open-file-manager

Cross-platform utility to open a file or directory in the system's default file manager (Finder, Explorer, Nautilus, etc.)

Please consider following this project's author, Jon Schlinkert, and consider starring the project to show your :heart: and support.

Install

Install with npm:

$ npm install --save open-file-manager

Usage

import { openFileManager } from "open-file-manager";
// or
import openFileManager from "open-file-manager";

API

openFileManager

Opens a file or directory in the system's default file manager.

export const openFileManager = async (dirname?: string): Promise<void>;

Basic usage:

// Open current directory
await openFileManager();

// Open specific directory
await openFileManager("/home/user/documents");

// Open file location (selects the file in the file manager)
await openFileManager("./package.json");

Parameters:

pathname (optional)

• Type: string
• Default: '.' (current directory)
• Path to the file or directory to open. Can be absolute or relative.

Returns:

• Type: Promise<void>
• Resolves when the file manager opens successfully
• Throws an error if the operation fails

Platform behavior:

• Windows: Uses explorer.exe. When opening a file, it selects the file in Explorer.
• macOS: Uses open -R to reveal the item in Finder.
• Linux/Unix: Tries multiple file managers in order: xdg-open, nautilus, dolphin, thunar, pcmanfm, nemo.

Error handling:

try {
  await openFileManager("/path/to/file");
} catch (error) {
  console.error("Failed to open file manager:", error.message);
}

CLI

# Open current directory
open-file-manager

# Open specific directory
open-file-manager /home/user/documents

# Open file location
open-file-manager ./package.json

# Show help
open-file-manager --help

# Show version
open-file-manager --version

Examples

Open a project's dist folder

import { openFileManager } from "open-file-manager";

await openFileManager("./dist");

Open a file's location

// This will open the file manager and select/highlight the file
await openFileManager("./README.md");

Use in npm scripts

{
  "scripts": {
    "open:dist": "open-file-manager ./dist",
    "open:current": "open-file-manager"
  }
}

Cross-platform usage

import { openFileManager } from "open-file-manager";
import path from "node:path";

// Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
await openFileManager('/path/to/dir');

Notes

• All paths are resolved relative to the current working directory
• The function is async and returns a Promise
• On Windows, if a file doesn't exist, it will open the parent directory instead
• On Linux, the function will try multiple file managers and use the first one available
• Supports FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and SunOS in addition to major platforms

About

$ npm install && npm test

$ npm install -g verbose/verb#dev verb-generate-readme && verb

Author

Jon Schlinkert

• GitHub Profile
• Twitter Profile
• LinkedIn Profile

License

Copyright © 2025, Jon Schlinkert. Released under the MIT License.

This file was generated by verb-generate-readme, v0.8.0, on May 25, 2025.