How to make a shell script an application

Question

How to make a shell script an application

On the command line you type: "shell-script input-file" and this runs the script with a parameter.
In Finder you see "input-file" represented with an icon, and would like to run the script with this
file as argument, by clicking on the input-file's icon.
Just like clicking on a pdf file's icon runs the application Preview ...

In other words: how could I morph my script into something that Finder recognizes as Application,
that can be assigned to this file and all others in its class?

Just making the script executable and appending ".app" to its name do not make it recognizable
as a legitimate application.

Here I could find a few posts regarding "clickable Unix files", but these were concerned about the
"clickability" of the script, not its input file.

I'd appreciate any help,

Miklos

Dual 2.5 GHz PMac, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Sep 14, 2007 7:19 AM

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Answer 1

dfort

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2007 7:27 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

Try appending .command

That should launch the terminal and run the application when you double click on the icon.

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Answer 2

roam

Level 6

13,637 points

Sep 14, 2007 7:45 AM in response to dfort

If you do that you will need to use

chmod 755 input-file.command

to make it executable.

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Answer 3

Bill Scott

Level 6

11,465 points

Sep 14, 2007 8:18 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

Two other options:

Applescript: just run the shell script from a "do shell script" command.

Platypus (probably the best option):

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/Platypus.shtml

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Answer 4

Sep 15, 2007 2:26 AM in response to dfort

I am sorry if I was not clear enough, I'll try again:

I have a data file and an executable Unix script. I have no problem with the command line, but
I would like to be able to achieve the same in the GUI environment.
Namely by clicking on the DATA FILE's icon, I would like to see the EXECUTION OF THE SCRIPT
with the data file as its parameter.
Exactly as you click on a jpg (data) file to execute Preview.

If I append ".command" to the name of the SCRIPT, yes, it will execute by clicking on the SCRIPT's
icon. But where is the DATA FILE?
Besides, in my experience, it executes a logout at the end of the run, that kills off a window and
I need to logout and login again.

Miklos

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Answer 5

Sep 15, 2007 2:35 AM in response to roam

My input file is a DATA FILE, neither appending ".command" nor granting it executive permissions
can make it clickable AND execute the SCRIPT with the DATA FILE as its parameter.

Miklos

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Answer 6

Sep 15, 2007 2:52 AM in response to Bill Scott

Bill, I've downloaded platypus and it seemed to be what I was looking for.
It created the "wrapper" for me under "/Applications/something.app"

Now I have a another problem.
I highlight the DATA FILE and ask Finder to give me information about it.
This is my opportunity to tell the system that this file (and many similarly named ones)
need to be processed by a particular application.
When I want to select "something.app" amongs all the things under "/Applications", Finder does not
let me select this one. Obviously it does not consider this thing a true-blue application.

That's where I am now, fuming that Platypus changed the icons of all of my perl scripts to
a cheerful platypus.

Well, one of our former prime minister (who lost his trousers in Memphis) once said:
"Life was not meant to be easy."

Any idea how to get out of this hole?

Miklos

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Answer 7

Sep 15, 2007 8:30 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

Miklos,

Your question is really two separate parts. One part is turning your shell script into an application that will run in the GUI... which Platypus may have solved.

The other part of your question relates to "associating" your data file(s) with your GUI application so that double-clicking a data file (document) will launch your app and open the file.

I've never used Playpus so I'm not sure exactly how it wraps a shell script into an application. Platypus apps can apparently handle dragging/dropping of files onto the app but it's not clear from skimming over the documentation page if they will support double-clickable documents. But I assume it probably inserts an Info.plist into the .app bundle it creates. It's this Info.plist that you'll need to look at to try to get your document associations working.

One thing to look for is the CFBundleIdentifier key/value pair. Playtpus may insert a generic value here. You should change it to be something unique (so Finder can differentiate your .app from other apps). Change the value to something like "com.yourName.yourAppName".

You'll may also need to add a CFBundleDocumentTypes array to the Info.plist. This array describes the document types that the application can open. See the Property List Key Reference for a description of property list keys and what they mean. Especially look at the section that describes how to set up the CFBundleDocumentTypes array.

Once you've changed your CFBundleIdentifier and set up appropriate document types your app should then show up in the "Open with" list.

But like I said, it's not clear from the online documentation if a Platypus application can properly handle a double-clicked document. If not you may have to try another route.

AppleScript Studio can be used to create "document-based" applications that will recognize double-clicked documents. It would not be too difficult to embed your shell script within an AS Studio app and use AppleScript's "do shell script" to pass the double-clicked document(s) off to your shell script... but you'd have to learn AS Studio. :^\

Steve

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Answer 8

Sep 15, 2007 7:52 PM in response to Steve Herman1

Steve,

I went through many possible variations of creating an application with Platypus, and hurray,
it was recognised as application by Finder. I must have done something wrong before.
However, the picture is still gloomy. By double-clicking on the DATA FILE the new application went
into action. Lots of error messages in a separate window, that disappears from sight before you
could read the first word.

The SCRIPT worked fine from the command line but I put some not-so-disappearing diagnostics
in it and after a few hours of experimentation now I have an idea what's wrong.
First I found that my perl script made as an application did not recognise environment variables,
then it did not recognise the path either.
I typed-in the values of these environment variables, and platypus went a bit further,
but my script called on other scripts that used environment variables, etc.

And the biggest surprise was that Platypus added one more to the parameters, so getting the DATA FILE's name now I needed two "shift"s, instead of one.
I use csh and though I don't know a thing about bash, I suspect that Platypus assumes this shell.
A warning could well be on the little window Platypus puts up, just that I can't read it.

If my assumption is right, and there is no way to tell Platypus about csh, then that's the end of line.
I will not modify a big library of scripts for the sake of double-clickability.

Thank you very much for your help,

Miklos

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Answer 9

Sep 16, 2007 2:23 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

I am sorry, folks. I've tried to assign "helpful" points a couple of times, but I always got a system error
in doing so.

Miklos

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