Open a folder in Sublime Text 3 using command line

Question

I'm trying to open a directory in sublime Text 3.

I can launch sublime from the command line using the subl command.

The help text show the following:

Sublime Text build 3059

Usage: subl [arguments] [files]         edit the given files
   or: subl [arguments] [directories]   open the given directories
   or: subl [arguments] -               edit stdin

Arguments:
  --project <project>: Load the given project
  --command <command>: Run the given command
  -n or --new-window:  Open a new window
  -a or --add:         Add folders to the current window
  -w or --wait:        Wait for the files to be closed before returning
  -b or --background:  Don't activate the application
  -s or --stay:        Keep the application activated after closing the file
  -h or --help:        Show help (this message) and exit
  -v or --version:     Show version and exit

--wait is implied if reading from stdin. Use --stay to not switch back
to the terminal when a file is closed (only relevant if waiting for a file).

Filenames may be given a :line or :line:column suffix to open at a specific
location.

Thus to open a directory I should be able to use the following

subl ./folder_name

but that does not work for me. Sublime does open (with a empty new document) and I cannot see the folder in the side bar.

Am I doing it wrong...

BTW. I'm using the fish shell with the 'Oh my fish' Add-on (I have also added the sublime add- on)...

Answer 1

For Linux and MacOs users and Sublime Text 3 Try the command : subl3

Answer 2

To open a folder as a project in Sublime Text, use subl . while in the folder you're trying to open.

Linux So if you want to open ~/Documents/folder_name, then move to that folder in Terminal cd Documents/folder_name and type the command subl .

Note This was only tested in Ubuntu with Sublime Text 2.

Edit Answer found here: http://olivierlacan.com/posts/launch-sublime-text-3-from-the-command-line/

Answer 3

To open sublime in the same folder you can simply type in your commandline:

subl . 

In order to work you must configure some stuff:

1) To prevent the opening of previous projects you should set the following properties of your Sublime User Settings:

"hot_exit": false,
"remember_open_files": false

2) In order to use subl.exe from anywhere you should add the Sublime folder in the environment variables. I.e. C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3

Answer 4

I've had this issue before, on both Mac OSX and Windows, and I found some oddities with it;

Mac OSX You either have to have Sublime Text open already for the subl ./folder_name command to actually open the folder, or Sublime must have been quit with windows still open - if you close all the windows then quit Sublime, using the subl ./folder_name command will just open a blank Sublime window.

Windows You have to have Sublime open for the subl ./folder_name to work. Without Sublime open, it will just open a blank Sublime window.

I've yet to find a way of the command opening fine, no matter how you quit Sublime / when you have Sublime closed.

Try having Sublime open whilst you run the command, and see if it works then.

Answer 5

While there are already multiple answers and I apologize for adding to the noise, I don't understand why you're using subl ./folder_name to open a local directory. Why not use subl folder_name/ instead?

Either way my ST3 (build 3083) installation on OS X is opening a child directory with either subl ./child or subl child/ whether Sublime was open prior to the command or not.

PS: Make sure you don't have the sidebar closed when opening directories by running Command + K then B. I've often assumed a directory was failing to open just because I had my sidebar closed and couldn't see the files listed inside of it.

Answer 6

Mac Or Linux Only

The best & safest way to do this is to create a symbolic link from the Sublime executable file (subl) to a folder already in your $PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin/). If you do this; you won't have to update this every time sublime updates...

For users running BASH (i.e. most people):

ln -s '/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl' /usr/local/bin/subl

If that doesn't work, create a bin folder in your home directory (if one does not already exist), add it to your PATH variable and create a soft link to that file).

mkdir $HOME/bin
export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
ln -s '/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl' $HOME/bin/subl

---

Then before you start using it properly, I would suggest taking a look at the help text first, which explains it's usage:

 subl -h

e.g.

subl my_folder_name/filename.txt
subl my_folder_name

to open a file and folder in Sublime respectively.

---

Taking it a step further

I use a BASH function to take this a step further with the following benefits:

• shorten the shortcut to just s (which is somewhat shorter than subl).
• automatically open the current directory that you are if no file/directory is specified after subl / s.

If you want, you can use this function by running the following (after running the above):

cd
subl .bashrc

This should open the .bashrc file in Sublime Text. Add the following to the bottom.

function s {
  if [ "$1" != "" ]; then
    subl $1
  else
    subl $PWD
  fi
}   

Then you can open Sublime by simply typing in a s (all the sublime arguments still work)...

(Side Point, I also use a similar function for open (for mac) / or xdg-open (for ubuntu); where I shorten the command to just o. I use it a lot to open the current directory in the file manager)...

---

Fish Shell Users (you know who you are)

The export line above will not work; so exchange it for the following

set PATH $HOME/bin:$PATH

---

Before Edit

I had different versions of the command line subl and sublime text three installed. I simply removed the subl command and then re-added and that fixed the problem for me...

For those who may find this useful - this is what I did:

 subl -v

This showed me the build of the command-line sublime, when I checked this against the version of my actual Sublime, I noticed that the command line subl was an older build. So I tried to find the location of the command line subl using the following command (for me this was /usr/bin/subl):

which subl

So I first removed this older command-line sublime text.

sudo rm /usr/bin/subl   (use `sudo` only if necessary)

And then re-added Subl to my PATH (as above)