How can I open a Terminal window directly from my current Finder location?

Question

I was wondering if there was any was I could right click inside any instance of a "Finder" window such that I have an option that says "Open Terminal Here". It would be really helpful.

There are many answers to a similar question on Stack Overflow. — Rob Kennedy, Apr 4 '11 at 3:22

Mostafiz Rahman · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-27 13:24:14Z

137

As of Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Terminal provides Services for opening a new terminal window or tab at the selected folder in Finder. They also work with absolute pathnames selected in text (in any application). You can enable these services with System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services. Look for "New Terminal at Folder" and "New Terminal Tab at Folder". You can also assign them shortcut keys.

In addition, you can now drag folders (and pathnames) onto the Terminal application icon to open a new terminal window, or onto a tab bar in a terminal window to create a new tab in that window. If you drag onto a tab (rather than into the terminal view) it will execute a complete cd command to switch to that directory without any additional typing.

As of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, Command-Dragging into a terminal will also execute a complete cd command.

Note: The New Terminal at Folder service will become active when you select a folder in Finder. You cannot simply have the folder open and run the service "in place". Go back to the parent folder, select the relevant folder, then activate the service via the Services menu or context menu.

edited Aug 27 at 13:24

Mostafiz Rahman

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answered Aug 7 '11 at 12:49

Chris Page

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2

"In addition, you can now drag folders (and pathnames) onto the Terminal application icon to open a new terminal window," - are you kidding me? that's AWESOME! :) – phil Sep 8 '13 at 13:29
3

In Mavericks 10.9.4 - shortcuts doesn't work for me. Thanks for Drag and Drop tip :) – amar Jul 22 '14 at 8:36
1

@amar Could you share with us what you did? Also broken for me in 10.10 – OJFord Nov 4 '14 at 14:37
2

@Olive - after I upgrade to Yesomite shortcuts no longer worked for me :( – amar Nov 12 '14 at 7:16
4

One thing I noticed, and this is with El Capitan, is that you have to select the folder in Finder (single-click on the folder that you see inside finder). The way I expected this to work is that it would open a Terminal window in the current folder. In fact, you have to select the folder within the window. – sillygwailo Oct 9 '15 at 13:46

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daviesgeek · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-09 18:07:11Z

19

The solution to your troubles is called Go2Shell and it does exactly what you're describing. You can find it on the App Store and best of all... it's totally free.

Go2Shell

edited Nov 9 '11 at 18:07

daviesgeek

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answered Jul 31 '11 at 8:41

z4mba

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If you want to use iTerm instead with Go2Shell, see this answer to bring up the preferences. Or in short, type open -a Go2Shell --args config to bring up configuration. – Jeromy Anglim Nov 18 '13 at 11:45
@jherran it seems to be ok now – Colas Feb 4 '15 at 15:26
1

The latest version cannot be installed through the app store, but from their website zipzapmac.com/Go2Shell, or by brew cask install go2shell. – fiedl Oct 19 '18 at 11:13
i was able to install the latest version, v1.2.2 from the apple/itunes app store, working perfectly fine – computingfreak Jul 16 at 3:52

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-09 18:04:15Z

15

A different approach: DTerm, which gives you a floating command prompt at the top of the window. This works in many apps, not just Finder.

edited Mar 9 '17 at 18:04

Community♦

1

answered Jul 31 '11 at 8:37

jtbandes

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url is broken and the whole project unfortunately seems to be dead. – jendas Nov 6 at 21:27

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jbtule · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-17 17:53:34Z

14

cdto seems like it is just what you need. It is a mini-application, designed to be put in the Finder's toolbar, when you run it it will open a terminal window and cd to the current directory in Finder.

edited Nov 17 '13 at 17:53

jbtule

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answered Apr 4 '11 at 2:35

Mark Szymanski

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:45:19Z

For those using iTerm, the AppleScript syntax has change in iTerm version 3. Here's the full procedure to follow to create a shortcut in the Finder.

Launch Automator.
Select "Application" :

Choose "run Applescript" :

Paste the code below:

-- get the current directory in Finder
on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Finder"
        set _cwd to quoted form of (POSIX path of (folder of the front window as alias))
    end tell
    CD_to(_cwd)
end run

-- change directory in iTerm (version >= 3)
on CD_to(_cwd)
    tell application "iTerm"
        activate

        try
            set _window to first window
        on error
            set _window to (create window with profile "Default")
        end try

        tell _window
            tell current session
                write text "cd " & _cwd & ";clear;"
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end CD_to

Click "File" -> "Export" to export as an .app, save it in /Applications.
Move the application to the Finder icons bar while holding ⌘ :

Done !

You can change the icon in the Finder by following the instructions here (change the icon of the application you created with Automator).

Lri · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-18 07:46:34Z

I mostly use this function:

cf() {
  cd "$(osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)')"
}

You could also assign a shortcut to a script like the ones below.

Reuse an existing tab or create a new window (Terminal):

tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)
tell application "Terminal"
    if (exists window 1) and not busy of window 1 then
        do script "cd " & quoted form of p in window 1
    else
        do script "cd " & quoted form of p
    end if
    activate
end tell

Reuse an existing tab or create a new tab (Terminal):

tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)
tell application "Terminal"
    if not (exists window 1) then reopen
    activate
    if busy of window 1 then
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using command down
    end if
    do script "cd " & quoted form of p in window 1
end tell

Always create a new tab (iTerm 2):

tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)
tell application "iTerm"
    if exists current terminal then
        current terminal
    else
        make new terminal
    end if
    tell (launch session "Default") of result to write text "cd " & quoted form of p
    activate
end tell

The first two scripts have a few advantages compared to the services added in 10.7:

As of 10.9, there is a bug where services that receive folders as input are never listed in the services menu in column view. If you assign the New Terminal Tab at Folder service a keyboard shortcut, it doesn't work in column view.
They use the folder on the title bar instead of requiring you to select a folder first.
They reuse the frontmost tab if it is not busy, e.g. running a command, displaying a man page, or running emacs.

If you use 10.7 or 10.8, change tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias) to:

tell application "Finder"
    if exists Finder window 1 then
        set p to POSIX path of (target of Finder window 1 as alias)
    else
        set p to POSIX path of (path to desktop)
    end if
end tell

There is a bug in 10.7 and 10.8 (but not in 10.9 or 10.6) where Finder ignores windows created after the last time focus was moved to another application and back when getting the insertion location property.

Jeroen Leenarts · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-04 13:44:32Z

4

You can do this with the service feature.

The following site contains an example of such a service: http://blog.leenarts.net/2009/09/03/open-service-here/

answered Apr 4 '11 at 13:44

Jeroen Leenarts

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roosto · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-07 17:57:38Z

You can drag any file or folder from the finder onto a Terminal window to insert a string of said file or folder's absolute path.

This will work on any standard install (at least back until 10.4 Tiger [¿maybe earlier?]) without needing additional software our twiddling of preferences, either of which may later freak out your non-techy friend if it happens to be his/her Mac that you’re working on. This trick also works for any process that is running in the Terminal, e.g. emacs or vi (assuming you’ve got vi in the appropriate mode, or however it is that you people who use vi do).

nmadhok · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-07 08:33:37Z

3

Try this: https://github.com/nmadhok/OpenInTerminal

It works with the Finder's sidebar items, multiple folder/file selections and anything you could think of. Really easy to use!

answered Feb 7 '14 at 8:33

nmadhok

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It works well with high sierra! – Ivelin Oct 23 '17 at 16:06

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Graham Perrin · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-31 08:23:48Z

2

ShellHere

http://etresoft.org/shellhere.html — Etresoft and John Daniel

… right click inside any instance of a "Finder" window …

I don't know whether it can be reached through a contextual menu, but I keep ShellHere in the toolbar of Finder.

answered Jul 31 '11 at 8:23

Graham Perrin

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The link doesn't work – Ivelin Oct 23 '17 at 16:03

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Graham Perrin · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-31 10:17:40Z

OnMyCommand

http://free.abracode.com/cmworkshop/on_my_command.html — version 2.3 (2011-01-16)

Screenshot etc. at http://www.wuala.com/grahamperrin/public/2011/07/31/d/?mode=gallery

Installed and used by me on Snow Leopard before upgrading to Lion. Too soon for me to say whether version 2.3 is compatible with Lion.

onmyway133 · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-17 07:54:53Z

1

You can the app I developed FinderGo, which is open source and easy to use

edited Mar 17 '17 at 7:54

answered Mar 17 '17 at 6:50

onmyway133

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Phương Lê · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-07 05:32:50Z

1

I use this for years http://openterminal.quentin.paris/
Just right click on anywhere Finder, choose Open Terminal

answered Apr 7 '17 at 5:32

Phương Lê

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grg · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-18 08:58:45Z

-1

　　　 OpenTerminal

edited Apr 18 '17 at 8:58

grg♦

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answered Oct 11 '11 at 11:00

ohho

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1

Dead link :(. This is the reason why link only answers have a short life or should be checked regularly to stay alive. – dan Mar 17 '17 at 7:35
@daniel Substituted with archive.org link – grg♦ Apr 18 '17 at 8:59

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