Open Sublime Text from Terminal in macOS

Question

In Terminal when I use .subl

It returns -bash: .subl: command not found

Anyone know how to open Sublime Text 3 from the command line in macOS?

How have you gone with this? I'm having problems with `subl` for ST3 too. I have created the symbolic link in `/usr/local/bin/subl` which points to `/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl`. I've even added `export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH` and `export EDITOR="subl -w"` in my `~/.bash_profile` - yet it still doesn't work and I get the same error. — rs77, May 11 '13 at 07:24
I'm having a strange problem wherein I have to actually open the subl folder to get the command to execute. The following executes:`Angelfirenze$ /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 3.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl ; exit; logout Saving session... ...copying shared history... ...saving history...truncating history files... ...completed. [Process completed]` And Sublime Text 3 finally opens in a new session. I have Homebrew installed and followed the instructions for that. — Angelfirenze, May 12 '16 at 01:31
If you want to open the file `file.txt` with Sublime Text from the command line, the command `open -a "Sublime Text" file.txt` may be better suited. — mareoraft, Dec 29 '16 at 22:37
After modifying `.bash_profile` make sure to close Terminal and re-open it. This is the only thing that really help me here. I wanna make sure that nobody was stuck on this obvious step but really important ^^ — SHANNAX, Dec 06 '20 at 10:42

score 774 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 27 '21 at 07:05

774

I finally got this to work on my OSX box. I used these steps to get it to work:

Test subl from your ST installation:

First, navigate to a small folder in Terminal that you want ST to open and enter the following command:
```
 /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl .
```
NOTE: You may need to replace Sublime\ Text.app in the command above to Sublime\ Text\ 3.app or Sublime\ Text\ 2.app depending upon where the application is stored in your Applications directory. The . at the end of the above command opens the current working directory you are located in (again make sure you're in a directory that only contains a few files!).

If you DO NOT get Sublime Text opening your current working directory then the next set of steps will NOT work. If nothing happens or you get an error from Terminal it will be because it couldn't find the Sublime Text application. This would mean that you would have to check what you've typed (spelling, etc.) OR that Sublime Text isn't installed!
Check ".bash_profile":

Now it's time to create your symbolic link in your PATH folder, BUT, before we do, let's check your profile file by using nano ~/.bash_profile. These are the following lines that pertain to having subl work on the command line for Sublime Text:
```
 export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
 export EDITOR='subl -w'
```
The first line sets the location where you want Terminal to look for binaries on your machine, I'm going to store my symbolic link in the /usr/local/bin directory - I guess you could store it anywhere provided you've notified Terminal where to look for binaries.

The second line is OPTIONAL and just sets Sublime Text as the default editor. The flag -w has been added and you can find out more about flags by going to the Sublime Text docs: ST4 subl, ST3 subl or ST2 subl

If you do make any edits to this file once you have closed it, you need to run the command:
```
 source ~/.bash_profile 
```
to compile your newly applied edits. If you see any errors after sourcing your file get them fixed before moving to the final step.
Create a symbolic link to Sublime Text:

Now in your chosen path (I used /usr/local/bin) you now enter the following command:
```
 ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl
```
The /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl being EXACTLY the same location as what you entered and verified as working in STEP 1 above. The /usr/local/bin/subl being the location of where you want the symbolic link to be located - needs to be one of your PATH locations from STEP 2 above.

Now when you navigate to a folder or file that you want to open in Sublime Text you now just enter subl followed by the name of the file or . to open the current working directory.

edited Oct 27 '21 at 07:05

AndreM96

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answered May 11 '13 at 08:21

rs77

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I had a problem with ST3 where when I first typed in `subl .` I would get a Sublime editor called `untitled` and it didn't reference any files in the directory I was in. Doing `export EDITOR='subl -w'` to my `.bash_profile` fixed this. – Richard Ortega Aug 08 '13 at 22:58
6

This worked for me but I had to remove the symlink to the old subl file first. – Giles Butler Sep 30 '13 at 08:33
4

this worked beautifully until the last step. I'm getting `ln: /usr/subl: Permission denied` Thoughts? – stevenspiel Nov 09 '13 at 14:39
3

I think I found the answer here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10196449/installing-sublime-texts-command-line-tool-subl-in-terminal-permission-denie – stevenspiel Nov 09 '13 at 14:40
Thx Michael Keenan, worked great with Sublime Text 3 on Mavericks! – Roy Calderon May 10 '14 at 18:52
Worked on Sublime 3 running on Lion (10.7.3) :) – Bruno Koga May 24 '14 at 16:10
4

As @mr.musicman found, you may need to use `sudo` in front of the command in step 3. – Sarah Lewis Oct 16 '14 at 17:11
If you get `/usr/local/bin/subl: No such file or directory` run `mkdir /usr/local/bin`. Your machine is telling you that the `/usr/local/bin` folder does not exist, so you can't write to it. – A F Oct 20 '14 at 20:47
Worked on Sublime 2 (with variations as per your note, and using sudo before the command as Sarah points out) on Snow Leopard. Thanks! – Reb Jan 22 '15 at 09:30
1

One thing that I ran into was I needed to create a bash profile (with: touch ~/.bash_profile). I also did not have a usr/local/bin so I choose usr/local/sbin as the directory (which is the same as bin but requires sudo privileges). If you have permission errors, you should run the command 'sudo' first. – Jul 08 '15 at 18:20
The big step for me here was the PATH setup. I think my path was off, and that was keeping my symlink from working. – pjlamb12 Mar 31 '16 at 17:14
Worked for me on two separate macs. I appreciate the well written explanation. – Michael Conlin Aug 24 '16 at 16:04
1

Maybe not everyone knows this - but if you set up the subl link for sublime text 2 (as I did) you either need to remove the existing symbolic link (if you're a mac user like me you know enough to be dangerous but not it all)( – MageeWorld Aug 30 '16 at 01:07
the only thing that worked after following the instructions, super thorough! Better than the blogpost or the git post I had to waste time on before landing here – Robert Sinclair Sep 06 '16 at 00:16
Here is a useful video it will solve your problem to adding sublime with cmd or git bash [Open sublime with git or CMD](https://youtu.be/Co9-jPuNvR8) – Code Cooker May 19 '17 at 13:49
TLDR: `subl` is in `/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl`. – flow2k Oct 12 '17 at 00:58
I can see "sub" here: /Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin I also can see both "sublime" and "subl" here: /usr/local/bin/ However, it cannot work at all! What could go wrong here? – Reihan_amn Apr 18 '18 at 22:25
Now working! I removed the symbolic path once using rm -f /usr/local/bin/subl and created it again by your comment. Now it is working! – Reihan_amn Apr 18 '18 at 22:32
Just curious - what's the benefit of doing all the sym linking rather than just throwing a function in your .zshrc or .bashrc? For example, `╰─➤ show-function subl subl () { /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl $1 }` – jlarks32 Jul 25 '23 at 12:49

score 487 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 22 '19 at 20:15

487

For MAC 10.8+:

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

worked.

edited Nov 22 '19 at 20:15

the Tin Man

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answered Sep 17 '13 at 06:45

Ganatra

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I had to use the home directory, ~, instead of /usr/bin, to make this work for me ... "sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl ~/bin/subl" – Ben Haley Feb 20 '14 at 19:57
This is working but it's not opening the same folded where I ran Subl – Jitendra Vyas Sep 25 '14 at 15:07
2

For sublime2 `sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/bin/subl` – Montaro May 20 '15 at 23:08
Worked on OS X 10.10.4 – Kuchi Jul 31 '15 at 14:47
@Tinple I am sorry I haven't tried it on 10.11, I guess the same thing should work – Ganatra Oct 28 '15 at 18:33
68

@Tinple This works in 10.11 `sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl ` See the answer here for why - http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/196224/unix-ln-s-command-not-permitted-in-osx-el-capitan-beta3 – Ross Nov 12 '15 at 21:05
1

I'm new to Mac and I tried for quite sometime to make it work. Let me tell the reason why other straight forward answers didnt work. While installing Sublime Text for the first time , remember it will ask "Just for you or everyone" , so it is installed in the Applications folder found in your ROOT. Even though it will show under your Applications. Hence this SUDO (Super user Do , played a vital role). First thing Im learning UNIX/LINUX whatever. Wanted to share this learning. – Vinodh Thiagarajan Apr 28 '16 at 00:48
1

Worked on OSX 10.11.4 – Telvin Nguyen Jun 02 '16 at 16:35
1

it is not fixing for me. I have this set up. ~ > source ~/.bash_profile ~ > echo $EDITOR subl -w ~ > subl . ~ > which subl /Users/vishlpa4/bin/subl ~ > ls -al ~/bin/subl lrwxr-xr-x 1 root staff 62 Oct 8 18:22 /Users/vishlpa4/bin/subl -> /Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl...but still sublime pops up with untitled file when I do "sublime filename". – explorer Oct 17 '17 at 20:58
1

In 2018 Only Ross's comment works, @Ross Please add your comment as answer it will definitely help others. – Neeraj Jain Aug 27 '18 at 08:45
1

2021 update : I'm using Big Sur 11.1, worked perfectly – Abhijeet Khangarot Jan 09 '21 at 12:09
1

Didn’t work for me and failed with below lines: ln: /usr/local/bin/subl: No such file or directory Please suggest – Jyoti Duhan May 15 '21 at 04:23
1

Worked on 11.6. – Vyshak Oct 14 '21 at 04:29
4

2022 update: works fantastic on macOS Monterey 12.2.1 - thank you! – Ermiya Eskandary Mar 14 '22 at 16:48
1

export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/code:/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" – Anver Sadhat Apr 29 '22 at 16:35
1

Worked on Monterey 12.3 thank you – Sara Inés Calderón Aug 18 '22 at 16:22
1

Still working perfectly on MacOS 12.6 (21G115). – JayRizzo Oct 18 '22 at 05:59
This worked on macOS Ventura 13.14.1 `sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ $4143$.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl` – amarVashishth Aug 02 '23 at 14:51

score 213 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 22 '19 at 20:18

213

Assuming:

You have already installed Homebrew.
/usr/local/bin is in your $PATH.
You are on Yosemite or El Capitain.

MacOS Sierra 10.12.5 works as well confirmed by David Rawson and MacOS Sierra 10.12.6 confirmed by Alexander K.

Run the following script in Terminal to create the specific symlink.

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

Then:

subl .

Hit Return and it should instantly open Sublime Text.

edited Nov 22 '19 at 20:18

the Tin Man

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answered Aug 02 '15 at 11:08

Chutipong Roobklom

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@ChutipongRoobklom Thanks. It worked for me on `macOS Sierra Version: 10.12 (16A323)`. – Subhajit Oct 13 '16 at 08:24
Working on macOS Sierra 10.12.5. Thanks – David Rawson Jun 20 '17 at 02:57
4

Can confirm that works on macOS Sierra 10.12.6 as well. Thank you! – Alexander Kucheryuk Jul 30 '17 at 11:18
my sublime text path was different I guess it because I am using sublime 2 ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl – talsibony Aug 04 '17 at 17:34
3

Works on High Sierra OSX 10.13.3 – chichilatte Mar 27 '18 at 10:15
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it gives me this: ln: /usr/local/bin/subl: File exists What do I need to do? – Reihan_amn Apr 18 '18 at 22:11
This works for me but it opens sublime as a "device", and my mac seems to think its different than opening sublime via the icon because i can get 2 sublimes on my dock. Why do I see sublime appear as an ejectable device when i open it with the command line after adding this to bash_profile?? – stackPusher Dec 26 '18 at 17:41
Works for me! :) – Kent Aguilar Nov 17 '19 at 02:52
2

@Reihan_amn - late reply and I think you solved it already, but just as a reference. There seems to be an existing link associated to that name. You can use rm /usr/local/bin/subl then you can perform executing the symbolic link – Kent Aguilar Nov 17 '19 at 02:55
1

Works on Catalina 10.15 – RustyShackleford Feb 29 '20 at 23:24
1

Awesome!I can confirm that it still works on Catalina 10.15.4 – skiabox Apr 13 '20 at 20:10
Works on Big Sur 11.4. Thanks – Olivier JM Jul 16 '21 at 09:02
works on Monterey beta – Sam Woolf Sep 27 '21 at 07:49

score 90 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 17 '16 at 10:56

90

I'm using oh-my-zsh on Mac OSX Mavericks and the symbol link didn't work for me, so I added an alias in my .zshrc file instead:

alias subl="/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl"

Open a new terminal and you should be good to go, and type subl.

edited Jul 17 '16 at 10:56

Idan

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answered Oct 24 '13 at 03:24

Thomas Bindzus

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Same here, but for Bash. – merqlove Nov 23 '13 at 01:13
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Same here, this worked for me, but I needed to change it to Sublime text 2 with this string: "Sublime\ Text\ 2.app/" – Joshua Soileau Jul 12 '14 at 18:53
This is for ST 2 i guess. ST 3 comes with CLI but i can't run it yet. – atilkan Mar 10 '15 at 19:53
@emrah I am using ST3 – Thomas Bindzus Oct 14 '15 at 06:51
@ThomasBindzus I figured out later. Thanks. – atilkan Oct 15 '15 at 15:22
All you had to do is uncoment the export PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH in .zshrc and then source ~/.zshrc – talsibony Aug 04 '17 at 17:36
Everyone should be using oh-my-zsh anyways, so upvoted for visibility! – Danodemo Feb 05 '20 at 19:20

Roger Sobrado · Answer 5 · 2017-08-26T01:48:24.133

70

This worked for me (I'm using OS X Mavericks)

First, create a symbolic link:

sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/bin/subl

Now you can open sublime with

subl "/a/path/to/the/directory/you/want/to/open"

edited Aug 26 '17 at 01:48

answered Sep 06 '13 at 22:06

Roger Sobrado

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I had to sudo rm /usr/bin/subl to make it work on OSX 10.9, thanks! – dnlcrl Nov 06 '13 at 10:33
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ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl – organillero Nov 18 '16 at 21:06
why do we need quotes? it works with quotes for me, but does not work without them? – vgrinko Dec 04 '16 at 22:29
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ln: /usr/bin/subl: Operation not permitted – Ken Ratanachai S. Dec 08 '16 at 01:34
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@KenRatanachaiS. Use `/usr/local/bin/subl`, instead of `/usr/bin/subl`. – Josh Foskett Dec 23 '16 at 19:58

score 64 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 20 '18 at 07:11

64

The one I will use is very simple.

open -a "sublime text" [file]

this opens up the sublime text right away. You can specify the file to open as an optional parameter, e.g. to open "myfile.txt" in the current directory.

edited Jun 20 '18 at 07:11

Adam

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answered Jan 30 '14 at 01:51

user1

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If you faster access you can create an alias. Type nano .bash_profile and paste in: alias subl="open -a 'sublime text'" – mbokil Jul 21 '15 at 19:42
1

Thank you! It's the only solution that worked for me. To make it open in a new tab in the existing window (not in a new one), see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9961350/in-sublime-text-2-how-do-i-open-new-files-in-a-new-tab – Dennis Golomazov Jan 21 '16 at 23:09
I think this is the cleanest option of all. Thanks! – grooveplex Apr 21 '19 at 10:59
1

How do you modify this so that it will create a file that doesn't actually exist? I know how to use open -a sublimetext to open a file that exists, but if i'm creating a new textfile, what should i modify the open script to? – esaruoho Sep 27 '19 at 09:44
I don't understand why we have to create symbolic links n all when this solution is SO MUCH better – arunwithasmile Sep 18 '20 at 08:05

score 57 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 09:33

57

You can create a new alias in Terminal:

nano ~/.bash_profile

Copy this line and paste it into the editor:

alias subl='open -a "Sublime Text"'

Hit control + x, then y, then enter to save and close it.

Close all Terminal windows and open it up again.

That's it, you can now use subl filename or subl .

Update for zsh:

Default shell was changed to zsh since macOS 10.15 Catalina.

nano ~/.zshrc

The rest of the steps remain the same.

edited Oct 07 '21 at 09:33

Yun

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answered Apr 07 '17 at 19:14

Stickers

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Didn’t work for me with zsh: command not found: subl – Jyoti Duhan May 15 '21 at 04:21
10

This is the most straightforward way to do this. – Victor Valente Sep 03 '21 at 15:14
@JyotiDuhan zsh was added above. – Stickers Oct 29 '21 at 18:13
I think there are ways around this, but as given, this solution will fail when an argument feed to the _subl_ alias is a non-existent file. I fount it more reliable to just extend PATH to include the sublime /path dir as suggested by @Artemiy – meyerson Dec 10 '21 at 21:07
1

Or: `alias subl="/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl $*"` – Mihai Jan 18 '22 at 07:49
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after adding alias into ~/.bash_profile, do `source ~/.bash_profile` – Deepak Garg Mar 02 '22 at 14:35
After adding the alias in your ~/.bash_profile you can hit esc --> :wq! to force save the changes in MacOS as well if you are in vi mode. Then do source ~/.bash_profile to refresh the environment variables to sync the changes made without having to close and reopen your terminal session. – BV45 Jul 23 '22 at 13:20

score 28 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 25 '17 at 02:21

There is a easy way to do this. It only takes a couple steps and you don't need to use the command line too much. If you new to the command line this is the way to do it.

Step 1 : Finding the bin file to put the subl executable file in

Open up the terminal
type in cd .. ---------------------this should go back a directory
type in ls ------------------------to see a list of files in the directory
type in cd .. ---------------------until you get a folder that contains usr
type in open usr ---------------this should open the finder and you should see some folders
open up the bin folder -------this is where you will copy your sublime executable file.

Step 2: Finding the executable file

open up the finder
Under file open up a new finder window (CMD + N)
Navigate to applications folder
find Sublime Text and right click so you get a pulldown menu
Click on Show Package Content
Open up Content/SharedSupport/bin
Copy the subl file
Paste it in the bin folder in the usr folder we found earlier
In the terminal type in subl --------------this should open Sublime Text

Make sure that it gets copied and it's not a shortcut. If you do have a problem, view the usr/bin folder as icons and paste the subl in a empty area in the folder. It should not have a shortcut arrow in the icon image.

After trying the other answers, this one was the only one to work for me. Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.1. — tmthyjames, Jun 03 '15 at 02:33
This did not work for me on Mac OS X El Capitan -- I was unable to copy to file over. Chutipong Roobklom's answer did work, however. — CodeBiker, Apr 29 '16 at 21:14
As of El Capitan's and up, you need to paste the subl file in the /usr/local/bin folder. So follow step 2 to point 6, open it in the terminal and execute the command sudo cp subl /usr/local/bin. This is because of the new System Integrity Protection feature. — PeeJee, Dec 19 '19 at 18:59

score 21 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 29 '17 at 20:33

21

Try this.

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

answered Aug 29 '17 at 20:33

takasoft

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^ Use this one. Soft-links into /usr/*local*/bin. – guice Apr 16 '18 at 18:11

Md Mazedul Islam Khan · Answer 10 · 2016-09-14T17:09:31.353

The Symlink command from the Sublime Text 3 documentation won't work as there is no ~/bin/ directory in Home location on Mac OS X El Capitan or later.

So, we'll need to place the symlink on the /usr/local/bin as this path would be in our $PATH variable in most cases.

So, the following command should do the trick:

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

Once you create the symlink correctly, you would be able to run the Sublime Text 3 like this: subl . (. means the current directory)

score 16 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 28 '22 at 15:42

Just follow the Sublime Documentation

Bash

echo 'export PATH="/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

ZSH

echo 'export PATH="/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile

Linux

sudo ln -s /opt/sublime_text/sublime_text /usr/local/bin/subl

Make sure you close the terminal after run the command.

Usage

To see the available flags, run subl --help.

score 12 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 09 '14 at 09:56

Please note not to write into /usr/bin but instead into /usr/local/bin. The first one is for app that write themselves the binary into the system and the latest is for that specific usage of making our own system-wide binaries (which is our case here when symlinking).

Also /usr/local/bin is read after /usr/bin and therefore also a good place to override any default app.

Considering this, the right symlinking would be:

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

score 12 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 09 '17 at 08:08

12

Close Sublime. Run this command. It will uninstall it. You won't lose your prefs. Then run it again. It will automatically bind subl.

brew install Caskroom/cask/sublime-text

answered Jan 09 '17 at 08:08

Govind Rai

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This finally did it, thank you so much for posting this! I've been trying to get ST3 to run from the command line for months after the original symlink broke for some reason. Anyway, thank you! – Angelfirenze Jan 31 '17 at 23:17
Thanks, this worked, but just running it twice was not enough, had to remove the existing sublime with `sudo rm -rf` on the sublime directory in the applications folder first. – cardamom Jan 16 '18 at 10:10

score 11 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 28 '20 at 23:10

11

The following worked for me

open -a Sublime\ Text file_name.txt
open -a Sublime\ Text Folder_Path

You can use alias to make it event simple like

Add the following line in your

~/.bash_profile

alias sublime="open -a Sublime\ Text $@"

Then next time you can use following command to open files/folders

sublime file_name.txt
sublime Folder_Path

answered Sep 28 '20 at 23:10

RB7

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And any way for opening several files in the same window? Because each time it opens a new one... (I've already tried [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21023529/how-to-open-files-and-folders-in-same-window-in-sublime-text-on-macos) but without success). Thanks – jgarces Nov 12 '21 at 10:19

score 10 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 09 '14 at 16:41

In OS X Mavericks running Sublime Text 2 the following worked for me.

sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/bin/subl

Its handy to locate the file in the finder and drag and drop that into the terminal window so you can be sure the path is the correct one, I'm not a huge terminal user so this was more comfortable for me. then you can go to the start of the path and start adding in the other parts like the shorthand UNIX commands. Hope this helps

score 10 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 22 '16 at 16:53

10

It works !!!! for me on MacOS Sierra 10.12.2

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

and find it in terminal subl

answered Dec 22 '16 at 16:53

tarikul05

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score 9 · Answer 17 · edited May 17 '18 at 08:52

9

Adding this to ur .bashrc or .zshrc is a simple solution.

alias sublime="open -a /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app"

edited May 17 '18 at 08:52

Vivek Molkar

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answered May 15 '16 at 19:01

Won Jun Bae

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Rahav · Answer 18 · 2022-01-24T12:55:21.150

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Starting with macOS Catalina (ver 10.15) zsh is used. To allow Sublime to run from the command line, edit .zshrc in your home directory (cd with no arguments will get you there) and add the following line:

export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin"

To run Sublime Text from the command line use subl [filename]

edited Jan 24 '22 at 12:55

answered Dec 12 '21 at 18:05

Rahav

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score 7 · Answer 19 · edited Jul 18 '13 at 05:39

7

if you have subl set up to be called from the command line, the proper command to open the current directory is:

subl .

"OS X Command Line" is a link on how to make sure everything is set up.

edited Jul 18 '13 at 05:39

the Tin Man

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answered Apr 24 '13 at 18:33

danmanstx

1,692
2
15
21

It returns `ln: /Users/###/bin/subl: No such file or directory` – user1405049 Apr 26 '13 at 04:05
did you look at the link at the bottom of my answer? try to following command `ln -s "/Applications/Sublime Text 3.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" ~/bin/subl` – danmanstx Apr 29 '13 at 13:51
@danmanstx I've created the symbolic link in my `/usr/local/bin` directory yet it still gives me the error. I note that my ST3 package has been installed at `/Applications/Sublime Text.app/...` and have made the distinction when creating my symbolic link. Yet the error remains - I think it has something to do with my `.bash_profile` file. – rs77 May 11 '13 at 07:28
In my case the link points to ```ln -s /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl ``` – NicolasKittsteiner Sep 15 '16 at 15:05

score 7 · Answer 20 · answered Nov 15 '15 at 06:34

You shouldn't pollute /usr/bin directory unless you really need to. I always use /usr/local/bin for those binaries that aren't managed by the distribution package manager. Why? Because if the package manager gets updated it'll always replace the files in /usr/bin.

So what I'd do is

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

score 7 · Answer 21 · answered Feb 02 '16 at 20:54

7

You can just add an alias

alias subl='/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl'

Then you should be able to open a folder or whatever with

subl <path>

answered Feb 02 '16 at 20:54

zakfisher

71
1
2

score 7 · Answer 22 · answered Jul 22 '21 at 14:50

7

According to Sublime setup documentation

echo 'export PATH="/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile

Works fine.

answered Jul 22 '21 at 14:50

Artemiy

2,702
1
19
13

2

I think this is the simplest solution – meyerson Dec 10 '21 at 21:03

score 5 · Answer 23 · answered Apr 04 '23 at 16:27

This answer is for Mac OS Ventura and Sublime Text 4 (build 4143) specifically, which breaks the usual method of symlinking <APP_PATH>/bin/subl to /usr/local/bin.

A clean and simple solution to this is to use alias-ing. From any relevant files like: ~/.zshrc or ~/.zprofile add:

alias subl="open -a /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/MacOS/sublime_text"

Then, source ~/.zshrc.

The command subl should work.

score 4 · Answer 24 · answered Jul 25 '17 at 04:06

This is to get it working as an ALIAS, not a Symbolic link!

This will allow you to run additional commands in the terminal without interrupting the subl session. Using many of the symbolic link answers here (ln -s), cause the terminal process to endure while using Sublime text. If you want the separation, create an alias in the Bash profile like so:

Test subl from your ST installation:

First, navigate to a folder in Terminal that you want ST to open and enter the following command:
```
/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl .
```
NOTE: You may need to replace Sublime\ Text.app in the command above to Sublime\ Text\ 3.app or Sublime\ Text\ 2.app depending upon where the application is stored in your Applications directory. The . at the end of the above command opens the current working directory you are located in (again make sure you're in a directory that only contains a few files!).

If you DO NOT get Sublime Text opening your current working directory then the next set of steps will NOT work. If nothing happens or you get an error from Terminal it will be because it couldn't find the Sublime Text application. This would mean that you would have to check what you've typed (spelling, etc.) OR that Sublime Text isn't installed!
Check and update ".bash_profile":

Now add the alias in your Bash Profile. Open it via vim ~/.bash_profile. These are the following lines that pertain to having subl work on the command line for Sublime Text:
```
## For Sublime Text 3 alias
alias subl='/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl'
## For Sublime Text global editor preference **Optional
export EDITOR='subl -w'
```
I suggest always commenting your code in here with ##. The second line is OPTIONAL and just sets Sublime Text as the default editor. The flag -w has been added and you can find out more about flags by going to the Sublime Text docs: ST3 subl or ST2 subl

If you do make any edits to this file once you have closed it, you need to source this file in your current session or close the terminal (tab) and open a new one. You can source this file by running the command source ~/.bash_profile Resolve any errors before moving to the final step.

score 3 · Answer 25 · answered Dec 29 '16 at 18:44

3

For anyone looking for opening a file with Sublime on mac from terminal

open 'path/file.txt' -a '/Applications/Sublime Text.app'

answered Dec 29 '16 at 18:44

zeeawan

6,667
2
50
56

score 2 · Answer 26 · answered Jan 20 '14 at 20:26

2

I would add that if you are upgrading from Sublime Text 2, go into /usr/bin and delete your old subl first before following the same instructions above. It's worth the upgrade.

answered Jan 20 '14 at 20:26

Vincent

1,454
2
17
24

score 2 · Answer 27 · answered Aug 25 '15 at 08:17

2

I achieve this with just one line in terminal (with Sublime 3):

alias subl='/usr/local/bin/sublime'

answered Aug 25 '15 at 08:17

Damjan Pavlica

31,277
10
71
76

score 2 · Answer 28 · answered Dec 05 '17 at 11:24

2

I am using mac airbook open your terminal and type

 sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/bin/subl

Then type simple subl and file name

 subl index.py

answered Dec 05 '17 at 11:24

Siddharth Shukla

1,063
15
14

See below, use the one with /usr/*local*/bin. Try not to add custom softlinks into system directories. – guice Apr 16 '18 at 18:12

score 1 · Answer 29 · answered Jul 12 '18 at 09:14

I am using Oh-My-Zshell and the previous aliases stated didn't work for me so I wrote a simple bash function that will allow you to open Sublime from the command line by using sublime to open the current folder in the editor. With the addition functionality to specify a file to open the editor from.

# Open Sublime from current folder or specified folder
sublime(){
  /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl ./$1
}

Usage to open current folder in terminal:

$ sublime

Usage to open specific folder:

$ sublime path/to/the/file/to/open

score 1 · Answer 30 · answered May 12 '19 at 17:43

Summarizing the different ways you can accomplish it:

To open sublime text from terminal

open /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/

To open a specific file in current path (or provide path to the file you need to open) using sublime text

open -a /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/ myFileToOpen.txt

Make your command short by introducing a new alias named 'sublime' and use it

a. open bash_profile:

nano ~/.bash_profile

b. copy this line to create the alias and save and restart terminal

alias sublime="open -a /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app"

c. usage: apple.txt will open with sublime text (provide file path if necessary)

sublime apple.txt

score 0 · Answer 31 · answered Dec 06 '20 at 17:11

Creating the file in the Default path did not work for me as the Menu.sublime-menu file has overridden almost all other menu options and left me with only the custom one.

What worked for me is creating the below file in path ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/User/Main.sublime-menu (note directory User instead of Default):

[
    {
        "caption": "File",
        "mnemonic": "F",
        "id": "file",
        "children":
        [
            {
                "caption": "Open Recent More",
                "children":
                [
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 1 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 2 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 3 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 4 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 5 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 6 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 7 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 8 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 9 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 10 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 11 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 12 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 13 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 14 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 15 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 16 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 17 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 18 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 19 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 20 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 21 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 22 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 23 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 24 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 25 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 26 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 27 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 28 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 29 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 30 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 31 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 32 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 33 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 34 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 35 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 36 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 37 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 38 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 39 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 40 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 41 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 42 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 43 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 44 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 45 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 46 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 47 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 48 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 49 } },
                    { "command": "open_recent_file", "args": {"index": 50 } }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
]

Result:

(needed to blur some parts of the image for security reasons)

score 0 · Answer 32 · answered Feb 20 '22 at 12:10

0

For Sublime 4+ it's even simpler with Bash:

echo 'export PATH="/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

answered Feb 20 '22 at 12:10

Consta Gorgan

549
6
22

score -1 · Answer 33 · answered Feb 26 '16 at 22:10

-1

I'm on a mac and this worked for me:

open /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl

answered Feb 26 '16 at 22:10

user9199553

37
1
4

Open Sublime Text from Terminal in macOS

33 Answers33

Bash

ZSH

Linux

Usage

Result:

Linked

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