Emacs: Open File Path Under Cursor 🚀

Alt+x find-file-at-point. It'll open the file path under cursor. (also works for URL).

This is very useful in shell output or in HTML file.

If the path under cursor is URL, it'll launch browser.

One thing annoying is that it'll prompt to confirm.

The following command will open the file path under cursor without confirmation.

(defvar xah-open-file-at-cursor-pre-hook nil "Hook for `xah-open-file-at-cursor'.
Functions in the hook is called in order, each given the raw input text (path) as arg.
The first return non-nil, its value is given to `xah-open-file-at-cursor' as input. rest functions in hook is ignored.
This is useful for transforming certain url into file path. e.g. change
http://xahlee.info/emacs/index.html
to
C:/Users/xah/web/xahlee_info/emacs/index.html
, so instead of opening in browser, it opens in emacs as file.")

(defun xah-open-file-at-cursor ()
  "Open the file path under cursor.

• If there is selection, use it for path.
• Path can be {relative, full path, URL}.
• If the path starts with 「https*://」, open the URL in browser.
• Path may have a trailing 「:‹n›」 that indicates line number, or 「:‹n›:‹m›」 with line and column number. If so, jump to that line number.

If path does not have a file extension, automatically try with .el for elisp files.

See also `xah-open-file-at-cursor-pre-hook'.

This command is similar to `find-file-at-point' but without prompting for confirmation.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_open_file_path_fast.html'
Created: 2020-10-17
Version: 2024-05-20"
  (interactive)
  (let (xinput xinput2 xpath)
    (setq xinput (if (region-active-p)
                     (buffer-substring-no-properties (region-beginning) (region-end))
                   (let ((xp0 (point)) xp1 xp2
                         (xpathStops "^  \t\n\"`'‘’“”|()[]{}「」<>〔〕〈〉《》【】〖〗«»‹›❮❯❬❭〘〙·。\\"))
                     (skip-chars-backward xpathStops)
                     (setq xp1 (point))
                     (goto-char xp0)
                     (skip-chars-forward xpathStops)
                     (setq xp2 (point))
                     (goto-char xp0)
                     (buffer-substring-no-properties xp1 xp2))))
    (setq xinput2 (if (> (length xah-open-file-at-cursor-pre-hook) 0)
                      (let ((xprehook (run-hook-with-args-until-success 'xah-open-file-at-cursor-pre-hook xinput)))
                        (if xprehook xprehook xinput))
                    xinput))

    (setq xpath
          (cond
           ((string-match "^file:///[A-Za-z]:/" xinput2) (substring xinput2 8))
           ((string-match "^file://[A-Za-z]:/" xinput2) (substring xinput2 7))
           (t xinput2)))

    (if (string-match-p "\\`https?://" xpath)
        (browse-url xpath)
      (let ((xpathNoQ
             (let ((xHasQuery (string-match "\?[a-z]+=" xpath)))
               (if xHasQuery
                   (substring xpath 0 xHasQuery)
                 xpath))))
        (cond
         ((string-match "#" xpathNoQ)
          (let ((xfpath (substring xpathNoQ 0 (match-beginning 0)))
                (xfractPart (substring xpathNoQ (1+ (match-beginning 0)))))
            (if (file-exists-p xfpath)
                (progn
                  (find-file xfpath)
                  (goto-char (point-min))
                  (search-forward xfractPart))
              (progn
                (message "File does not exist. Created at\n%s" xfpath)
                (find-file xfpath)))))
         ((string-match "^\\`\\(.+?\\):\\([0-9]+\\)\\(:[0-9]+\\)?\\'" xpathNoQ)
          (let ((xfpath (match-string-no-properties 1 xpathNoQ))
                (xlineNum (string-to-number (match-string-no-properties 2 xpathNoQ))))
            (if (file-exists-p xfpath)
                (progn
                  (find-file xfpath)
                  (goto-char (point-min))
                  (forward-line (1- xlineNum)))
              (progn
                (message "File does not exist. Created at\n%s" xfpath)
                (find-file xfpath)))))
         ((file-exists-p xpathNoQ)
          (progn ; open f.ts instead of f.js
            (let ((xext (file-name-extension xpathNoQ))
                  (xfnamecore (file-name-sans-extension xpathNoQ)))
              (if (and (string-equal xext "js")
                       (file-exists-p (concat xfnamecore ".ts")))
                  (progn
                    (find-file (concat xfnamecore ".ts"))
                    (warn "Typescript file .ts exist, opening it"))

                (find-file xpathNoQ)))))
         ((file-exists-p (concat xpathNoQ ".el"))
          (find-file (concat xpathNoQ ".el")))
         (t (progn
              (message "File does not exist. Created at\n%s" xpathNoQ)
              (find-file xpathNoQ))))))))

Be sure to give it a easy key. [see Emacs Keys: Define Key]