How to open google chrome from terminal?

Question

I'm trying to create an alias that opens google chrome to localhost. Port 80 in this case.

I'd also really like to be able to be in any git directory and have it open that specific project in the browser, but I'm not sure if that's even possible.

• How do I open google chrome from the terminal?
• What alias could I use to open the current git project in the browser?

More Details:

1. My localhost is set to port 80.
2. I store my git repositories in ~/Sites/ - meaning if I wanted to view any project in the browser it would be found here: http://localhost/FILENAME

Thank You

Solution 1

UPDATE:

1. How do I open google chrome from the terminal?

Thank you for the quick response. open http://localhost/ opened that domain in my default browser on my Mac.

2. What alias could I use to open the current git project in the browser?

I ended up writing this alias, did the trick:

# Opens git file's localhost; ${PWD##*/} is the current directory's name
alias lcl='open "http://localhost/${PWD##*/}/"'

Thank you again!

Solution 2

From the macOS Terminal, use open with the -a flag and give the name of the app you want to open. In this case "Google Chrome". You may pass it a file or URL you want it to open with.

open -a "Google Chrome" index.html 

Solution 3

On Linux, just use this command in a terminal:

google-chrome

Solution 4

If you just want to open the Google Chrome from terminal instantly for once then open -a "Google Chrome" works fine from Mac Terminal.

If you want to use an alias to call Chrome from terminal then you need to edit the bash profile and add an alias on ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc file.The steps are below :

• Edit ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc file and add the following line alias chrome="open -a 'Google Chrome'"
• Save and close the file.
• Logout and relaunch Terminal
• Type chrome filename for opening a local file.
• Type chrome url for opening url.

Solution 5

just type

google-chrome

it works. Thanks.

View more solutions

Comments

[Ulysse BN]

bash has a ~/.bashrc as well. I would not recommend aliases in ~/.profile, that is more about env variable.

[mklement0]

Worth noting that, unlike xdg-open (or open on macOS) for using the default browser, google-chrome runs synchronously, i.e., blocks the calling shell until the newly opened tab is closed; appending & makes it asynchronous.

[Íhor Mé]

In what scenario did it run in sync? I wasn't able to reproduce the sync behaviour you talked about, @mklement0 , always works async to me, never waits for tab to close.

[mklement0]

@ÍhorMé: Google Chrome 76.0.3809.87 on Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS.

[Íhor Mé]

I'm also on that. Actually, now I find I do get this exp with google-chrome http://example --no-sandbox. And when I run without --no-sandbox I don't, but I can't run without that one under root. Throws [32610:32610:0815/130649.955364:ERROR:zygote_host_impl_linux‌​.cc(89)] Running as root without --no-sandbox is not supported. See https://crbug.com/638180.

[skillit zimberg]

I just added alias chrome="open -a 'Google Chrome'" to my .zshrc file. Thank you!

[Ariel Mirra]

does not work in macOS Catalina. However just using open <URL> works if chrome is your default browser.

[Y. Joy Ch. Singha]

actually, i do work in ubuntu, and its working fine. But am not sure in macOS.

[Muhammad Umer]

how do you pass flags

[ricardorover]

If someone else wants to use it inside a Makefile on linux, it worked for me when I used xdg-open. Found the tip here stackoverflow.com/a/35811643/1594227