# Automatically start browser on localhost:4000 after \`jekyll serve\` **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [August 29, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916 "2020-08-29T15:52:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/1 "2020-08-29T15:52:35Z")
Dear colleagues: I’m starting to use `make` to steer my jekyll work, and find it saves much typing. One specific target is `make serve`. There after `bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload` I want to start the browser on port 4000 when the building is done. So far I do the following: > serve s: > > > (sleep 5; open “[http://localhost:4000/index.html](http://localhost:4000/index.html)”) & > > bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload This allows jekyll to build and enter serve mode, while in the background the browser is started after 5 s. This is not fully satisfactory since the 5 seconds are frequently not enough. Better ideas? PS: For those (like me!) to very fluent in shell speak: the parentheses form a “command group”, allowing the 2-command sequence to be converted to a background job via the ampersand symbol. ---
**Author:** ![chuckhoupt](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/chuckhoupt/32/523_2.png) [@chuckhoupt](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/chuckhoupt)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/2 "2020-08-29T16:55:14Z")
Recent versions of Jekyll have the `-o`/`--open-url` option [_corrected dashes_] that will automatically open a browser window once the site is running. ---
**Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/3 "2020-08-29T18:10:49Z")
> [@chuckhoupt](#): > > `-open-url` Thank you! Great! (Double dash, BTW). Now my make command reads > bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload --open-url [http://localhost:4000/](http://localhost:4000/) Totally solves my problem. I’m sure this option will soon enter the documentation. Thanks, best, Michael ---
**Author:** ![chuckhoupt](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/chuckhoupt/32/523_2.png) [@chuckhoupt](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/chuckhoupt)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/4 "2020-08-29T20:49:49Z")
Ah, you’re right, the option isn’t documented on the site. It does appear in the command-line help (`jekyll help serve`). I’ve sent in a [pull-request to fix the site](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll/pull/8365). The `--open-url` option doesn’t take an argument, so the `http://localhost:4000/` is unnecessary. To set the host and port, there are `--host`/`--port` options. For example, to serve the site on the local net from the computer named “Eddy” on port 8080: ```nohighlight bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload --open-url --host eddy.local --port 8080 # Browser opens to http://eddy.local:8080 ``` ---
**Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/5 "2020-08-29T21:29:33Z")
Thank you again! I was not aware that `jekyll -h` could be augmented with a subcommand! Now I see the many options, also for the other subcommands. And I’ve left off the URL. Interesting: while `--livereload` can be placed into \_config.yml as `livereload: true`, this does not seem to be the case for `--open-url`. This great community is a major asset of jekyll! Best, Michael ---
**Author:** ![brad](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/brad/32/2543_2.png) [@brad](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/brad)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/6 "2020-08-29T21:55:57Z")
I like to use Firefox Developer edition when I’m building stuff but the regular edition when I’m just surfing. I’ve installed the npm package [parallelshell](https://www.npmjs.com/package/parallelshell) globally and have an alias defined with `parallelshell "bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload" "~/.local/share/firefox_dev/firefox 'http://localhost:4000/'"` The only thing to know with this is when you kill the server with Ctrl+C, it closes the browser. ---
**Author:** ![angeliquejw](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/angeliquejw/32/2749_2.png) [@angeliquejw](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/angeliquejw)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/7 "2020-08-30T14:52:21Z")
Whelp, that’s awesome and simple. Thanks for sharing! ---
**Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/8 "2020-08-30T15:46:13Z")
Again a juseful pearl. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![roadiereloaded](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/roadiereloaded/32/2431_2.png) [@roadiereloaded](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/roadiereloaded)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 7:32am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/9 "2020-08-31T07:32:08Z")
thank you for posting this. Works great. I now use `alias jekyllserver="jekyll serve --host 0.0.0.0 --open-url"` and this leaves the tab open in safari when I stop the jekyll serve command. reload is done by watch.rb script. ---
**Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 8:01am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/10 "2020-08-31T08:01:27Z")
Great. Yet, as we learned from [chuckhoupt](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/chuckhoupt), the argument `http://localhost:4000/`is not necessary. ---
**Author:** ![roadiereloaded](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/roadiereloaded/32/2431_2.png) [@roadiereloaded](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/roadiereloaded)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 8:36am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/11 "2020-08-31T08:36:07Z")
excellent - edited the alias. works as advertised. thanks ---
**Author:** ![MichaelCurrin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelcurrin/32/2340_2.png) [@MichaelCurrin](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/MichaelCurrin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/12 "2020-08-31T21:16:29Z")
Another approach is that will ctrl click on the URL in the console after start and that will open in the browser If your terminal or IDE terminal supports links ---
**Author:** ![chuckhoupt](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/chuckhoupt/32/523_2.png) [@chuckhoupt](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/chuckhoupt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/13 "2020-09-05T01:13:14Z")
> [@michaelbach](#): > > I’m sure this option will soon enter the documentation. The pull request landed, so now the Open-URL option and flag are documented (along with several other missing build and serve flags): > **[Configuration Options](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/configuration/options/)** > > The tables below list the available settings for Jekyll, and the various options (specified in the configuration file) and flags (specified on the command-line) that control them. ---
**Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 7:04am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/automatically-start-browser-on-localhost-4000-after-jekyll-serve/4916/14 "2020-09-05T07:04:28Z")
great! Found even more new useful options. Thanks.