Command Line Pipes and Opening Files

[hailholyghost]

Hi all,

I've been using Ubuntu for about 4 years now and have usually managed to avoid the command line. I've been spoiled by the GUI!

One of the first issues I've had with the CLI is that I have to remember how to open a file by the program to open it with. If it's a flash video, its not much of an issue (just % vlc video.flv) but what if I don't know or remember how to open it?

I tried "% open file" and "% openvt file" but that didn't work at all haha.

I'm a grad student in chemistry and am using AMBER m.d. which requires extensive use of the CLI, so I'm trying to become more fluent.
I've tried to learn pipes, and tried a very basic

% pwd | nautilus

to try to open a file browser in the current directory. The command "nautilus" unfortunately doesn't have a manual page! But it is usually worked

% nautilus /your/directory/here

so I figured piping the output from "pwd" to "nautilus" would open a file browser of the directory I was currently in. Alas it just opened the home directory! I figured there was something basic I was missing so I asked the resident Ubuntu Guru and he was just as mystified.

Would anyone be able offer any pointers?

Thanks so much!
-Dave

[RiceMonster]

try this:

nautilus `pwd`

If you use back ticks, it will use the output of the command within the back ticks. Not all programs will accept data through pipes.

[Telengard C64]

% pwd | nautilus

That just redirects standard output of the pwd command to standard input of nautilus. AFAIK Nautilus does not use standard input, but accepts command line arguments. You may obtain the result I think you are seeking with something like this:

nautilus "$PWD"

or

nautilus "$( pwd )"

[TheForumTroll]

nautilus .

[tgalati4]

ls -la | more
dmesg | more
cd && cat .profile
history | more

[nmaster]

I tried "% open file" and "% openvt file" but that didn't work at all haha.

open works in OS X. in ubuntu use gnome-open.

gnome-open file