MacOS – How to open shell scripts in editor when double clicking on them

bashcommand linefindermacosterminal

I'm trying to migrate to OS X. One thing what I find really strange / dangerous that by double clicking on shell scripts, I launch them in Terminal.

I would like to change this behaviour to open them in Sublime Text.

My problem is that while I can do it to single files using the "Get Info" dialog, I cannot apply "Change All…" for these kind of files.

For other filetypes it worked OK, but for .sh / Unix Executable File I cannot assign them.

When I click, I get the following error dialog:
The operation can't be completed.
An unexpected error occurred (error code -50).

Best Answer

Install duti by running brew install duti, save a file like

com.apple.TextEdit public.unix-executable all

as ~/.duti, and then run /usr/local/bin/duti ~/.duti. After that executable scripts with no filename extension should be opened in TextEdit.

Another option is to run plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist, open the plist in a text editor, add an entry like

<dict>
  <key>LSHandlerContentType</key>
  <string>public.unix-executable</string>
  <key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
  <string>com.apple.TextEdit</string>
</dict>

under LSHandlers, and then restart to apply the changes.

The default application for shell scripts with a .sh extension can be changed from Finder:

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