How can I perform the equivalent of shellexecute() in Lazarus for a Mac?

Question

How can I perform the equivalent of shellexecute() in Lazarus for a Mac?

Answer 1

Since OS X is simply a descendant of BSD Unix, you can use fork() or exec(), whichever is appropriate for your application, IIRC. See the man pages on either of those for more info.

EDITED: Fixed typo to read "BSD Unix" instead of "Linux" and apologized in comments for fat fingers. :-)

Answer 2

I don't know whether Lazarus libraries do already have this functionality wrapped, but if not you could write a conditionally compiled version of ShellExecute() using the info in the Launch Services Programming Guide.

Answer 3

I've successfully used Shell('open ' + Filename) in OS X 10.4 and 10.3 which seems to work rather nicely for most filetypes.

I stumbled across open at the shell prompt and now miss it in cygwin/linux etc.

Answer 4

{ Here is code to do it. Use the TProcess object! }

uses Process;

...

procedure DoProcess;
Var
  Proc : TProcess;

Begin
  Proc := TProcess.Create(nil);
  try
    Proc.CommandLine := '/Applications/MyApp.app';

    PRoc.Options := Proc.Options + [poWaitOnExit];
    Proc.CommandLine := Proc.CommandLine + ' -someparam';
    PRoc.Execute;
  finally
    Proc.free;
  end;  
End;

Answer 5

fork hurts on Mac. BSDs use vfork, not fork.