How to run a shell script in OS X by double-clicking

Question

I have a shell script that has user execution permission on OS X  but when I double click on it  it opens in a text editor  How can I get it to run by double-clicking it

User · Answer

As of OSX 10 10  Yosemite  and since at least OS X 10 8  Mountain Lion   the behavior is as follows when you open  double-click  executable scripts from Finder   Executable scripts 1  with either NO suffix or suffix  command  are executed by default - no setup required   a new Terminal window opens in which the script runs  by default  the window will remain open after the script terminates so you can inspect the output  though at that point the shell that ran the script has exited and you cannot interact with it any longer   However  via Terminal s Preferences     gt  Profiles you can opt to automatically close the window when the script exits    Caveat  the working folder is invariably the current user s home folder  NOT the folder in which the script is located   To make a shell script change to the folder in which it is located  place  cd --  quot   dirname  quot  BASH SOURCE quot   quot  right after the shebang line or  if you must remain POSIX-compliant  cd --  quot   dirname  quot  0 quot   quot   For edge cases  such as finding a symlinked script s true source directory  see this answer      If the script is unexpectedly not executable   Make it executable by running chmod  x  lt script gt  in Terminal  otherwise  you ll see the following symptoms   command  Finder displays a misleading error message that suggests the problem can be fixed via File  gt  Get Info  which is not true - use the chmod  x method suggested above  no suffix   with a shebang line  e g      bin bash   behavior is as if the suffix were  sh - see below  with no shebang line  opens in your default text editor  which is TextEdit by default       Scripts with suffix  sh  whether executable or not  are opened for editing in TextEdit app or  if installed  with Xcode app  Scripts with suffix  scpt or  applescript  even if they re themselves marked as executable  which is not normally the case    opened for editing in  Apple Script Editor Note that the JXA source-code files seem to have no distinct suffix  yet     Scripts with a custom suffix  a suffix not yet known to the system   whether executable or not  in fact  applies to any kind of file    prompt you for the app to open them with when you first open them  and remember that choice       1  Executable means  a script with the executable permission bit s  set and the calling user - relative to the ownership to the file - therefore potentially being allowed to execute it  If you use chmod a x to set all permission bits  which is typical   anyone can invoke it  assuming they re also allowed to read the file based on the read permission bit s  and the file s ownership

User · Answer

You can also set defaults by file extension using RCDefaultApp   http   www rubicode com Software RCDefaultApp   potentially you could set  sh to open in iTerm Terminal etc  it would need user execute permissions  eg  chmod u x filename sh

User · Answer

Alternatively  you could create a regular Mac OS X application from your script using Platypus

User · Answer

The easy way is to change the extension to  command or no extension   But that will open the Terminal  and you will have to close it  If you don t want to see any output  you can use Automator to create a Mac Application that you can double click  add to the dock  etc    Open Automator application Choose  Application  type Type  run  in the Actions search box Double click  Run Shell Script  Click the Run button in upper right corner to test it  File  gt  Save to create the Application

User · Answer

No need to use third-party apps such as Platypus   Just create an Apple Script with Script Editor and use the command do shell script  shell commands  for direct command calls or executable shell script files  keep the editable script file safe somewhere then export it to create an Application script  the app script is launch-able by double click or selection in bar folder

User · Answer

Have you tried using the  command filename extension

User · Answer

First in terminal make the script executable by typing the following command    chmod a x yourscriptname   Then  in Finder  right-click your file and select  quot Open with quot  and then  quot Other    quot    Here you select the application you want the file to execute into  in this case it would be Terminal  To be able to select terminal you need to switch from  quot Recommended Applications quot  to  quot All Applications quot    The Terminal app application can be found in the Utilities folder   NOTE that unless you don t want to associate all files with this extension to be run in terminal you should not have  quot Always Open With quot  checked   After clicking OK you should be able to execute you script by simply double-clicking it

User · Answer

chmod 774 filename   Note  The file with name  filename  that has the bash script has no extension

[macos] How to run a shell script in OS X by double-clicking?

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