How to launch a mac application without a terminal window.

Question

I've written an open-source c++ application and it works fine on Windows and Linux, I finally got a Mac Mini (with 10.5.8) so I've just been testing the Mac version.

My application works fine when running it from inside a terminal window and typing ./appname , but if instead I double click on it from the finder, then it opens a termnial window first and then runs my app but it doesn't seem to set the working directory to the correct location so my app dies.

How do I make my app so when it launches by being double clicked on it doesn't open a terminal window first and how can I have the current directory set to the apps location automatically?

Answer 1

Mac binaries are set to be opened with the 'Terminal' program; there's no way around that, except by making a full application package, or have another program launch it via system or something like that.

When double-clicking on a binary, the terminal window opens with ~ as the current directory. I suggest you use chdir(2) in your program to ensure it is running in the right directory if you need it in the first place.