How can I open a file in its default application from the command line in OS X?

Question

How can I open a file in its default application from the command line?

For example if I have a file foo.doc, can I type command ./foo.doc into the CLI and have that file open in Word?

Note: on my linux machine, I would use xdg-open but that doesn't work on my Mac.

score 20 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 06 '18 at 15:37

20

Use:

open foo.doc

or, alternatively:

open -n foo.doc

to force it to open a new instance if one is already open for that app.

edited Sep 06 '18 at 15:37

jaume

answered Aug 15 '12 at 16:04

Jason

2

`open` is a very good command to get to know. – Cajunluke Aug 15 '12 at 16:34
4

`open -n` opens a new instance, not a window. – Lri Aug 15 '12 at 16:37
4

Also nice is `open .` (or any directory name in place of `.`), which opens Finder (the default application for a directory). – Nathan Long Aug 15 '12 at 17:03
1

where could I set default preferred program that open opens for specific file type? ( it would be great if this preference stored somewhere, cause setting it by gui is very annoying ) – gaussblurinc Feb 25 '16 at 12:46

1 Answers1