I'm on MacOS X, and I'm pretty new to app-bundle-type things. I am writing a program that opens a window and registers mouse input -- not a command line tool. When I compile my code (written in C, if that is important) into an executable file (a "unix executable file") and then run that file directly (by double clicking it, for example), a terminal window pops up, and then the program's window pops up. Likewise, if I navigate to the directory of the executable and open it from the command line, it pops open /another/ terminal window and then the program's window.
However, if I wrap the executable in a bundle (thus, I suppose, turning it into a proper "app"), then when I run the app, either by double clicking or from the command line, the program's window opens and no new terminal window is created. Is this merely a property of the "app bundle"'s architecture? Or is there a way that I can run the raw executable without incurring another terminal window? I suspect that I'm misunderstanding something fundamental. Thanks in advance!
I believe what you're seeing is correct. In order for a separate window to not pop-up, you'd need to encapsulate it into a bundle.
Launching by double-clicking a bundle, or using the 'open' command from Terminal uses Apple's Launch Services, which maintains a list of known (registered) applications. When an application (bundle) is introduced to the system, it is registered with Launch Services and associated with its URI (e.g. com.apple.calculator), which is present in the bundle's Info.plist
Other items in the Info.plist tell launch services how to handle the application, such as checking if the minimum or maximum version of the OS has been exceeded, or whether or not to display a dock item.
A lone binary doesn't have an associated Info.plist manifest, so its behaviour can't be varied and a Terminal window is opened.
Bare executable files are essentially treated as documents by Launch Services (the framework that the Finder, Dock, and open command use when you open stuff). The application which handles such documents is Terminal. So, when you open an executable in that fashion, it launches Terminal if it's not already running and tells it to open the document. Terminal does this by opening a new shell window and auto-typing the path to the "document" as a command line.
Launch Services handles bundled apps as, well, apps. If the app is already running, it activates it and possibly has it open a new untitled window. Otherwise, it launches it.
As Rob Napier notes in the comments, if you run an executable directly from the command line (or if some already-running app launches it using NSTask or fork+exec), it will simply run. Launch Services won't be involved, so Terminal will not be asked to open the executable as a document.
Related
I am fairly new to Mac OSX, and am trying to create an .app file to run in the Applications folder. I'm using MacOS Big Sur, and this will just be run on a Mac (it doesn't need to be cross platform). There is a jar file that executes by running a shell script, as well as a few extra resource files, so ultimately I'd like to bundle this all together in something like a dmg so that I can share it easily with a few other people.
I followed the advice given here and here to set it all up, and almost everything works. The program starts when I double click on the .app file, but without a terminal window. Unfortunately I need the terminal window to open because I use it to log messages to the user.
Terminal is the default app for the shell script, and a terminal does open when I run the shell script directly by double-clicking on it. The script file works with an .sh extension and without one, though I get an error trying to run the .app if the script has an .sh extension. Everything has execute permissions. I went through the Info.plist docs but couldn't find anything about the Terminal. I also tried creating the .app with Automator, but with the same result.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, as at the moment I'm completely stuck. As I said, ultimately I want to have a way of sharing this with others who may not be very computer-savvy (e.g. they're used to just downloading things from the App Store and wouldn't be able to install things using the command line). So if I'm going about this all wrong or there's an easier way, then let me know that too.
Unfortunately I need the terminal window to open because I use it to log messages to the user.
If this is all you want the Terminal app for then you don’t need it all.
The Terminal app is a GUI app which runs a shell using standard OS calls, passes keyboard input to that shell (and hence any commands it in turns invokes) via a pipe, and reads the output of the shell (and hence...) and displays it in a window.
You can run your shell script direct from your own app, collect the output, and dimply that output in a window in your app.
In Objective-C the classes you want to look up are NSTask, to run a shell passing it your shell script, and NSPipe, to create pipes needed.
There are plenty of Q & A’s on SO about NSTask/NSPipe, here is one and here is another which uses Swift.
Note that both of the above read all of the output before converting it to a string which can then be displayed in a window or otherwise processed. This is not required and if you have a long running shell script and wish to display output as it runs you can read shorter chunks from the pipe. Read the documentation to see how to do this.
I'm posting my solution in case it helps anyone in the future. As the comments/answers said, what I really needed to know was how to get my app to open a terminal window. Obviously by creating the app manually (creating the folder structure and minimal Info.plist) I was missing some key elements.
I tried to generate one using Xcode. I'm sure it's pretty straightforward, but I got bogged down trying to work out the Swift code.
What worked for me was creating an AppleScript using Script Editor. The script simply tells the Terminal program to run my bash script:
tell application "Terminal"
do script "/Applications/{name of app}/Contents/MacOS/run.sh;exit"
end tell
The key is that Script Editor can save this as an app to the Applications folder, which means it creates the necessary folder structure and files. After that I could just copy my program files into the MacOS folder, which is where my bash script looks for everything.
One option might be to give the script file the extension .command, e.g., and then open that, e.g.:
open myscript.command
The myscript.command file needs execute permissions (chmod a+x myscript.command).
These .command files can also be double-clicked in Finder to execute them in a new Terminal window.
I have a situation in which I wanted to utilize the camera app in Windows 10 from my Microsoft Access program. Normally I could just send a command to execute the program's executable, but with the metro app there is no straightforward executable.
The basic code I use is this:
Shell """" & PthToExe & """", vbNormalFocus
PthToExe is the path name for the executable.
I looked around a decent bit, but was unable to find any simple solutions and ended up coming up with my own. My solution is to make a shortcut link to the camera application and then to launch the link.
In order to make a shortcut link in Windows 10, you can click on the start button, go to "All Apps", find the app you want (in my case "Camera"), and then click and drag it to the desktop.
Now that you have a shortcut, you can launch the shortcut from a command line. (So my shortcut doesn't clutter up my desktop, I dragged it off my desktop and into a folder on the "C" drive.)
Type the path into a command prompt like this and hit enter to test launching your app: C:\GJ\Camera.lnk
So that solves the problem if you wanted to launch from a command line. For some reason, though, Access would not accept that command. The way I got around it was I put the command in a batch file (Edit: Alternatively, see HansUp's comment). To do that, you just need to open notepad, type in the same thing you typed in the command prompt, save the note pad document, and then rename the document to have a .bat extension.
You can then execute the .bat file from Microsoft Access as follows:
Shell "C:\GJ\OpenCamera.bat", vbMinimizedNoFocus
Note that normally, I use vbNormalFocus when running the shell command, but in this case, it is desirable not to see the little command prompt open before the actual program opens.
I am trying to make a keyboard shortcut to launch terminal in OS X Mountain Lion.
After some research I found out that I can use Automator to achieve this:
http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tips-shortcuts/how-to-launch-any-app-with-a-keyboard-shortcut/
It works, but I noticed that whenever I launch a terminal using this method, a process called WorkFlowServiceRunner starts and never terminates. To make matters worse when I launch more terminals (or launch different applications using shortcuts, again, through Automator) multiple WorkFlowServiceRunner processes start and quickly eat up the memory.
I've also tried writing my own applescripts but the problem does not go away. This clearly looks like a memory leak. Is this a bug in OS X Automator? Is there a way to write an applescript so that the WorkFlowServiceRunner terminates after doing its job (e.g. launch a terminal)? Automator seems to be the most "native" way of getting this done and I do not want to use any 3rd party apps.
I have noticed this from time to time.
One way around it would be to make your own service apps with a Cocoa-AppleScript Applet.
It is not very hard to do. And I will try and guide you through it. It should only take you a couple of minutes.
Step 1.
Open your Application Applescript Editor. And go to the "File" Menu -> "New from Template" -> Cocoa-AppleScript Applet.app
Step 2,
Paste this code into the new documents.
property NSWorkspace : class "NSWorkspace"
tell current application's NSApp to setServicesProvider_(me)
NSUpdateDynamicServices()
my runAService()
on runAService()
NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace()'s launchAppWithBundleIdentifier_options_additionalEventParamDescriptor_launchIdentifier_("com.apple.Terminal", current application's NSWorkspaceLaunchDefault, missing value, missing value)
tell me to quit
end runAService
Step 3,
Compile
(click this to compile)
and Save the app.
*Make sure the show startup screen is unchecked in the Save dialogue.
Giving the app a name like LaunchTerminal.app
Step 4,
Click the "Bundle Contents" button on the top right hand side of the document.
This will open the applications contents view.
Click the Action button and then "Reveal in finder" sub menu.
step 5,
In the contents folder that opens in the finder you will see a file name "info.plist"
Open Terminal.app and type and run this code using the path to this file:
BUT make sure you do not include the ".plist" part of the name when entering it in Terminal.app
/usr/bin/defaults write /Users/YourUserNameHere/myServiceApps/LaunchTerminal.app/Contents/Info NSServices -array-add '{NSMenuItem={default="Launch Terminal";}; NSMessage="runAService"; NSSendTypes=();}'
( You can drag n drop the file into terminal to get the posix path string )
The path part looks like this: /Users/YourUserNameHere/myServiceApps/LaunchTerminal.app/Contents/Info
This code should add an array to the plist file which is part of the apps way of broadcasting it has a service.
step 6,
Compile and Save the App again.
Just to make sure it picks up the changes. ( I found I had to do this even though I should not have to)
step 7,
Double click the app to run it for the first time.
The App will quit straight away. But the first run should have broadcast that it has a service that should be registered with the system
step 8,
Open system Preferences and go to Services -> General (section)
And you will see the "Launch Terminal" service.
Set up your short cut as normal.
Hope this helps..
UPDATE :
I noticed that the tell application "Terminal" to activate. Would not open my default Window groups if I had closed them all and quit Terminal before. The normal behaviour if I have done this is for my default window group to open. ( I have two Tabs open at startup each cd'd to a different path).
So I have change the open application to a cocoa way of doing it.
A do shell script with open the/application/path/. will work also.
Try using Butler or QuicKeys. They both have endless "Trial periods."
Say I have a standard Cocoa Application call Foo.app (like the one you get just by choosing New Project > Cocoa Application in Xcode), if I open the app via a terminal using:
open Foo.app/
Then I see Foo's name on the status bar up top and its window is in focus, in front of all other apps.
If instead I directly call from the terminal the executable buried in the .app folder, like:
Foo.app/Contents/MacOS/Foo
Nothing appears to happen. On inspection the app has indeed opened but it is not in focus (the terminal still is), I have to find it on the dock or find its window.
Is there any way for the Foo application to make sure its in focus when its run? Even if its run via its executable as described above?
Your app can "steal focus" by calling
[[NSApplication sharedApplication] activateIgnoringOtherApps:YES];
See the NSApplication docs for more info.
did you mean to type:
open -a /Applications/Foo.app/
note the -a option
If you're asking how to give your app (that you're writing) this behavior -- within applicationWillFinishLaunching: you could call [NSApp activateIgnoringOtherApps:YES].
perhaps AppleScript?
tell application "TextEdit"
activate
end tell
There are (at least) three different ways you open (and interact with) Applications from the Terminal.
you can launch any Application (that is registered in LaunchServices) from the Terminal by typing open -a ApplicationName (note that you do not need the trailing ".app" or give any path)
you can open an application giving its specific path by typing open /path/to/ApplicationName.app (you will rarely need that, given that the applications is likely already registered in LaunchServices)
you can open and interact with the executable if you type open /path/to/ApplicationName.app/Contents/MacOS/ApplicationName. The difference here is that for some Applications, you can pass arguments or interact with them afterwards on your command line. Go ahead and try open /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail for example - it will give you a debugging log in return.
you can interact with some applications even without using "open" by directly calling their executable; try /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin —help for example.
So if you do want to make sure the command-line-launched application is in focus, use either method 1 or 2.
I'm just meddling with OSX after a few years on Linux. There's a lot that I'm liking, but one thing that's slowing me down is that if I run the 'terminal' command via shortcut/spotlight/quicksilver, it whisks me off to any existing terminal in whatever space already has a terminal instance open.
I regularly like to pop up a terminal, run a quick command and then close it again, all the while staying in whatever desktop space I happen to be on.
...So, how do I do that on Mac?
Cheers...
Go to System Preferences -> Exposé & Spaces -> Spaces and check When switching to an application, switch to...
Download this tool called Visor
It lets you quickly get a tabbed drop down terminal using a hotkey like Ctrl-`.
Insanely convenient for working in the shell.
Try this tool: https://github.com/nmadhok/OpenInTerminal
This is a really handy tool for programmers on Mac as it lets you open the folder directly in Terminal. You can select multiple folders to open them in multiple terminal windows. You can also select files to open the parent directory in Terminal. This application works with Finder as well as without Finder which is a plus!