As a (former) Ubuntu user, I was used to executing commands like
nautilus path/to/folder
or
pcmanfm path/to/folder
depending on the file-explorer app installed on my system.
This led to the result that the file-explorer was opened up in the directory of interest, which I called here for exemplary reasons path/to/folder.
Up until now, I could not figure out how to do the same on Windows 10 using the git bash (MINGW64) - shell.
Thanks to the comment of @ssbssa,
I found 3 versions that worked for me using /c/Users/username/Downloads/Test_files as test-path:
$ explorer `cygpath -w "C:\Users\username\Downloads\Test_files"`
$ explorer `cygpath -w "/c/Users/username/Downloads/Test_files"`
$ explorer `cygpath -w /c/Users/username/Downloads/Test_files`
It is important to note that by employing quotes ".." the command will be accepted no matter
which directory-separation type is implemented ("/" or "\" depending on your OS).
When leaving the quotes out, it'll work only with the linux-style "/".
What's more, it is essential to wrap the cygpath -w path/to/folder - command into
a pair of back-ticks "", otherwise the entire command will open a default folder in your windows explorer instead of the target folder.
This is by the way (one of) the default fall-back behavior in case something goes wrong, as far as I've experienced it.
To be honest, I would love to know a way of doing the same thing just with a command like
$ explorer /c/Users/username/Downloads/Test_files
since otherwise it seems a bit unpractical to type this cygpath -w .. - wrapper around the command.
If you know a simplification of that, or an easier approach altogether, kindly let me know.
EDIT - Solution found thanks to @ssbssa's comment:
One can set a new bash-function in the bash shell via
explore() { explorer `cygpath -w $1`; }
Then, open the Windows Explorer in the folder of interest via
explore path/to/folder
In case you want the current directory to be opened, you can use
explorer "$(cygpath -w $(realpath .))"
