1 | launch 1.1.1 [unreleased]
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2 | ============
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3 |
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4 | A command-line launcher for Mac OS X in the spirit of open(1).
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5 |
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6 | Written by Nicholas Riley <mailto:launchsw@sabi.net>.
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7 | Obtain updates from <http://web.sabi.net/nriley/software/>.
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8 |
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9 | WHAT IS IT?
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10 | -----------
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11 |
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12 | Apple provides a simple command-line launching program called 'open'
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13 | with Mac OS X. It offers few options - launching applications by name
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14 | or by path, launching TextEdit, or opening a number of applications,
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15 | documents, folders, or URLs. With the exception of special support for
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16 | TextEdit (open -e), 'launch' does all this and:
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17 |
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18 | - opens URLs, directly or in your preferred helper application (-l)
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19 | - lets you specify applications by their four-character creator
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20 | (e.g. 'ToyS') or Java-style bundle ID (e.g. com.apple.scripteditor),
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21 | both of which allow you to move or rename an application without
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22 | changing references to it
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23 | - asks applications to print documents, something the OS X Finder
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24 | didn't get until Mac OS X 10.4
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25 | - allows you to pipe output to GUI applictions
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26 | - launches applications in the background
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27 | - launches Carbon applications in Classic
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28 | - displays file information including type, creator, bundle ID,
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29 | data and resource fork sizes, dates and version
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30 | - reports errors intelligibly
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31 | - and much more!
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32 |
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33 | 'launch' is useful by itself, but is even better when used in scripts.
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34 | Assign a shell command to your favorite Mac OS text, graphics or
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35 | resource editor. Go to your favorite Web site with a few keystrokes.
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36 |
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37 | Like 'open', 'launch' provides one half of the round-trip between
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38 | Terminal.app and the Finder. You can drag and drop icons or proxy icons
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39 | into Terminal.app to insert their paths into command lines. To go in the
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40 | other direction, just type 'launch .' (or 'open .') to open a Finder window
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41 | showing the current directory.
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42 |
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43 | INSTALLATION
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44 | ------------
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45 |
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46 | The commands below install the 'launch' tool in /usr/local/bin, which
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47 | is in the default path. You should subsequently be able to use
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48 | 'launch' by typing its name. If you wish to install it somewhere else,
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49 | modify the install line as appropriate.
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50 |
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51 | % sudo /usr/bin/install -d /usr/local/bin /usr/local/man/man1
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52 | % sudo /usr/bin/install -c launch /usr/local/bin
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53 | % sudo /usr/bin/install -c launch.1 /usr/local/man/man1
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54 | % rehash
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55 |
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56 | Uninstallation:
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57 |
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58 | % sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/launch /usr/local/man/man1/launch.1
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59 |
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60 | COMPILATION
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61 | -----------
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62 |
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63 | An Xcode project, 'launch.xcodeproj', is included. A precompiled
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64 | Universal binary is also provided. 'launch' was developed and tested
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65 | under Mac OS X 10.5.2 with Xcode 3.1, and does not require any
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66 | additional software to build.
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67 |
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68 | USAGE
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69 | -----
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70 |
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71 | Just type 'launch' by itself to receive usage information.
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72 |
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73 | Some examples:
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74 |
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75 | % launch -c 'R*ch'
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76 | [BBEdit opens]
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77 |
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78 | % launch -pbc 'R*ch' test.txt
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79 | [BBEdit starts printing test.txt in the background]
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80 |
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81 | % ls -l | launch -c CWIE -
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82 | [CodeWarrior IDE opens with an untitled document containing the file list]
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83 |
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84 | % launch -i org.mozilla.camino http://www.apple.com/
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85 | [Camino opens Apple's Web site]
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86 |
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87 | % launch -l launchsw@sabi.net
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88 | [Your preferred email client opens a new message to comment on launch]
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89 |
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90 | % launch -f /Applications/Preview.app
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91 | /Applications/Preview.app: Mac OS X application package
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92 | type: 'APPL' creator: 'prvw'
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93 | architecture: Intel 80x86, PowerPC
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94 | bundle ID: com.apple.Preview
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95 | version: 3.0.8
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96 | kind: Application
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97 | content type ID: com.apple.application-bundle
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98 | contents: 1 item
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99 | [...]
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100 |
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101 | A scripting example: a zsh function which provides an OS X wrapper
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102 | around emacsclient and the Carbon build of GNU Emacs, using launch and
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103 | appswitch (another one of my command-line tools).
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104 |
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105 | e() {
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106 | ( emacsclient -n $@ >&/dev/null && \
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107 | appswitch -a Emacs ) || \
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108 | ( launch -ba Emacs && \
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109 | until { emacsclient -n $@ >&/dev/null } do sleep 1; done;
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110 | appswitch -a Emacs )
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111 | export EDITOR=emacsclient
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112 | }
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113 |
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114 | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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115 | --------------------------
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116 |
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117 | Q. How do I discover bundle IDs for applications?
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118 |
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119 | A. The -f option to launch can help. Say you have OmniWeb in the
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120 | /Applications/Internet folder, and want to find out its bundle ID.
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121 | Type 'launch -f', and drop the OmniWeb icon on Terminal:
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122 |
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123 | % launch -f /Applications/Internet/OmniWeb.app
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124 | /Applications/Internet/OmniWeb.app: scriptable Mac OS X application package
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125 | type: 'APPL' creator: 'OWEB'
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126 | architecture: PowerPC, Intel 80x86
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127 | bundle ID: com.omnigroup.OmniWeb5
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128 |
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129 | Note that bundle IDs are not case-sensitive: com.barebones.BBEdit is
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130 | the same as com.barebones.bbedit.
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131 |
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132 |
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133 | Q. Why does application X open a file with a name beginning with
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134 | 'launch-stationery-'?
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135 |
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136 | A. Your application does not support stationery. Applications which
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137 | support stationery respond to it by creating a new untitled document
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138 | with the contents of the stationery. Most Cocoa applications, such as
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139 | TextEdit, do not support stationery. (Omni Group applications are a
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140 | notable exception.) If you're looking for a text editor which
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141 | supports stationery, try BBEdit, Tex-Edit Plus, the CodeWarrior IDE,
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142 | or almost any other Carbon editor.
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143 |
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144 | For the curious: launch processes input by simultaneously reading it
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145 | and writing to a temporary stationery file. Once reading is complete,
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146 | launch opens the stationery file with your selected application, and
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147 | deletes the stationery after one minute (as a safeguard, it is not
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148 | possible to accurately gauge how long it will take for the application
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149 | to open the stationery).
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150 |
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151 |
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152 | Q. Why can't I use -f with -c to get info on an application with a
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153 | given creator (or -f with -i for a bundle ID)?
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154 |
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155 | A. This feature may be added to a later version (or add it yourself!),
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156 | but there is a workaround. Instead of:
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157 |
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158 | % launch -f -c 'Doug'
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159 | launch: can't get information (-f) on item(s) using an application (-u, -c, -i, -a)
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160 |
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161 | use:
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162 |
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163 | % launch -f "`launch -nc 'Doug'`"
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164 | /Volumes/GrayApps/Utilities/Resorcerer 2.4/Resorcerer: scriptable Mac OS X application [Carbon, prefers native OS X]
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165 | type: 'APPL' creator: 'Doug'
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166 | bundle ID: com.mathemaesthetics.resorcerer
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167 | version: 2.4 [0x2418010 = 37847056]
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168 | kind: Application
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169 | [...]
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170 |
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171 |
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172 | Q. Why doesn't launch support opening items as root?
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173 |
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174 | A. Apple eliminated this capability with the Mac OS X 10.1 Security
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175 | Update. If at some point Apple restores this capability, 'launch'
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176 | will be ready to support it.
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177 |
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178 |
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179 | Q. Why do I get an error -600?
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180 |
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181 | A. A typical occurrence of this would be:
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182 |
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183 | % launch -n .
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184 | launch: can't open items: unable to connect to system service.
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185 | Are you logged in? (-600)
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186 |
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187 | In order to perform certain operations, launch needs to talk to
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188 | various system services owned by the currently logged-on user. If you
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189 | aren't using 'launch' from a terminal currently logged into the Mac OS
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190 | X GUI, certain operations may not work. Try opening Terminal, creating
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191 | a new terminal window, and trying again.
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192 |
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193 | Another possibility is to create your own interprocess messaging.
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194 | For example, place this script in a file:
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195 |
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196 | #!/bin/sh
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197 | PIPE=/tmp/.launchpipe
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198 | [ -e $PIPE ] || mkfifo $PIPE
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199 | while true; do
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200 | read opts < $PIPE
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201 | eval "/path/to/launch $opts" & # change this to launch's path
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202 | done
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203 |
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204 | Then, define a function or alias. For zsh:
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205 |
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206 | rlaunch() { echo $@ > /tmp/.launchpipe }
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207 |
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208 | Or for tcsh:
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209 |
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210 | alias rlaunch 'echo \!* > /tmp/.launchpipe'
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211 |
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212 | Start the shell script above from the console, then you can use
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213 | 'rlaunch' in place of 'launch' logged in from anywhere else.
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214 |
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215 | Thanks to robert <robert@allyourbass.org> for this suggestion.
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216 |
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217 | COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS, BUG REPORTS, ETC.
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218 | ----------------------------------------
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219 |
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220 | Please send to the author, Nicholas Riley, at <launchsw@sabi.net>.
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221 |
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222 | VERSION HISTORY
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223 | ---------------
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224 |
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225 | 1.1.1 - unreleased
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226 | - updated error codes for Mac OS X 10.4
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227 | - read Info.plists embedded in all Mach-O binaries (e.g. hdiutil)
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228 | - display alias targets
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229 | 1.1 - 30 October 2006
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230 | - -L: send "launch" (ascr/noop) event to app, bypasses automatic
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231 | opening of untitled document, etc.
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232 | - -o: pass command-line arguments (broken, r. 4474993)
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233 | - display content type ID (UTI)
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234 | - display architecture of Mach-O files
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235 | - switched to new LSOpen APIs (now requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later)
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236 | - switched to new date formatting APIs (the old ones are deprecated)
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237 | - for compatibility with open(1), take app path as argument to -a
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238 | - Universal Binary, compatible with Intel Macs [Peter Hosey]
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239 | 1.0.1 - 3 April 2005
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240 | - prefer files to URLs; added -U for old behavior
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241 | - don't display extraneous leading './' on file paths
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242 | - display 'zero items', not '0 items', for consistency
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243 | - display versions of non-applications
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244 | - read Info.plists embedded in unbundled Mach-O applications
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245 | - non-ASCII arguments are now handled with the filesystem, rather
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246 | than the system encoding [Derrick Bass]
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247 | - explicitly use UTF-8 everywhere else to properly interpret and
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248 | display non-ASCII filenames and URLs
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249 | - reading OSTypes and 'vers' resources, and opening URLs with
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250 | Internet Config still uses the system encoding, converting as
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251 | necessary for display
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252 | - should be buildable on 10.2 again
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253 | 1.0 - 23 October 2003
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254 | - work around CFBundle bug to report bundle identifiers and versions
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255 | from resource forks of unpackaged Carbon applications and Classic
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256 | applications [Lloyd Dupont]
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257 | - added descriptions for more error codes and clarified error
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258 | reporting
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259 | - output all errors to stderr
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260 | - provide better errors for -X option
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261 | - restored -m: OS X bug is fixed in Panther
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262 | - fixed a couple of tiny memory leaks
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263 | - added man page [Hisashi T Fujinaka]
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264 | - work around bug in LSOpenFromURLSpec opening multiple items in
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265 | Mac OS X 10.3
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266 | 1.0b2 - 9 March 2003
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267 | - fixed install instructions to create /usr/local/bin if needed
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268 | - show bundle version with text, hex and integer representations
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269 | 1.0b1 - 14 December 2002
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270 | - accept "slack" (default http) URLs and email addresses with -l
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271 | - accept input from stdin with '-'
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272 | - open URLs with arbitrary applications when specified without -l
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273 | - builds without compiler warnings
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274 | 1.0a9 - 2 April 2002
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275 | - license, comments changes
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276 | 1.0a8 - 29 March 2002
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277 | - errors with -l (from ICeCoffEE), added rlaunch script
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278 | 1.0a7 - 3 March 2002
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279 | - print dates, sizes, folder valence, locked status for -f
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280 | - don't abort on failure to obtain bundle information
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281 | 1.0a6 - 30 November 2001
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282 | - fixed incorrect messages, broken -u and crash on -nu
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283 | 1.0a5 - 28 November 2001
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284 | - print kind string for -f, still no new installer
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285 | 1.0a4 - 20 November 2001
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286 | - [try to] use Installer VISE instead of InstallAnywhere
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287 | 1.0a3 - 15 November 2001
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288 | - fixed package identification in -f, updated examples
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289 | 1.0a2 - 15 November 2001
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290 | - -f, removed broken -m
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291 | 1.0a1 - 14 November 2001
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292 | - renamed from "FindApp", launch by default, -u
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293 | 1.0d5 - 7 November 2001
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294 | - option -s for launching as root [nonfunctional]
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295 | 1.0d4 - 6 November 2001
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296 | - URL launching and Internet Config support
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297 | 1.0d3 - 4 November 2001
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298 | - more robust, support for docs without app
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299 | 1.0d2 - 4 November 2001
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300 | - options -opsbmhCX, -cin, documents
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301 | 1.0d1 - 26 August 2001
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302 | - returns path of application identified by creator
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