macOS .command files

[Muncher]

Simply put, what the hell are .command files? I've only seen them once.

They are binary executable files. Finder says they're associated with terminal. When I looked for them online, I got nothing. Does anyone know what these are?

 

[mac-convert]

What in particular are you looking for?

I check the web site, but I don't recognize it and I don't care to run the video there.

 

[Muncher]

You don't have to run the video, just download it. It's 4k - seriously, dude! It won't take a minute even on dial up.

I just want to know: a) what kind of file it is, and b) how to make one myself. I can find out the second part, I just need part a first.

 

[mac-convert]

No thanks - anyone else?

Edit: maybe someone on that site can assist you

 

[Gelfin]

Pretty sure that's just an explicit way of associating a shell script with Terminal.app in the Finder. If you look at the contents of that file, you'll see that although the majority of it is a binary application, the first six lines are a shell script that extracts that binary content to a file in /tmp, runs it and then deletes it.

Not that I'm going to run it. Video was coolish, I guess.

 

[Krevnik]

Yup, .command is meant to be used as shell scripts/etc for the Terminal. You can actually make unix binaries into .command files and it should run just fine.

 

[pilotError]

The period at the beginning of the file name just makes it a hidden file to normal terminal directory listings. Probably in Finder as well.

 

[Krevnik]

The period at the beginning of the file name just makes it a hidden file to normal terminal directory listings. Probably in Finder as well.

The files don't start with period, it is a file extension. The files in quesion would be like:

MyScript.command

The .command file could be a bash script, a perl script, an executable file, pretty much anything you can correctly execute using the exec command or calling it directly.

 

[telecomm]

Funny, I was just talking about .command files with someone at work today. I use them all the time when working on projects that require several files. You can write a .command file that, say, opens up the terminal, launches three documents and two apps, then closes the terminal, all activated just by double clicking on an icon.