How to open Visual Studio Solution File from the Command Prompt

Question

Today I was in the Windows Command Prompt after doing a git clone https://...MySolution.git and wanted to open the .sln (i.e., solution file) from the new directory of the cloned repo.

What is the command to open this new solution in Visual Studio? Suppose the relative path is /MySolution/MySolution.sln

Solution 1

If you haven't done cd MySolution but are still in the directory from which you did the git clone just type

start MySolution/MySolution.sln and hit Enter.

This will open whatever version of Visual Studio you currently have set to open with .sln files in Windows.

Solution 2

If you don't mind using PowerShell, you should try WhatsNew. Once installed, you can just type sln to open the solution file in that directory.

Solution 3

Actually, you can also do directly \MySolution\MySolution.sln or .\MySolution\MySolution.sln and the solution will be opened.

I've been using it in CMD and Powershell with no problem.