How to open files from folders using terminal command

Question

I am beginning to learn and love ubuntu. Is there any way to open files like .pdf, .jpeg, .odt, .docx etc. using command line?

For instance, I have a pdf named: 9949107741MathFormulas.pdf in the following directory:

jitendra@jitendra:~/Downloads/Math.Formulas.and.Tables.8.Retail$

when I go to above directory type 9949107741MathFormulas.pdf to open it, I get the message:

9949107741MathFormulas.pdf: command not found

Please advise, how can this task be accomplished?

Would you do the same thing in any other OS? Just type in a filename and hit enter? — , Jul 22 '13 at 14:44

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

I know you already accepted an answer but I think it will be better if you know that this has been discussed in the past with better answers like this one, which I reproduce right here for you.

xdg-open file.dvi

xdg-open will open any file with its default application. As a bonus, you can close the terminal without killing the application.

Since xdg-open is quite a long name, I put an alias for it in .bashrc:

alias go='xdg-open'

This way you don't need to know what application open this file or another. xdg-open will invoke whatever software is related to the file contents or extension.

Don't forget to give credit to Mihai Capotă for his good answer.

Good luck!

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 22 '13 at 14:36

2

You fist need to ask the application to open it. For pdf, you can call "evince".

Example command:

evince example.pdf

edited Jul 22 '13 at 14:36

Alaa Ali

31,535

answered Jul 22 '13 at 14:15

xeonix

59
1

Thanks, now I understand. Do I need to close this question, if so, how can it be done? – Jitendra Jul 22 '13 at 14:19
don't have to do anything... This is a possible duplicate of How to open a PDF file from terminal?. You did your part. – Meintjes Jul 22 '13 at 14:29

How to open files from folders using terminal command

2 Answers2