How to include an external executable into a MacOS app?

Question

I am building a simple app with a TextField input. I want to pass the input of the TextField to a cli tool I built with Golang.

This cli-tool is not sitting in /usr/bin but under ~/go/bin in my user directory. So, when I try something like the answer to this question it's not able to find the executable.

I tried copying the executable in every single folder of the Application but I am still getting the same error.

Where exactly am I supposed to copy the executable? What does the code from this looks like after I copied it over?

@matt are you sure it's the right link? I don't see any mention about PATH there. The problem comes with executables outside of /usr/bin. If I pass in /usr/bin/ls for example everything is fine. But if I instead pass /Users/John/go/bin/myclitool that doesn't work — gallivantingitalian
– gallivantingitalian, Commented Apr 7, 2022 at 19:47
Yes, I am running sandboxed. I want to bundle the executable into the app — gallivantingitalian
– gallivantingitalian, Commented Apr 8, 2022 at 7:54
You do? Then why are we talking about /usr/bin and things like that??? — matt
– matt, Commented Apr 8, 2022 at 11:36
Because if I execute commands from /usr/bin or for instance /bin/pwd, no complains. But if I point to my local executable /Users/John/bin/myclitool it complains — gallivantingitalian
– gallivantingitalian, Commented Apr 8, 2022 at 20:15

mcritz · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-06 22:55:29Z

1

Apple provides documentation for this very thing.

Bouncing off @gallivantingitalian 's answer you may find the Bundle.main.url(forAuxiliaryExecutable:) command helpful if following Apple’s documentation.

let process = Process()
guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forAuxiliaryExecutable: "my_awesome_tool") else {
    throw AppErrors.appConfigError(reason: "my_awesome_tool tool not found")
}
process.executableURL = url

answered Jul 6, 2023 at 22:55

mcritz

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gallivantingitalian · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-09 18:03:34Z

0

For future reference this worked:

Step 1: embed the binary in the build (Adding resource files to xcode). To open the project tab just double click on your app root in XCode

Step 2: You will find the path to your executable like this:

let bundle = Bundle.main
let pathToExecutable = bundle.url(forResource: "myclitool", withExtension: "")

and then you can use Process to run it (e.g. How to launch an external Process?)

answered Apr 9, 2022 at 18:03

gallivantingitalian

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