Unable to open a new window from command line when atom is already running

[linkesch]

Prerequisites

• Can you reproduce the problem in safe mode?
• Are you running the latest version of Atom?
• Did you check the debugging guide?
• Did you check the FAQs on Discuss?
• Are you reporting to the correct repository?
• Did you perform a cursory search to see if your bug or enhancement is already reported?

Description

I spend a lot of time in CLI and I also open editors from there all the time. I've recently came back to atom, I updated it to 1.7.0 (now to 1.7.1) and opened atom in the current directory by atom .. This works correctly. But when I want to open another window in different directory atom . doesn't work anymore. I also tried the new atom -a . command and it doesn't work either.

I realised that atom . command works only when the editor is completely closed. Only when there is no instance running, I'm able to open it from CLI. But when it's already running, I'm unable to open a new window, or add it as a project to existing one.

To be precise, it looks like something happens there, atom starts opening, but then it quits. Atom just blinks in menu bar for a few ms and then disappears.

I also tried this with the recent beta. I found an error that happens there. When I open beta in CLI like this $ /Applications/Atom\ Beta.app/Contents/MacOS/Atom, the atom opens:

$ /Applications/Atom\ Beta.app/Contents/MacOS/Atom
2016-04-15 11:36:48.812 Atom[92173:6330910] App load time: 289ms

Then when I try to open a new window with atom-beta ., I see this error in beta log:

2016-04-15 11:38:38.176 Atom[92173:6330910] Unexpected end of input
2016-04-15 11:38:38.183 Atom[92173:6330910] SyntaxError: Unexpected end of input
    at Object.parse (native)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (/Applications/Atom Beta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/src/browser/atom-application.js:244:28)
    at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
    at Socket.emit (events.js:169:7)
    at readableAddChunk (_stream_readable.js:146:16)
    at Socket.Readable.push (_stream_readable.js:110:10)
    at Pipe.onread (net.js:523:20)
2016-04-15 11:38:38.184 Atom[92173:6330910] Unexpected token .
2016-04-15 11:38:38.185 Atom[92173:6330910] SyntaxError: Unexpected token .
    at Object.parse (native)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (/Applications/Atom Beta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/src/browser/atom-application.js:244:28)
    at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
    at Socket.emit (events.js:169:7)
    at readableAddChunk (_stream_readable.js:146:16)
    at Socket.Readable.push (_stream_readable.js:110:10)
    at Pipe.onread (net.js:523:20)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open atom (doesn't matter if via CLI, or normally)
2. When atom is running, go to CLI and try to open atom with atom .

Expected behavior: I would expect new window to opened.

Actual behavior: Nothing happens.

Versions

OS X: 10.11.4

Atom : 1.7.1
Electron: 0.36.8
Chrome : 47.0.2526.110
Node : 5.1.1

apm 1.9.2
npm 2.13.3
node 0.10.40
python 2.7.10
git 2.4.4

I've also tried it on beta with no luck either:

Atom : 1.8.0-beta1
Electron: 0.36.8
Chrome : 47.0.2526.110
Node : 5.1.1

[Pierrounator]

If you type atom or atom -n or atom --new-window it works.
Type atom [name] to create a new document and name it.

The atom --help is very usefull...

Options:
-1, --one This option is no longer supported. [booléen]
--include-deprecated-apis This option is not currently supported. [booléen]
-d, --dev Run in development mode. [booléen]
-f, --foreground Keep the browser process in the foreground. [booléen]
-h, --help Print this usage message. [booléen]
-l, --log-file Log all output to file. [chaine de caractère]
-n, --new-window Open a new window. [booléen]
--profile-startup Create a profile of the startup execution time. [booléen]
-r, --resource-path Set the path to the Atom source directory and enable dev-mode.
[chaine de caractère]
--safe Do not load packages from ~/.atom/packages or ~/.atom/dev/packages.
[booléen]
--portable Set portable mode. Copies the ~/.atom folder to be a sibling of the
installed Atom location if a .atom folder is not already there.
[booléen]
-t, --test Run the specified specs and exit with error code on failures. [booléen]
--timeout When in test mode, waits until the specified time (in minutes) and
kills the process (exit code: 130). [chaine de caractère]
-v, --version Print the version information. [booléen]
-w, --wait Wait for window to be closed before returning. [booléen]
--clear-window-state Delete all Atom environment state. [booléen]
-a, --add Open path as a new project in last used window. [booléen]

[winstliu]

Closing in favor of #11712 - feel free to subscribe there for updates.

[lock]

This issue has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. If you can still reproduce this issue in Safe Mode then please open a new issue and fill out the entire issue template to ensure that we have enough information to address your issue. Thanks!