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Alice
Asked: 2019-01-12 17:03:24 +0800 CST

Quick method to create a file and open it

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I want to create a markdown file and open it simultaneously

$ touch ~/Documents/Ubuntu/drafts.md; open ~/Document/Ubuntu/drafts.md

The solution is cumbersome, is there a shortcut to handle such a task?

command-line shortcut-keys files

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    There's no such shortcut, Apparently, one could use Alt+. according to Sebastian Stark's answer

    touch ${filename}
xdg-open <alt>+<.>

    If your shell uses libreadline ( which /bin/dash on Ubuntu does not, but bash does ), then you can use that shortcut.

    You can also create a file with shorter number of characters via bash:

    : > ${filename}; xdg-open ${filename}

    In this case, : command is built-in no-op command, which only returns exit status of 0 for success, but the trick here is that shell creates new or truncates existing file designated by ${filename}. xdg-open opens the said filename in default editor, since it will be just a plain file.

    If you want to go even shorter, you can use bash history expansion feature to reuse command parameters:

    : > myfile.txt ; xdg-open !#:1

    If portability is a concern, you should use $_ for other shells. Of course, you can turn these into function or alias and call the alias or function name; call it something like mko() for "make and open":

    # function definition to put in ~/.bashrc
mko(){  : > "$1"; xdg-open !#:1 }
# call it as so:
mko ~/Documents/myfile.md

    Making a function also has advantage in adding a template to the file, if you need that:

    mko(){ 
cat > "$1" <<EOF
### HEADING1
- bullet 1
- bullet 2
EOF 

xdg-open "$1" 
}

    Sidenote: in case you also need to create directories along the path, you should use mkdir -p, see the related question.

    Sidenote No.2: dessert's answer actually addresses a very fair point: most text editors do allow specifying a pathname for new file as one of their arguments. However, in cases where file has to exist - otherwise you get No such file or directory error - well, you can use this answer. Consider also that > truncates an existing file, so this can be useful where you want to quickly clear the file and start adding new content.

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  2. Let the editor create the file

    Most (if not all) editors automatically create the file if you open them with a filename of a nonexistent one. You can save the touch and simply open the new file directly, e.g.:

    nano ~/Document/Ubuntu/drafts.md
vim ~/Document/Ubuntu/drafts.md
leafpad ~/Document/Ubuntu/drafts.md

    This will create the new empty file and open it. Like your approach it will fail if a directory needs to be created in the process.

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