 at 09:47

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 26 '12 at 20:03

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If you are using GNOME, you can use the gnome-open command, like so:

gnome-open .

edited Aug 26 '12 at 20:03

Eliah Kagan

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answered Mar 20 '11 at 04:05

MystaMax

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To use it first install: sudo apt install libgnome2-bin – vidur punj Aug 03 '16 at 11:37
I wonder why isn't there common command for opening whatever the GUI is. I have tried all commands from above answers and no one worked for me. This is the only working on Ubuntu – The Godfather Jun 14 '17 at 07:46
Is there a way to open gnome as sudo? I tried `sudo gnome-open .` with no luck. – Tim Mar 16 '18 at 20:58

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 27 '18 at 05:45

You can use, nautilus . and press enter to open the current directory.

To open path specified location try the following.

E.g. If you want to open Music folder under this location:

/media/dulithdecozta/A08A64BB8A648F98/Music/

Then execute the following.

nautilus /media/dulithdecozta/A08A64BB8A648F98/Music/

How to open a file manager of the current directory in the terminal?

6 Answers6

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