Mac OS X Finder FAQ: How to open the Finder from a Terminal window

Mac Terminal Finder FAQ: How can I open a Mac Finder window from the current directory of a Mac Terminal window?

To open a Finder window in the current directory of your Mac Terminal just issue this Mac open command:

open .

Yes, that is a decimal after the open command. The decimal is the Unix way of referring to the current directory.

For instance, if you have a Mac Terminal window open, and you’re working in the /tmp directory, and you issue this open command, the Mac Finder will be opened, displaying the contents of the /tmp directory.

Other Mac OS X open command magic

The Mac OS X open command can be used in a many other ways as well. For instance, if there’s a file named EmailAddressValidator.java in the current directory and I type:

open EmailAddressValidator.java

at the Mac Terminal prompt, this Java file will be opened by TextMate, which I’ve configured to be the default editor for files ending in a .java extension.