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[Solved] macOS - Programmatically add an application persistent to the Dock
(@hans)
Famed Member Admin
Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 2741
Topic starter
March 8, 2023 7:36 AM
A friend was looking for a way to programmatically add an application to the Dock.
Couldn't find a proper API for it (probably does exist, suggestions are welcome), but the following shell script did the trick (using Xcode as an example):
#!/bin/bash
myapp="//Applications//Xcode.app"
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add "<dict><key>tile-data</key><dict><key>file-data</key><dict><key>_CFURLString</key><string>$myapp</string><key>_CFURLStringType</key><integer>0</integer></dict></dict></dict>"
osascript -e 'tell application "Dock" to quit'
osascript -e 'tell application "Dock" to activate’
Source: StackExchange
(@hans)
Famed Member Admin
Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 2741
Topic starter
March 27, 2023 4:24 AM
Thank you for posting an alternative - it is much appreciated! 👍
As much as I do appreciate suggestions that work - this one may not be useful for those who want to use this to install their self-developed application. Most regular users will not have HomeBrew installed, and as a developer I can and will not expect this from a user either.
On that note: as a developer I do not even have HomeBrew installed, just to avoid that I overlook certain HomeBrew dependencies.