CODEWITHSUNDEEP
macoscommand-line-interfaceatom-editor
Anders
Anders

Reputation: 10078

How can I open the Atom editor from the command line in OS X?

I have the Atom editor and was wondering how you can open a file or folder from the terminal in Atom. I am using a Mac. I am looking for a way to do this:

atom . (opens folder)

atom file.js (opens file)

atom (opens editor)

Is this possible and how do I set it up?

Upvotes: 436

Views: 353212

Answers (20)

Goran_Ilic_Ilke
Goran_Ilic_Ilke

Reputation: 868

On Linux && Mac OS-es type "atom ." in terminal.

Upvotes: 2

Ray
Ray

Reputation: 134

Install Shell command

Go to your terminal and locate your directory. Run this command:

atom index.html

index.html is just an example.

Upvotes: 4

Izhari Ishak Aksa
Izhari Ishak Aksa

Reputation: 898

Make sure to put (move) "Atom" into the Application directory.

Enter image description here

Upvotes: 2

Govna
Govna

Reputation: 383

I’ve noticed this recently with all new Macs here at my office. Atom will be installed via an image for the developers, but we found Atom is never in the Application folder.

When doing an ls on the /usr/local/bin folder, the path for atom will show something like "/private/var/folders/cs". To resolve this, we just located file atom.app and copied it into the application folder, and then ran the system link commands provided by nwinkler which resoled the issue. Developers can now open Atom from the command line with "atom" or open the current projects from their working directory with "atom ."

Upvotes: 2

Daniel Lizik
Daniel Lizik

Reputation: 3144

With ConEmu on Windows 10 I couldn't call atom from the console even after I added %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\atom\bin to PATH in environment variables. I just added

alias atom="C:/Users/me/AppData/local/atom/app-1.12.7/atom"

to my .bashrc file.

Upvotes: 0

Martin Kunc
Martin Kunc

Reputation: 471

I am on MinGW Bash, so I have created the ~.profile file with the following:

alias atom='~/AppData/Local/atom/bin/atom'

Upvotes: -1

Laurent
Laurent

Reputation: 127

For Windows 10 and the new release of Atom, I solved the problem by adding in my environment variable on the "PATH" row:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\atom\bin

Upvotes: 3

Paris Qian Sen
Paris Qian Sen

Reputation: 1099

In addition to sbedulin's answer (greeting, lovely Windows users!):

The general path on Windows should be

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\atom\bin

If you are using a Bash emulator like Babun, you'd better checkout the shell files, which are only available in the real application folders.

/c/User/<username>/AppData/Local/atom/app-<version>/resources/cli/apm.sh # Or atom.sh

Upvotes: 2

Peter Zhang
Peter Zhang

Reputation: 1

Add the path (:/usr/local/bin/) in the shell profile file.

Mac: file $home/.bash_profile

export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH

Upvotes: -1

Ash Blue
Ash Blue

Reputation: 5602

Upgrading Atom appears to break command line functionality on the occasion. It looks like in my case it created two versions of the application instead of overwriting them. It occurs because the new file structure doesn't match file paths created by Atom → Install Shell Commands. In order fix the issue, you'll need to do the following.

  1. Move "Atom X" from Documents into Applications (why it ended up in here, I have no idea)
  2. Rename "Atom X" to "Atom"
  3. Might need to restart your terminal and Atom

After that, everything should work just like it did before.

Upvotes: 1

Jason Robinson
Jason Robinson

Reputation: 944

Another simple solution is to add /usr/local/bin to your PATH environment variable. I had the same issue, and I installed shell commands (see shaheenery's response). The symbolic links already existed and were pointing to the correct destination (see thomax's response), however I would still get 'not found'. I'm using Korn Shell btw.

Here's what I did:

  1. Open your ~/.profile file using your choice of editor (in my case, emacs ~/.kshrc)
  2. Add this line: export PATH="/usr/local/bin:${PATH}"
  3. Save and exit
  4. Restart terminal or source ~/.profile
  5. Test with atom -h

Upvotes: 1

andrew pate
andrew pate

Reputation: 4297

I had problems due to Atom being unable to write its logfile when starting from the command line. This cured it.

sudo chmod 777 ~/.atom/nohup.out

Upvotes: -1

shaheenery
shaheenery

Reputation: 8507

With the Atom editor open, in the menu bar:

Click Atom → Install Shell Commands

atom-add-shell-commands

You should expect to see:

atom-commands-installed

Potentially restart your terminal (I did it just out of habit and am not sure if you need to).

Upvotes: 760

thomax
thomax

Reputation: 9659

Roll your own with user3283997's solution, or in Atom, choose the menu option Atom → Install Shell Commands. This creates two symbolic links in /usr/local/bin.

apm -> /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/apm/node_modules/.bin/apm
atom -> /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh

The atom command lets you do exactly what you're asking. apm is the command line package manager.

Upvotes: 22

user3283997
user3283997

Reputation:

When Atom installs, it automatically creates a symbolic link in your /usr/local/bin folder. However, in case it hasn't, you can create it yourself on your Mac:

ln -s /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh /usr/local/bin/atom

Now you can use atom folder_name to open a folder and atom file_name to open a file.

Upvotes: 554

hal9000
hal9000

Reputation: 221

I had the same issue which I resolved by first moving Atom.app from downloads to Applications. Then under Atom's menu options, I selected "Install Shell Commands".

Upvotes: 0

trusk
trusk

Reputation: 1703

On macOS you can add it to your ~/.bash_profile

as

alias atom='open -a "Atom"'

and from terminal just call

atom filename.whatever

Upvotes: 11

scottmcallister
scottmcallister

Reputation: 303

The symlink solution for this stopped working for me in zsh today. I ended up creating an alias in my .zshrc file instead:

alias atom='sh /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh'

Upvotes: 11

sbedulin
sbedulin

Reputation: 4360

For Windows 7 x64 with default Atom installation add this to your PATH

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\atom\app-1.4.0\resources\cli

and restart any running consoles

(if you don't find Atom there - right-click Atom icon and navigate to Target)

enter image description here

Upvotes: 15

Dejay Clayton
Dejay Clayton

Reputation: 3898

Open the application by name:

open -a 'Atom' FILENAME

Upvotes: 5

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