How to run xcode from terminal? - xcode

Question

My question is very simple: suppose there is an xcode project a.xcodeproj, could I open it with the command: xcode a.xcodeproj?
If I try this, I receive the following error message:
-bash: xcode: command not found

Answer 1

Xcode should be the default application for .xcodeproj files, so this should work:
$ open a.xcodeproj
If that opens a different application, you can force it to use xcode:
$ open -a Xcode a.xcodeproj
If you want the command xcode to work, you can just alias it:
$ alias xcode="open -a Xcode"
then you can just xcode a.xcodeproj (and add this to ~/.bash_profile)

Answer 2

You could also simply run xed . in the project's root directory, apparently it will try to load a project in a hierarchical manner, i.e. the first that exists:
the folder, if it's a Package (Xcode 11+)
xcworkspace
xcodeproj
playground
which means you don't need to verify yourself the existing file structure in order to choose the best one to open.

Answer 3

Can't remember where I came across this script, but I use this ruby script for finding either a *.xcodeproj or *.xcworkspace file in the working directory and opening that file (without Xcode opening any previous projects)
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# Open xcode without any previous projects being opened as well.
# We first look for a workspace, then a project in the current directory, opening the first that is found.
f = []
f.concat Dir["*.xcworkspace"]
f.concat Dir["*.xcodeproj"]
if f.length > 0
puts "opening #{f.first}"
`open -a /Applications/Xcode.app #{f.first} --args -ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES`
exit 0
end
puts "No Xcode projects found"
exit 1

Answer 4

Following command should do it:
open a.xcodeproj

Answer 5

open terminal, then go to the path where Xcode is installed. Then, go to its "Contents/MacOS". And when you reach this folder, then type - sudo ./Xcode
Or else follow the following code: (you can use "sudo" if the user has privilege issue)
cd /
cd Applications
cd Xcode.app
cd Contents/MacOS
sudo ./Xcode

Answer 6

incase, if you want to open a Xcode project from a workspace use the following command line.
user$ open -a xcode ProjectName.xcworkspace/

Answer 7

I just type open *xcw*. This command looks up a workspace in the current directory and then opens is with Xcode.

Answer 8

I have a few functions in my .zshrc that accomplish what you're looking for:
cap () { tee /tmp/capture.out; }
ret () { cat /tmp/capture.out; }
x () {
# Substitute .xcworkspace with .xcodeproj for your case.
find . -type d -name "*.xcworkspace" -d 1 | cap
xed "$(ret)"
}
Then, from the same directory as your *.xcodeproj, simply execute x, e.g.:
$ x