How to move app bundles safely on the command line

applicationscommand linefilesystemfinder

I need to copy/move a bunch of macOS apps from some directory locations to another location. I know I can do this safely via the Finder. (By "safely" I mean that the app still starts up and works after copying/moving.)

However I would like to do this via the command line. Can I just use cp and mv like this:

$ cp -pr /path/to/old-location/myapp.app /path/to/new-location

$ mv /path/to/old-location/myapp.app /path/to/new-location

What about resource forks of files in the bundle? Or do other considerations warranting a better command line tool for copying/moving apps safely?

I am using macOS 10.13, High Sierra, in this particular case, but of course I'd be interested in a solution independent of the macOS version.

Best Answer

The copying of files on the Mac command line is a curious thing.

If both the source and the destination are on HFS, HFS+ or APFS file systems then cp will preserve special macOS attributes and since fairly early versions of macOS all extended attributes.

If you want to be slightly more secure you can use the -a option to cp which preserves absolutely everything including modification time, access time, file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions. Access Control Lists (ACLs) and Extended Attributes (EAs), including resource forks, will also be preserved. It also copies, rather than follows, symbolic links. Personally, this is what I use for copying apps.

For a total guarantee, including copying to other file systems such as FAT or NTFS you should use ditto —-rsrc which saves all the neat stuff in .AppleDouble files on those file systems.

If you want more information I heartily recommend a close reading of the man page of both.

mv is safe as houses so long as you are on the same volume and fine if both source and destination volumes are macOS formats.

By the way, you mistyped your example. It should be cp -pR, which is essentially the same as cp -a.

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Open app in current directory when another app with the same name exists, from command line

In this case, open -a is NOT what you want; the -a option is for launching known applications (indexed in the Launch Services database that lets you open a document and get the right application) by name, not by pathname, or for opening files with a given application.

What you are looking for is just plain opening foo.app, just like you double-clicked it in the Finder. To do that,

open foo.app

This will open exactly that application, without involving the Launch Services database at all.

Where should I store command line applications

Since OS X comes from a unix heritage, you will want to store system files in /usr/local/bin for command line applications and scripts that belong to the system locally and not to a specific user. You may need to create this directory first by running:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin

You can move any command line application to that folder by running:

sudo mv my-binary /usr/local/bin/

To make sure that /usr/local/bin is part of your standard search path in Terminal, check the content of /etc/paths and add it if necessary:

grep -w /usr/local/bin /etc/paths || sudo sh -c 'echo /usr/local/bin >> /etc/paths'

Some users make a second directory for user level scripts, but this is even more subject to personal preference.

I typically make a bin directory in each user folder and then hide it from Finder - but you can make that decision yourself whether you want it hidden:

 mkdir ~/bin
 chflags hidden ~/bin

In this case, you'll want to have each user's path include this location by modifying the shell startup scripts (~/.bash_profile for bash which is the standard shell)

 export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

or by hard coding the path to each app when you run it.

Best Answer

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Where should I store command line applications

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