Create mac app from a shell script

Ever thought of having an application to run it directly instead of multiple shell commands?

And won’t it be cool to just convert your shell script into a Mac application and use it just like any other mac applications?

So let’s learn today to create mac app from a shell script.

Before jumping into the application creation, we will quickly see how an application folder structure in Mac looks like:

The bare minimum folder structure is something like below that you will find for any applications in Mac.

(app-name).app
├── Contents
│ └── MacOS
│ └── (app-name)
└── Icon

So now let’s get started. We need mainly three things for our application:

1. An executable shell script which will make your shell script as an application.
2. Your actual shell script to make it as an application.
3. Add an icon to your application. (Not Mandatory but looks cool like real app)

Let’s walk through these steps one by one:

1. An executable shell script which will make your shell script as an application:

• Now have your script file with .sh extension ready and run the below command to make you shell script as a Mac application.
• appify your-shell-script.sh “Your App Name”

1. Add an icon to your application:
   This one is very simple.

• Just copy any image you want as the app icon.
• Right-click your new application select “Get Info”.
• Select the app icon on the top left corner by clicking it just once.
• and then either hit ⌘ + V to paste it or go to ‘Edit’ from menu link and select paste.
• With this, it will overwrite the default icon with your new icon.

Now your application is ready to use just like any other application.

Below is a quick simple demo example to see the above process in action:

I hope this post will help you learn how to create mac app from a shell script.

References:

• https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/shell-script-mac-apps
• https://gist.github.com/mathiasbynens/674099
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30792569/converting-a-shell-script-into-a-app-file