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I am using MonoMac do develop a very simple application for Mac. I have a solution consisting of two projects: the main project, and the auto updater. The main project references the auto updater, so that the auto updater becomes a part of the application bundle of the main application.

When running the main application, I want to launch the auto updater if there is a new update. On windows, this is a simple Process.Start("C:\path\to\updater.exe"); On Mac, however, this seems to be problematic. When doing it the above mentioned way (both when using absolute and relative paths to the updater.exe), nothing happens, and debugging simply says that the process has been ended already when I try to get any information.

I have attempted to launch the updater using AppleScript:

do shell script "mono /path/to/bundle.app/Contents/MonoBundle/updater.exe"

But this produces the error "No Info.plist file in application bundle or no NSPrincipalClass in the Info.plist file, exiting". This same error appears when I try to start the main executable the same way, and I know that the Info.plist is configured correctly for this (since I am indeed able to start the app), so there must be something else that is wrong.

Am I doing something obviously wrong? I just want to start the updater from the main executable, how I do it doesn't matter.

Erlend D.
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  • Are you sure that the path is correct? Should this really include ".exe" at the end? You should check that this file actually exists. – Mark Apr 07 '13 at 18:08
  • Yep, the file exists, the path is correct (I have tried both relative and absolute path). Removing ".exe" made no difference at all. – Erlend D. Apr 08 '13 at 10:47
  • I really don't understand this. "Exe" files are for Windows, not for Mac. Why would Mono include an exe file in the bundle? Do you have any documentation about this? Perhaps it includes two files, one for Windows and another for Mac? This file for Mac should be another an application bundle. Perhaps there is a setting somewhere, which allows you to choose between creating an updater for Mac or for Windows? What do you use to create the auto-updater? – Mark Apr 08 '13 at 10:51
  • That's because Mono is creating .exe files which it proceeds to run using the following command: "mono path\to\application.exe", the same way as I tried to make it run with my AppleScript above. Mono-compiled exe files can be run on Mac if the Mono framework is installed (and yes, it is installed on this computer). I run the main executable without any problems at all, my problem comes when I attempt to launch the updater.exe from the main.exe. – Erlend D. Apr 08 '13 at 10:55
  • I've just read the docs on NSPrincipalClass. I wonder if the error applies to the plist file of the main bundle or if another plist file is expected (perhaps an updater.app bundle). What exactly happens if you execute the mono command from the terminal? Are you sure there are no spaces anywhere in the path? What happens if you put single quotes around the path ("mono '/path/to/bundle.app/Contents/MonoBundle/updater.exe'"). Have you checked the permissions? You could do a chmod -R 755 on the entire application package. You might also execute the do shell script command with admin permissions. – Mark Apr 08 '13 at 12:27
  • Thank you for helping me! I wondered about the plist file too, so (as I tried to explain in my post), I attempted to start the main executable with the mono command instead. But this still gives the same error message about the plist file, and that is what puzzles me the most. No spaces in the path, but I tried the single quotes anyway. Still the same. Admin permissions and chmod did nothing either. The following comment is the exact error message I get: – Erlend D. Apr 08 '13 at 14:42
  • I run: $ mono '/Users/erlend/Documents/Test.app/Contents/MonoBundle/Test.exe' And I get: 2013-04-08 16:33:50.916 mono[97149:707] No Info.plist file in application bundle or no NSPrincipalClass in the Info.plist file, exiting – Erlend D. Apr 08 '13 at 14:43

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