appify — create the simplest possible Mac app from a shell script (adds an application icon)

appify.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

VERSION=4.0.1
SCRIPT=`basename "$0"`
APPNAME="My App"
APPICONS="/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/GenericApplicationIcon.icns"
OSX_VERSION=`sw_vers -productVersion`
PWD=`pwd`

function usage {
	cat <<EOF

$SCRIPT v${VERSION} for for Mac OS X - https://gist.github.com/oubiwann/453744744da1141ccc542ff75b47e0cf

Usage:

  $SCRIPT [options]

Options:

  -h, --help 		Prints this help message, then exits
  -s, --script		Name of the script to 'appify' (required)
  -n, --name 		Name of the application (default "$APPNAME")
  -i, --icons		Name of the icons file to use when creating the app
                        (defaults to $APPICONS)
  -v, --version		Prints the version of this script, then exits

Description:

  Creates the simplest possible Mac app from a shell script.

  Appify has one required parameter, the script to appify:

    $SCRIPT --script my-app-script.sh

  Note that you cannot rename appified apps. If you want to give your app
  a custom name, use the '--name' option

    $SCRIPT --script my-app-script.sh --name "Sweet"

Copyright:

  Copyright (c) Thomas Aylott <http://subtlegradient.com/>
  Modified by Mathias Bynens <http://mathiasbynens.be/>
  Modified by Andrew Dvorak <http://OhReally.net/>
  Rewritten by Duncan McGreggor <http://github.com/oubiwann/>

EOF
	exit 1
}

function version {
	echo "v${VERSION}"
	exit 1
}

function error {
	echo
	echo "ERROR: $1"
	echo
	usage
}

while :; do
  case $1 in
    -h | --help )    usage;;
    -s | --script )  APPSCRIPT="$2"; shift ;;
    -n | --name )    APPNAME="$2"; shift ;;
    -i | --icons )   APPICONS="$2"; shift ;;
    -v | --version ) version;;
    -- )             shift; break ;;
    * )              break ;;
  esac
  shift
done

if [ -z ${APPSCRIPT+nil} ]; then
	error "the script to appify must be provided!"
fi

if [ ! -f "$APPSCRIPT" ]; then
	error "the can't find the script '$APPSCRIPT'"
fi

if [ -a "$APPNAME.app" ]; then
	error "the bundle '$PWD/$APPNAME.app' already exists"
fi

APPDIR="$APPNAME.app/Contents"

mkdir -vp "$APPDIR"/{MacOS,Resources}
cp -v "$APPICONS" "$APPDIR/Resources/$APPNAME.icns"
cp -v "$APPSCRIPT" "$APPDIR/MacOS/$APPNAME"
chmod +x "$APPDIR/MacOS/$APPNAME"

cat <<EOF > "$APPDIR/Info.plist"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
    <string>$APPNAME</string>
    <key>CFBundleGetInfoString</key>
    <string>$APPNAME</string>
    <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
    <string>$APPNAME</string>
    <key>CFBundleName</key>
    <string>$APPNAME</string>
    <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
    <string>APPL</string>
    <key>CFBundleSignature</key>
    <string>4242</string>
  </dict>
</plist>
EOF

echo "Application bundle created at '$PWD/$APPNAME.app'"
echo

I get

"The application cannot be opened because it has an incorrect executable format." on High Sierra.

You can’t open the application “iPhone Bitrise Build” because it is not supported on this type of Mac.

The icon does not update if I replace by new one?

What needs to be done for the new app to be disoverable by system_profiler, as in 'system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType' ?
Is there a way to 'register' the newly packaged app so it shows as 'installed'?

Yikes, I had no idea people were leaving comments here until today -- sorry, all!

I haven't used the script since 2016; I can give it a shot, and see if it still works.

@dlpigpen: usually running touch Your.app refreshes icons in Mac OS X ...

All Bundles I create on bigSure are not compatible it says.

it worked for me
https://sveinbjorn.org/platypus

This worked great for turning a script into a .app! But if you're doing this to deal with permission stuff, I'll note that the .app still isn't treated like one by macOS for security permission purposes. For example, if your script needs the Accessibility permission, macOS asks you to grant Accessibility permissions to bash (or zsh/sh/env/whatever), even though it's run from this .app. The heavier-weight Platypus app, linked above, addresses this for me so that the .app itself is what needs the permissions. Though I imagine for many this isn't important.

Thank you for this convenient script. It works like a charm on my Intel iMac running Monterey. On my MacBook Air M1 (Apple Silicon) on the other hand I only get a pop up which offers to install Rosetta emulation. This does not make a lot of sense to me, since I've only packaged a bash script. Any idea if this is a general limitation of macOS and the M1 SOC?

Hi ! Something has to change over the time. The script successfully creates an .APP but it does not work in these days. I tried to make simple shell script that works when if invoked directly, however it does not work if wrapped by .APP. Any idea ?

radim@Radim-MacBookPro14 % ./test         
Ahoj !

radim@Radim-MacBookPro14 % ./test.app/Contents/MacOS/test 
Ahoj !

radim@Radim-MacBookPro14 % ./test.app 
zsh: permission denied: ./test.app

radim@Radim-MacBookPro14 % open ./test.app
The application cannot be opened for an unexpected reason, error=Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10661 "(null)" UserInfo={_LSLine=4129, _LSFunction=_LSOpenStuffCallLocal}

radim@Radim-MacBookPro14 % sw_vers
ProductName:		macOS
ProductVersion:		14.4.1
BuildVersion:		23E224