How Do I Open a File from Inside a Bash Script?
Ok, So Running Gedit Myfile. Txt Works Well. but What About Opening a File from Inside a Bash Script, Using the Default Desktop App Linked to the Filetype?...
Ok, so running gedit myfile.txt works well. But what about opening a file from inside a bash script, using the default desktop app linked to the filetype?
I've tried below, which works great when run manually in terminal, but when I put it in a bash file, nothing happens:
#!/bin/bash
xdg-open "myfile.txt"&
What should I do instead?
Please note that I need the file to stay open after the terminal is closed as well.
6 Answers
I think your script should work. But you might add something to it to get a little more information:
#!/bin/bash
T=`xdg-mime query filetype $1`
echo "opening file " $1 " of type " $T "with " `xdg-mime query default $T`
xdg-open $1
echo "finished script"
when running this script (named my_open.sh) in a terminal like this:
my_open.sh path/to/somefile.txt
I get the following output:
opening file path/to/somefile.txt of type text/plain with gedit.desktop
finished script
which tells me that the path to the file is ok, the mimetype is recognized and the desktopfile which is used to open the file is ok as well. And gedit opens with the file in question.
Now when run on another file:
my_open.sh path/to/README
I get the following output:
opening file path/to/README of type text/x-readme with
finished script
Note the different mimetype and the missing desktop file. Nevertheless, xdg-open opens the default for all text files (gedit).
So, you might want to add something like this to your script and see if you get unexpected output (which you can then add to your question...).
Make a bash script test.sh as:
#!/bin/bash
gedit myfile.txt
Then, make the script executable as:
chmod +x test.sh
Finally, run the script as:
./test.sh
Maybe gnome-open instead of xdg-open
You are going in the correct direction. If you want the gui app to stay open when you close the terminal window then you just need to add a nohup at the start of the line.
#!/bin/bash
nohup xdg-open "myfile.txt"&
If the gui app is not opening its probably because you do not have the DISPLAY environment variable set in the shell you are trying to launch it from. Try doing an echo $DISPLAY
The first part of your question
with the command cat you can open a file inside the terminal, if that is what you want (it's stated in the first part of your question).
to use it you can just type cat FILENAME.
Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.
