| 1 | launch 1.0a9 [2 April 2002] |
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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, etc. With the exception of special support for |
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| 16 | TextEdit, '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 | no longer permits |
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| 25 | - launches applications in the background |
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| 26 | - launches Carbon applications in Classic |
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| 27 | - displays file information including type, creator, bundle ID, |
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| 28 | data and resource fork sizes, and dates |
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| 29 | - reports errors intelligibly |
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| 30 | - and much more! |
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| 31 | |
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| 32 | 'launch' is useful by itself, but is even better when used in scripts. |
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| 33 | Assign a shell command to your favorite Mac OS text, graphics or |
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| 34 | resource editor. Go to your favorite Web site with a few keystrokes. |
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| 35 | |
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| 36 | Like 'open', 'launch' provides one half of the round-trip between |
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| 37 | Terminal.app and the Finder. You can drag and drop icons or proxy icons |
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| 38 | into Terminal.app to insert their paths into command lines. To go in the |
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| 39 | other direction, just type 'launch .' (or 'open .') to open a Finder window |
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| 40 | showing the current directory. |
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| 41 | |
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| 42 | INSTALLATION |
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| 43 | ------------ |
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| 44 | |
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| 45 | The commands below install the 'launch' tool in /usr/local/bin, which |
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| 46 | is in the default path. You should subsequently be able to use |
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| 47 | 'launch' by typing its name. If you wish to install it somewhere else, |
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| 48 | modify the install line as appropriate. |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | % sudo /usr/bin/install -c build/launch /usr/local/bin |
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| 51 | % rehash |
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| 52 | |
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| 53 | Uninstallation: |
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| 54 | |
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| 55 | % sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/launch |
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| 56 | |
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| 57 | COMPILATION |
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| 58 | ----------- |
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| 59 | |
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| 60 | A Project Builder project, 'launch.pbproj', is included. A |
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| 61 | precompiled binary is also provided. 'launch' was developed and |
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| 62 | tested under Mac OS 10.1 and 10.1.1 with the 10.1 Developer Tools, and |
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| 63 | does not require any additional software to build. |
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| 64 | |
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| 65 | USAGE |
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| 66 | ----- |
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| 67 | |
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| 68 | Just type 'launch' by itself to receive usage information. |
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| 69 | |
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| 70 | Some examples: |
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| 71 | |
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| 72 | % launch -ni com.apple.iTunes |
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| 73 | /Applications/iTunes.app |
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| 74 | [hint, hint] |
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| 75 | |
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| 76 | % launch -c 'R*ch' |
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| 77 | [BBEdit opens] |
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| 78 | |
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| 79 | % launch -pbc 'R*ch' test.txt |
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| 80 | [BBEdit starts printing test.txt in the background] |
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| 81 | |
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| 82 | % launch -l http://www.apple.com/ |
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| 83 | [Your preferred Web browser opens Apple's Web site] |
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| 84 | |
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| 85 | /Applications/Preview.app: Mac OS X application package |
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| 86 | type: 'APPL' creator: 'prvw' |
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| 87 | bundle ID: com.apple.Preview |
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| 88 | kind: Application |
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| 89 | contents: 2 items |
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| 90 | [...] |
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| 91 | |
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| 92 | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
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| 93 | -------------------------- |
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| 94 | |
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| 95 | Q. How do I discover bundle IDs for applications? |
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| 96 | |
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| 97 | A. The -f option to launch can help. Say you have OmniWeb in the |
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| 98 | /Applications/Internet folder, and want to find out its bundle ID. |
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| 99 | Type 'launch -f', and drop the OmniWeb icon on Terminal: |
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| 100 | |
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| 101 | % launch -f /Applications/Internet/OmniWeb.app |
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| 102 | /Applications/Internet/OmniWeb.app: Mac OS X application package |
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| 103 | type: 'APPL' creator: 'OWEB' |
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| 104 | bundle ID: com.omnigroup.OmniWeb |
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| 105 | kind: Application |
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| 106 | |
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| 107 | Note that bundle IDs are not case-sensitive: com.barebones.BBEdit is |
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| 108 | the same as com.barebones.bbedit. |
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| 109 | |
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| 110 | |
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| 111 | Q. Why can't I use -f with -c to get info on an application with a |
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| 112 | given creator? |
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| 113 | |
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| 114 | A. This feature may be added to a later version (or add it yourself!), |
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| 115 | but there is a workaround. Instead of: |
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| 116 | |
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| 117 | % launch -f -c 'Doug' |
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| 118 | launch: can't get information (-f) on item(s) using an application (-u, -c, -i, -a) |
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| 119 | |
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| 120 | use: |
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| 121 | |
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| 122 | % launch -f "`launch -nc 'Doug'`" |
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| 123 | /Volumes/GrayApps/Utilities/Resorcerer 2.4/Resorcerer: scriptable Mac OS X application [Carbon, prefers native OS X] |
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| 124 | type: 'APPL' creator: 'Doug' |
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| 125 | kind: Application |
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| 126 | |
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| 127 | |
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| 128 | Q. Why do bundle IDs not work for non-packaged applications? |
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| 129 | |
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| 130 | A. I think this is a LaunchServices/CFBundle bug. For example, BBEdit |
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| 131 | 6.1 for OS X was a packaged application; BBEdit 6.5 is not, however its |
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| 132 | 'plst' resource contains a bundle ID. LaunchServices is unable to |
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| 133 | locate BBEdit 6.5 by its bundle ID. |
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| 134 | |
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| 135 | Non-packaged applications usually come from older Mac OS applications, |
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| 136 | so they will have creators, which is a workaround (use -c instead of |
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| 137 | -i). |
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| 138 | |
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| 139 | |
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| 140 | Q. Why doesn't launch support opening items as root? |
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| 141 | |
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| 142 | A. Apple eliminated this capability with the Mac OS X 10.1 Security |
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| 143 | Update. If at some point Apple restores this capability, 'launch' |
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| 144 | will be ready to support it. |
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| 145 | |
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| 146 | |
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| 147 | Q. Why do I get an error -600? |
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| 148 | |
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| 149 | A. A typical occurrence of this would be: |
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| 150 | |
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| 151 | % launch -n . |
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| 152 | launch: can't open items: unable to connect to system service. |
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| 153 | Are you logged in? (-600) |
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| 154 | |
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| 155 | In order to perform certain operations, launch needs to talk to |
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| 156 | various system services owned by the currently logged-on user. If you |
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| 157 | aren't using 'launch' from a terminal currently logged into the Mac OS |
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| 158 | X GUI, certain operations may not work. Try opening Terminal.app, |
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| 159 | creating a new terminal, and trying again. |
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| 160 | |
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| 161 | Another possibility is to create your own interprocess messaging. |
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| 162 | For example, place this script in a file: |
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| 163 | |
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| 164 | #!/bin/sh |
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| 165 | PIPE=/tmp/.launchpipe |
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| 166 | [ -e $PIPE ] || mkfifo $PIPE |
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| 167 | while true; do |
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| 168 | read opts < $PIPE |
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| 169 | eval "/path/to/launch $opts" & # change this to launch's path |
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| 170 | done |
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| 171 | |
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| 172 | Then, define a function or alias. For zsh: |
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| 173 | |
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| 174 | rlaunch() { echo $@ > /tmp/.launchpipe } |
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| 175 | |
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| 176 | Or for tcsh: |
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| 177 | |
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| 178 | alias rlaunch 'echo \!* > /tmp/.launchpipe' |
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| 179 | |
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| 180 | Start the shell script above from the console, then you can use |
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| 181 | 'rlaunch' in place of 'launch' logged in from anywhere else. |
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| 182 | |
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| 183 | Thanks to robert <robert@allyourbass.org> for this suggestion. |
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| 184 | |
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| 185 | COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS, BUG REPORTS, ETC. |
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| 186 | ---------------------------------------- |
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| 187 | |
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| 188 | Please send to the author, Nicholas Riley, at <launchsw@sabi.net>. |
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| 189 | |
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| 190 | VERSION HISTORY |
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| 191 | --------------- |
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| 192 | |
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| 193 | 1.0a9 - 2 April 2002 - license, comments changes |
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| 194 | 1.0a8 - 29 March 2002 - errors with -l (from ICeCoffEE), added rlaunch script |
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| 195 | 1.0a7 - 3 March 2002 - print dates, sizes, folder valence, locked status for -f, |
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| 196 | don't abort on failure to obtain bundle information |
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| 197 | 1.0a6 - 30 November 2001 - fixed incorrect messages, broken -u and crash on -nu |
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| 198 | 1.0a5 - 28 November 2001 - print kind string for -f, still no new installer |
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| 199 | 1.0a4 - 20 November 2001 - [try to] use Installer VISE instead of InstallAnywhere |
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| 200 | 1.0a3 - 15 November 2001 - fixed package identification in -f, updated examples |
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| 201 | 1.0a2 - 15 November 2001 - -f, removed broken -m |
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| 202 | 1.0a1 - 14 November 2001 - renamed from "FindApp", launch by default, -u |
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| 203 | 1.0d5 - 7 November 2001 - option -s for launching as root [nonfunctional] |
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| 204 | 1.0d4 - 6 November 2001 - URL launching and Internet Config support |
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| 205 | 1.0d3 - 4 November 2001 - more robust, support for docs without app |
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| 206 | 1.0d2 - 4 November 2001 - options -opsbmhCX, -cin, documents |
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| 207 | 1.0d1 - 26 August 2001 - returns path of application identified by creator |
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