Install Homebrew
Paste that in a macOS Terminal or Linux shell prompt.The script explains what it will do and then pauses before it does it. Read about other installation options.What Does Homebrew Do?
Homebrew installs the stuff you need that Apple (or your Linux system) didn’t.- Homebrew installs packages to their own directory and then symlinks their files into
/usr/local
. - Homebrew won’t install files outside its prefix and you can place a Homebrew installation wherever you like.
- It's all Git and Ruby underneath, so hack away with the knowledge that you can easily revert your modifications and merge upstream updates.
- Homebrew complements macOS (or your Linux system). Install your RubyGems with
gem
and their dependencies withbrew
. - 'To install, drag this icon..' no more.
brew cask
installs macOS apps, fonts and plugins and other non-open source software. Donate to Homebrew
Homebrew Blog
Analytics Data
- Homebrew was created by Max Howell. Website by Rémi Prévost, Mike McQuaid and Danielle Lalonde.
Basically, a Mac application has a
.app
extension, but it’s not really a file — it’s a package. You can view the application’s contents by navigating to it in the Finder, right-clicking it and then choosing “Show Package Contents”.- Shell scripts must be executable files in order to run. You can use the chmod command to indicate that the text file is executable (that is, its contents can be run as a shell script). In the Terminal app on your Mac, use the cd command to move into the directory that contains the file you want to make executable.
- Download chmod 0.1 for Mac from our software library for free. The most frequent installer filename for the program is: chmodpro-0.1.zip. The bundle identifier for this application is com.macfeeling.chmod. The most popular version of the application is 0.1. The most recent installer that can be.
- Chmod changes the permissions of each given file according to mode, where mode describes the permissions to modify. Mode can be specified with octal numbers or with letters. Using letters is easier to understand for most people. Chmod +x filename.sh to make filename.sh executable.
I have the same problem as here How run chmod in OSX with C# I would like to change permission via code in Unity I tried: ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo FileName = 'c.
The internal folder structure may vary between apps, but you can be sure that every Mac app will have a
Contents
folder with a MacOS
subfolder in it. Inside the MacOS
directory, there’s an extension-less file with the exact same name as the app itself. This file can be anything really, but in its simplest form it’s a shell script. As it turns out, this folder/file structure is all it takes to create a functional app!Enter appify
After this discovery, Thomas Aylott came up with a clever “appify” script that allows you to easily create Mac apps from shell scripts. The code looks like this:
Installing and using appify is pretty straightforward if you’re used to working with UNIX. (I’m not, so I had to figure this out.) Here’s how to install it:
- Save the script to a directory in your
PATH
and name itappify
(no extension). I chose to put it in/usr/local/bin
, which requires root privileges. - Fire up Terminal.app and enter
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/appify
to make appify executable without root privileges.
After that, you can create apps based on any shell script simply by launching Terminal.app and entering something like this:
Obviously, this would create a stand-alone application named
Your App Name.app
that executes the your-shell-script.sh
script.After that, you can very easily add a custom icon to the app if you want to.
Adding a custom app icon
- Create an
.icns
file or a 512×512 PNG image with the icon you want, and copy it to the clipboard (⌘ + C). (Alternatively, copy it from an existing app as described in steps 2 and 3.) - Right-click the
.app
file of which you want to change the icon and select “Get Info” (or select the file and press ⌘ + I). - Select the app icon in the top left corner by clicking it once. It will get a subtle blue outline if you did it right.
- Now hit ⌘ + V (paste) to overwrite the default icon with the new one.
Note that this will work for any file or folder, not just
.app
files.Examples
Chrome/Chromium bootstrappers
I like to run Chrome/Chromium with some command-line switches or flags enabled. On Windows, you can create a shortcut and set the parameters you want in its properties; on a Mac, you’ll need to launch it from the command line every time. Well, not anymore :)
The
&
at the end is not a typo; it is there to make sure Chromium is launched in a separate thread. Without the &
, Chromium would exit as soon as you quit Terminal.app.Launch a local web server from a directory
Say you’re working on a project and you want to debug it from a web server. The following shell script will use Python to launch a local web server from a specific directory and open the index page in your default browser of choice. After appifying it, you won’t even need to open the terminal for it anymore.
More?
Chmod X /desktop/extra/install.app/contents/macos/install
Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. Just to give another example, you could very easily create an app that minifies all JavaScript and CSS files in a specific folder. Got any nice ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment!