.Dd Sun Apr 3 2005       \" DATE 
.Dt LAUNCH 1 LOCAL	 \" Program name and manual section number 
.Os launch 1.0.1
.Sh NAME
.Nm launch
.Nd find, open, print, or get information about files, folders, disks and URLs
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm launch
.Op Fl npswbmhCXU        \" [-npswbmhCXU]
.Op Fl c Ar creator      \" [-c creator]
.Op Fl i Ar bundleID     \" [-i bundleID]
.Op Fl u Ar URL          \" [-u URL]
.Op Fl a Ar name         \" [-a name]
.Op Ar item ...          \" [item ...]
.Op Ar -                 \" [-]
.Nm 
.Op Fl npflswbmhCXU
.Ar item ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
command is a replacement for Mac OS X's
.Xr open 1
command and opens a file (or a folder/directory or URL), as if you had
double-clicked its icon in the Finder. If no application is specified,
the default application determined by LaunchServices is used to open
items.
.Pp
.Nm
invoked with a file or URL argument will open the URL directly or in
your preferred helper application. Applications can be specified by
their four-character creators (e.g. 'ToyS') or Java-style bundle ID
(e.g. com.apple.scripteditor).
.Pp
.Nm
can ask applications to print documents, a feature the OS X Finder is
still missing.  It can open applications in the background; can open
multiple copies of applications; can open Carbon applications in
Classic, or prevent Classic from starting; and can show information
about any item on disk, including file type, creator, data and
resource fork sizes, dates, and bundle ID.
.Pp
The options to
.Nm
are divided in three sections according to purpose. You can give
.Nm
a reference to an application in many ways, using the matching
options. Once
.Nm
has identified one or more items, the action options indicate what to
do with these items. Finally, if the action involves launching an
application, the launch options allow further customization.
.Ss Matching options
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Fl c Ar creator
Match by creator (a four-character code, also known as a signature).
.It Fl i Ar bundleID
Match by bundle identifier, usually consisting of the reversed dot
(.)-separated components of the application developer's Internet domain
name, followed by the application name.  For example, the Finder's
bundle identifier is
.Ar com.apple.Finder .
Bundle identifiers are not case-sensitive.
.It Fl u Ar URL
Match application at
.Ar URL
(which must be a file:// URL).
.El
.Pp
In addition to the above, you can specify applications, documents,
folders, disks and URLs as item arguments.
.Ss Action options
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Fl n
Print matching paths/URLs instead of opening them.
.It Fl p
Ask application(s) to print document(s).
.It Fl f
Display information about item(s).
.It Fl l
Launch URLs, treating "http://" URLs as Web sites instead of WebDAV
resources.
.El
.Ss Launch options
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Fl s
Launch target(s) as superuser, authenticating if needed.
.It Fl w
Wait for application to finish opening before exiting.
.It Fl b
Launch application in the background.
.It Fl m
Launch application again, even if already running.
.It Fl h
Hide application after it finishes opening.
.It Fl C
Force CFM/PEF Carbon application to open in Classic.
.It Fl X
Don't start the Classic environment for this Classic application if
Classic isn't running.
.It Fl U
Interpret items as URLs, even if files with the same names as the URLs
exist.  (This was the default behavior in
.Nm
1.0.)
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO 
.\" List links in ascending order by section, alphabetically within a section.
.\" Please do not reference files that do not exist without filing a bug report
.Xr appswitch 1 ,
.Xr GetFileInfo 1 ,
.Xr open 1
.Sh BUGS              \" Document known, unremedied bugs
Launching may be very slow on Mac OS X 10.2.8 and earlier; this is an
acknowledged Mac OS X bug with no known workaround, and may affect
Apple's
.Xr open 1
command as well in certain cases.  It is fixed in Mac OS X 10.3.
.Pp
The
.Fl m
option may not work well (or at all) before Mac OS X 10.3 because of
Mac OS X bugs.
.Pp
The
.Fl h
option requires the
.Fl b
option to be used as well, or Cocoa applications will not hide on
startup.  This is a Mac OS X bug which is still unfixed as of Mac OS X
10.3.
.Sh AUTHOR
.An "Nicholas Riley" Aq launchsw@sabi.net
.Pp
This page written in part by
.An "Hisashi T Fujinaka" Aq htodd@twofifty.com .
.\" .Sh HISTORY           \" Document history if command behaves in a unique manner