Open Terminal from Xcode

I love Xcode as an IDE for macOS and iOS development. But it has its own set of limitations. One feature I miss a lot is Opening a Terminal window from the Xcode into the same directory of the project. This will save lots of time.

Every time you want to run a git command or cocoapods or say any xcode build command – Opening a Terminal manually and changing the directory to the project directory takes at the least 30 seconds to a minute. Now what if I say you can do this

Now, What if I say you can open a Terminal window and get to the project directory in 1 second or say with a shortcut key?

YES! One shortcut.

This is how you do it. It’s a one time setup.

1. Create a 2 line shell script and give the file execute permission.
2. Go to Xcode Preferences.
3. Add a Behavior in Xcode. Name it and give a shortcut key.
4. On the right side details pane check the Run option.
5. From the adjacent drop-down menu choose the script you just saved in step 1.

Here’s the video on how to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMeu3xeXZxM

Script:

#!/bin/bash
open -a Terminal "pwd"


Command to give execute permission:

chmod +x /path/to/the/open_terminal.sh

If you are lazy like me here’s the gist, download and use it: https://gist.github.com/itsdamslife/9532d757676b1f3c9b25f3959128367c

Hope this is helpful.

Happy coding

inspiration courtesy: The in-built Terminal of Visual Studio Code by Microsoft

-- Happy Coding :)

Comments

[Ivaylo Kisyov]

Thank you, I have managed to open the terminal but with a small change in the script. Single quotes are not visible in the script posted above. That is why I am attaching a screenshot of the script.

thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i...

[Coder]

Yes. Thanks for the comment.

[Henrique Valcanaia]

Useful for me: to make it open in a new tab if already have a terminal instance running you can go to Dock preferences and set Prefer tabs when opening documents to Always.

[Coder]

Awesome 👏
Thanks for the hack 👍

[Jakub Kracina]

Nice! but the script must be -> open -a Terminal "pwd"

[Bohdan Sasko]

Thank you :) It's very useful article!

[Alexander Susanto]

Its not working. It is showing an error.
Failed to launch script /Users/susanto/Desktop/open_terminal.sh: The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory

[Coder]

Also make sure the script is copied and placed inside a file open_terminal.sh and place it in the "/Users/susanto/Desktop/" folder of your machine.

[Coder]

Hi Alexander

Please check the path to the script file.

You can also refer to the video here youtu.be/MMeu3xeXZxM