How can I opening a directory from the terminal in a new session?

Question

Coming from Mac OS, in terminal I am able to use open . in terminal which will open a directory.

I am able to semi replicate this with pantheon-files ., but this returns

[INFO 21:33:37.889767] Application.vala:155: Files version: 0.2.4
[INFO 21:33:37.889846] Application.vala:157: Kernel version: 3.19.0-33-generic
[WARNING 21:33:37.894015] Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-0hpFTi9zyT: Connection refused
[INFO 21:33:37.930317] Application.vala:85: Report any issues/bugs you might find to http://bugs.launchpad.net/pantheon-files

To get round the above issue I use pantheon-files . > /dev/null. However, the command is still running in my terminal session and when I close it in terminal it closes the window I have just opened.

My question, can I open a directory from terminal without leaving the session open?

Answer 1

It looks like xdg-open . is what you're looking for. I'm able to close Terminal without quitting Files.

The other Terminal output can be ignored

Answer 2

To detcach a program from a terminal simply run the command with a & at the end like this:

pantheon-files . &

Then simply press Ctrl + D and the terminal will close, leaving the program running.

This works for anything - even when xdg-open does not.

Answer 3

To open file/folder from terminal:

1. pantheon-files /path

   Example: pantheon-files /home/ravan/Downloads

2. xdg-open /path

   Example: xdg-open /home/ravan/Downloads

EDIT 1:

. (dot) represents the current working directory;

.. (dot dot) represent the directory one level above the current working directory, often referred to as the parent directory.

EDIT 2: To clarify comment-

To use terminal after running the command xdg-open /path :

Run the command instead of the previous one:

xdg-open /path ; sleep 1

Here it will be xdg-open . ; sleep 1

To close terminal automatically:

xdg-open /path ; exit

Here it would be : xdg-open . ; exit

Answer 4

I've created a bash alias to use the xdg-open . command like the MacOs open . ignoring the command output. You can place the alias at your .bash_profile to make it persistent.

alias open='xdg-open &> /dev/null'