How to open a PDF file from terminal?

Question

I used to work on the Mac terminal before and I used:

open file2open.pdf

and the PDF file would be opened on preview or whatever my default viewer was. When I use it in the terminal in Ubuntu I get this error message:

Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

@Roland but mac claims to be a unix based system, so I assumed the terminal would behave the same atleast — yayu, May 16 '11 at 22:47
You can use fbi (Linux frame buffer image viewer) apt-get -y install fbi fbgs arch.pdf man fbgs for color and resolutions. — , Sep 24 '13 at 21:45
I was looking for how to open pdf in Mac and "open" is bloody perfect ! — damned, Sep 27 '13 at 06:12
@yayu That's true for basic commands, but sometimes BASH on OS X behaves differently than on Linux — Kellen Stuart, Dec 27 '16 at 19:51

desgua · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-19T10:35:58.923

285

Most desktop environments on modern systems (generic)

open file2open.xxx

OR

xdg-open file2open.xxx

GNOME

until Xenial (16.04):
```
gvfs-open file2open.xxx
```
starting with Artful (17.10):
```
gio open file2open.xxx
```

(xxx = some file extension). With this command the default app for xxx will be invoked (for example evince if you want to open PDF).

Application-specific

Using Evince, GNOME’s default document viewer:
```
evince file2open.pdf
```
Using Okular, KDE’s default document viwer:
```
okular file2open.pdf
```

edited Feb 19 '23 at 10:35

answered May 16 '11 at 20:14

desgua

32,917

1

So there is absolutely no way to view the text of a pdf file inside the terminal? With the pictures removed or converted to ASCII art? – Vorac Nov 14 '13 at 12:27
8

That is another question. You can view with less. Example: less my-file.pdf – desgua Nov 16 '13 at 21:34
2

when using evince your document closes after you close the terminal. xdg-open per the elmicha's answer worked wll for me. – Jon49 Oct 30 '14 at 04:11
1

For gnome (3) this needs libgnome2-bin which is not installed by default. – Lode Nov 17 '15 at 13:57
1

evince file2open.pdf is simple way for the same. – Vikrant Mar 09 '17 at 07:01
I use okular just because it allows me to highlight, but it's pretty heavy. If mupdf had a highlighting feature I would not use anything else, mupdf is so fast and the keybindings are great. – Ricardo Pietrobon Aug 09 '18 at 02:24
1

open works on Pop! – Erdinc Ay Feb 17 '23 at 23:19
I just realized it works on Debian stable too. – desgua Feb 19 '23 at 10:34

score 105 · Answer 2 · answered May 16 '11 at 20:29

105

You can also use:

xdg-open foo.pdf

xdg-open works in Gnome, KDE, xfce, LXDE and perhaps on other desktops.

You can put an alias in your ~/.bash_aliases:

alias open=xdg-open

answered May 16 '11 at 20:29

elmicha

9,728

2

+1. This is what chrome for one uses. It supports URIS as well (e.g. xdg-open irc://...). Pretty cool. – crazy2be May 16 '11 at 23:59
3

this is the proper answer not the one above, and this will work with all modern DEs. – OneOfOne May 17 '11 at 04:57

david6 · Answer 3 · 2011-11-20T21:49:45.433

22

For all those lost Mac users in Ubuntu-land ..

Edit your .bashrc file, and add:

alias open='gnome-open'

Then you can just use:

open file2open.pdf

edited Nov 20 '11 at 21:49

answered Nov 20 '11 at 21:43

david6

14,499

Does not work on Linux Mint with Cinnamon. `xdg-open' is the way to go. – Cain Aug 04 '17 at 02:07
on mint either xdb-open file.pdf or xreader file.pdf – zzapper Nov 26 '17 at 22:34

score 15 · Answer 4 · 2016-09-19T20:22:50.953

15

if the pdf is simple...

pdftotext -layout file2open.pdf - | more

We can use this in text mode, ssh, etc.

edited Sep 19 '16 at 20:22

answered Jan 14 '15 at 13:05

score 11 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 14 '16 at 21:06

11

If you want to view PDF within Terminal (Command Line Interface), try to use zathura.

Install Zathura sudo apt-get install zathura -y.

To view a PDF file just run => zathura /path/to/xxx.pdf

BTW: zathura requires X11 anyway, it doesn't work on Servers with no X installed.

edited Apr 14 '16 at 21:06

Tim

32,861
27
118
178

answered Jun 13 '13 at 22:06

Terry Wang

9,775

Works great and still nicely updated on github. – james-see Nov 12 '18 at 02:00
zathura doesn't display in the current terminal (Gnome), but opens its own window? A GTK application? – user598527 Jun 02 '22 at 09:20

partizanos · Answer 6 · 2016-07-23T01:47:50.657

11

if you have Document Viewer installed type the following command:

evince Name_of_pdf_file

if it is not already installed you can install it firstly using the following command:

sudo apt-get install evince

edited Jul 23 '16 at 01:47

answered Oct 23 '14 at 09:07

partizanos

311

1

You could add on how to install it when it isn't – MadMike Oct 23 '14 at 09:51

jairojj · Answer 7 · 2018-02-01T17:35:34.213

3

In Ubuntu 17.04 you case use this:

gio open <file.pdf>

edited Feb 01 '18 at 17:35

answered Jan 30 '18 at 11:58

jairojj

31
3

the command gio is not available in Ubuntu, at least on 16.04 – luisgonzalez Jan 30 '18 at 12:58

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 20 '15 at 14:02

3

You can also use

ooffice filename.pdf

to open your file in open office.

edited Jun 20 '15 at 14:02

A.B.

90,397

answered Jun 19 '15 at 05:29

Radhe Shyam Gupta

31

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 27 '17 at 08:50

3

The Z shell (zsh) has suffix based alias (-s), these allow you to set up a file association between a file extension like .jpg and a suitable application like xreader:

alias -s pdf='xreader'

With an alias like that you just need to type the file name and hit ↵ Return, e.g.:

file.pdf

edited Nov 27 '17 at 08:50

dessert

39,982

answered Nov 26 '17 at 22:42

zzapper

151
4

The zsh shell has suffix based alias (-s) these allow you to set up a file association between a file extension e.g. jpg and a suitable application say xnview – zzapper Nov 27 '17 at 08:29

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 14 '15 at 12:40

I personally use a shell script:

$ cat pdf
#! /bin/bash

gnome-open ${1:-*.pdf}

When you call pdf it will open all pdfs in the current directory, specify which pdf by supplying an argument. I have many directories containing but one pdf file (e.g. so many LaTeX directories) so only having to write pdf saves me quite some time and keystrokes.

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 14 '16 at 21:27

0

You can define the following function in your ~/.bashrc

open () {
     read -p "Enter File Name: " ; xdg-open "$REPLY"
}

edited Apr 14 '16 at 21:27

muru

197,895
55
485
740

answered May 04 '14 at 12:58

open () { read -p "Enter File /location/Name: " ; ''xdg-open $REPLY''
}
– May 04 '14 at 13:07

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 24 '17 at 18:24

0

Too open with Libre office use:

loffice <file.pdf>

or

soffice <file.pdf>

or

Goplay -

gooffice <file.pdf>

answered Feb 24 '17 at 18:24

Ani Menon

131

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Mar 28 '18 at 07:27

0

You can also type:

firefox file_name.pdf

This will open your pdf in firefox browser.

edited Mar 28 '18 at 07:27

muru

197,895
55
485
740

answered Nov 16 '17 at 09:01

Siddharth Agrawal

101

How to open a PDF file from terminal?

13 Answers13

Most desktop environments on modern systems (generic)

GNOME

Application-specific

Linked

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