How to Open a Project in IntelliJ IDEA from the Command Line: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Open a Project in IntelliJ IDEA from the Command Line

IntelliJ IDEA is a popular and powerful Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Java development. You may have a project folder that you want to open in IntelliJ IDEA. In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps for opening a project in IntelliJ IDEA from the command line.

Configure IntelliJ IDEA for Command Line Use

Before we can open a project in IntelliJ IDEA from the command line, we need to make sure that it is properly configured. Here are the steps:

1. Open IntelliJ IDEA and go to Tools > Create Command-line Launcher.
2. Select the installation path and click OK.
3. Make sure that the launcher is added to your system PATH variable. You can do this by opening a terminal or command prompt and typing:

   which idea

   If the output is the path to the IntelliJ IDEA launcher, then you're good to go!

Open a Project in IntelliJ IDEA from the Command Line

1. Open your terminal or command prompt.
2. Navigate to the project directory using the command line. For example:

   cd /path/to/your/project/folder

3. Run the following command to open the project in IntelliJ IDEA:

   idea .

4. If everything is set up correctly, IntelliJ IDEA should open the project!

Opening a project in IntelliJ IDEA from the command line can be a quick and efficient way to start using the IDE with your existing project. It can also be useful in scripts and automated tasks.

Happy coding!