Cocoa and executable files

Question

Hey, I am writing a Cocoa app for Mac OS X and I want it to be able to open executable files. That is, files with the 'execute' permission. These files usually do not have a file extension, so I don't know how to specify this in the plist file.

How can I make the Open panel allow the user to select UNIX executables? Thanks in advance.

Note that I don't want to execute them.

Do you mean open as in to edit/view the raw binary data of the executable file? — Black Frog, Apr 15 '11 at 14:33
@Black From yes, and I want the open panel to show files with the execute permission. — , Apr 15 '11 at 14:34

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 15 '11 at 14:55

To have your application listed in the "Open With..." panel of the Finder for unix -executable file, you have to update your Info.plist for CFBundleDocumentTypes with the following:

<dict>
    <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
    <string>Editor</string>
    <key>LSItemContentTypes</key>
    <array>
        <string>public.unix-executable</string>
    </array>
</dict>

Cocoa and executable files

1 Answers1