How to open a file in LibreOffice Writer from terminal and be back at terminal

Question

How can I open a file in LibreOffice Writer from terminal and be back at terminal to continue with other tasks?

For instance, if I insert

libreoffice CV*.odt

it will open the file in LibreOffice but I will be unable to proceed with further commands in that instance of terminal.

see this one for more tips too [Regain control after opening firefox via terminal](//askubuntu.com/q/802428) — Zanna, Oct 26 '16 at 11:58

You'reAGitForNotUsingGit · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-26T12:00:04.173

3

Very simple:

libreoffice CV*.odt &

The & at the end tells the terminal to run it in the background.

edited Oct 26 '16 at 12:00

answered Oct 26 '16 at 11:51

You'reAGitForNotUsingGit

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FYI as you are new here, if my answer was helpful, please consider accepting and/or upvoting :) – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit Oct 26 '16 at 11:51
Exactly what I was looking for! I accepted the answer but I still can't vote. Thank you – risc0 Oct 26 '16 at 12:41

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 26 '16 at 12:13

The xdg-open utility which comes with a standard Ubuntu Desktop install will do this. It works not only for LibreOffice documents, but for any file or URL.

xdg-open opens the file with your preferred application, and returns immediately:

xdg-open CV*.odt

Tip: add alias o=xdg-open to ~/.bash_aliases to have a convenient shortcut:

o CV*.odt
o 'https://askubuntu.com/'

How to open a file in LibreOffice Writer from terminal and be back at terminal

2 Answers2