appify. Create the simplest possible mac app from a shell script

appify

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# 
# url         : https://gist.github.com/672684
# version     : 2.0.2
# name        : appify
# description : Create the simplest possible mac app from a shell script.
# usage       : cat my-script.sh | appify MyApp
# platform    : Mac OS X
# author      : Thomas Aylott <oblivious@subtlegradient.com>

APPNAME=${1:-Untitled}

if [[ -a "$APPNAME.app" ]]; then
  echo "App already exists :'(" >&2
  echo "$PWD/$APPNAME.app"
  exit 1
fi

mkdir -p "$APPNAME.app/Contents/MacOS"
touch    "$APPNAME.app/Contents/MacOS/$APPNAME"
chmod +x "$APPNAME.app/Contents/MacOS/$APPNAME"

DONE=false
until $DONE ;do
  read || DONE=true
  echo "$REPLY" >> "$APPNAME.app/Contents/MacOS/$APPNAME"
done

echo "$PWD/$APPNAME.app"

New hello world example for appify 2.0

appify Howdy
#!/usr/bin/osascript
say "Howdy"

⌃D

open -a Howdy

"You can't open the application Test because it is not supported on this type of Mac."
Same deal. Try adding a #! shebang line.

Mathias, did you augment this for chrome execution with flags? would love to get that. :>

appify v2.0.1 assumes my-script.sh has a newline at the end of the file. If not, it will chop off the last line, effectively breaking the generated app. I’ve fixed this in my fork of this gist, by replacing the while read loop with this:

DONE=false
until $DONE ;do
  read || DONE=true
  echo "$REPLY" >> "$APPNAME.app/Contents/MacOS/$APPNAME"
done

Paul: http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/shell-script-mac-apps#chrome-bootstrappers

Updated to your 2.0.2!
Thanks Mathias!

http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/shell-script-mac-apps

You could also add [[ ! $REPLY ]] && continue after line 25, which will cause all redundant newlines to be skipped. (See my fork.)

Maybe it should just cp the file in there instead and avoid all these silly issues.

Hey @subtleGradient, I just rewrote appify so it uses cp which avoids a lot of problems. Check it out: https://gist.github.com/674099

It wouldn't work on OS X 10.10 until I added $APPNAME.app/Contents/Info.plist containing at least <plist><dict></dict></plist>

I created an app, but it won't execute when I double-click on the bundle. It is just a #!/bin/sh script that has a echo "hello world" statement in it for testing purposes. Can someone give me some guidance on how to get my app to run from clicking on the bundle? Appify did not create a Info.plist file for me, maybe this is the issue? What needs to be in that file? Thanks!

I forked this and added option-parsing, overridable icons file, and some other bits: https://gist.github.com/oubiwann/453744744da1141ccc542ff75b47e0cf