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?
With the Atom editor open, in the menu bar:
Click Atom → Install Shell Commands
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/194400/7987327/ba954dce-0ad4-11e5-897a-19ed0f37ff41.png
You should expect to see:
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/194400/7987297/88143464-0ad4-11e5-81f3-4ec7c1bdfc42.png
Potentially restart your terminal (I did it just out of habit and am not sure if you need to).
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.
/usr/local/bin/
directory with sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin/
and use sudo
for ln
like sudo ln -s /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh /usr/local/bin/atom
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.
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)
https://i.stack.imgur.com/URPQk.png
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'
zsh
rather than the bash
you need to put this alias on the file .zshrc
: vim ~/.zshrc
or nano ~/.zshrc
for edit the file and then put on the final: alias atom='sh /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh'
save the file and then: source ~/.zshrc
for load.
export PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
in ~/.zshrc and restart the terminal
On macOS you can add it to your ~/.bash_profile
as
alias atom='open -a "Atom"'
and from terminal just call
atom filename.whatever
Open the application by name:
open -a 'Atom' FILENAME
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
https://i.stack.imgur.com/DAJax.png
Go to your terminal and locate your directory. Run this command:
atom index.html
index.html is just an example.
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
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 ."
Make sure to put (move) "Atom" into the Application directory.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/j2xYR.png
On Linux && Mac OS-es type "atom ." in terminal.
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:
Open your ~/.profile file using your choice of editor (in my case, emacs ~/.kshrc) Add this line: export PATH="/usr/local/bin:${PATH}" Save and exit Restart terminal or source ~/.profile Test with atom -h
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.
Move "Atom X" from Documents into Applications (why it ended up in here, I have no idea) Rename "Atom X" to "Atom" Might need to restart your terminal and Atom
After that, everything should work just like it did before.
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".
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.
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
sudo
in your own home folder. Is it possible that you started Atom using sudo
before? That would explain why the logfile had the wrong permissions. Check the ownership of the file and then change it to be owned by your own user (using chown
).
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
I am on MinGW Bash, so I have created the ~.profile file with the following:
alias atom='~/AppData/Local/atom/bin/atom'
Success story sharing
atom
andapm
symlinks were pointing to the Downloads folder from where I ran Atom for the first time. Then after moving Atom to the applications folder the symlinks were broken and the Install Shell Command option was not able to notice it. What I had to do was to remove the symlinks and then select the Install Shell Commands from the Atom menu. There was no need to restart the console as theatom
command worked immediately after selecting the option. I ransudo rm /usr/local/bin/atom
andsudo rm /usr/local/bin/apm
from a terminal to remove the symlinksInstall Shell Commands