I'm switching from PC to a MacBook and wondered the best convention for installing new software.
For example, I've downloaded the Atom IDE, unzipped the 4 files and put into the /Users/userName/Applications Directory (which was empty, but seemed like a good place).
I then added the /Users/userName/Applications/Atom directory to the \etc\paths file, but when I type 'atom' from the bash prompt, it is not recognized.
How should I be installing software, is there a convention on where it goes?
Do I need to update the \etc\paths file or is there a location where exe's are picked up by the command line?
Best Answer
Generally application (
.app) bundles are meant to be stored in/Applicationsof~/Applications. I recommend using/Applicationsfor the vast majority of installations, since the apps there will be accessible to other users' accounts`.Application bundles aren't directly executable. Instead, their executable file is stored within the bundle (right click and select "Show package contents"), in
{APPLICATION.app}/Contents/MacOS/To open an Application bundle from the terminal, you can use the wicked
opencommand with the-aflag, like:open -a /Applications/Application.app. This comes in handy occasionally, though I don't know why you'd want to open applications through terminal, rather than through the dock, dock stack, or spotlight.