A sample project that demonstrates how to move a running Mac OS X application to the Applications folder.
Builds and runs on Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. Does NOT support sandboxed applications.
Option 1:
Build then embed LetsMove.framework into your app.
Option 2:
Copy the following files into your project:
- PFMoveApplication.h
- PFMoveApplication.m
If your project has ARC enabled, you'll want to disable ARC on the above files. You can do so by adding -fno-objc-arc compiler flag to your PFMoveApplication.m source file. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6646052/how-can-i-disable-arc-for-a-single-file-in-a-project/6658549#6658549
If your application is localized, also copy the 'MoveApplication.string' files into your project.
Link your application against Security.framework.
In your app delegate's "-[applicationWillFinishLaunching:]" method, call the PFMoveToApplicationsFolderIfNecessary function at the very top.
Public domain
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1.24 - Unreleased
- Add PFMoveIsInProgress function
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1.23
- Fix localization not being used when built as a framework
- Fix backwards compatibility with OS X 10.9 and earlier being broken
- Make usable for Electron based apps or other apps that do not have access to the main thread dispatch queue
- Update Russian localization
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1.22
- Fix not deleting or trashing itself after copying to /Applications in macOS Sierra
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1.21
- Support for Carthage added
- Project now support OS X 10.6 and higher
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1.20
- Support for applications bundled inside another application
- Brazilian Portuguese localization slightly updated
- Build warnings fixed
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1.19
- Slovak localization added
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1.18
- Catalan localization added
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1.17
- Tranditional Chinese localization added.
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1.16
- Deprecation warning that appears when minimum deployment target is set to OS X 10.10 taken care of
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1.15
- Swedish localization added
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1.14
- Hugarian, Serbian, and Turkish localizations added
- Macedonian localization added
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1.13
- Polish localization added
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1.12
- Use country code based .lproj directories
- Make it compile for projects that don't use precompiled headers to import AppKit.framework
- Minor adjustment to Dutch localization
- Warning fixes in example project
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1.11
- Objective-C++ compatibility
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1.10
- Fixed deprecation warnings that show up when building against the OS X 10.9 SDK.
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1.9
- Removed OS X 10.4 support
- Properly detect if the running app is in a disk image
- Fixed a bug where if the app's name contained a quote, the app could not be moved
- After a successful move, delete the application instead of moving it to the Trash.
- Other fixes and improvements
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1.8
- If the app is already there in the Applications folder but not writable, request authentication from user
- Added Korean localization
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1.7.2
- Fixed an exception that could happen.
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1.7.1
- Refactoring
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1.7
- Only move to ~/Appilcations directory if an app is already in there.
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1.6.3
- Function calls deprecated in 10.7 no longer cause compile time warnings.
- Added Simplified Chinese and European Portuguese localizations
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1.6.2
- Garbage collection compatibility added
- Use a new method to check if an application is already running on Mac OS X 10.6 systems or higher
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1.6.1
- Use exit(0) to terminate the app before relaunching instead of [NSApp terminate:]. We don't want applicationShouldTerminate or applicationWillTerminate NSApplication delegate methods to be called, possibly introducing side effects.
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1.6
- Resolve any aliases when finding the Applications directory
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1.5.2
- Cleaned up the code a bit. Almost functionally equivalent to 1.5.1.
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1.5.1
- Fixed a bug with clearing the quarantine file attribute on Mac OS X 10.5
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1.5
- Don't prompt to move the application if it has "Applications" in its path somewhere
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1.4
- Mac OS X 10.5 compatibility fixes
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1.3
- Fixed a rare bug in the shell script that checks to see if the app is already running
- Clear quarantine flag after copying
- Compile time option to show normal sized alert supress checkbox button
- German, Danish, and Norwegian localizations added
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1.2
- Copy application from disk image then unmount disk image
- Spanish, French, Dutch, and Russian localizations
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1.1
- Prefers ~/Applications over /Applications if it exists
- Escape key pushes the "Do Not Move" button
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1.0
- First release
- Andy Kim
- John Brayton
- Chad Sellers
- Kevin LaCoste
- Rasmus Andersson
- Timothy J. Wood
- Matt Gallagher
- Whitney Young
- Nick Moore
- Nicholas Riley
- Matt Prowse
- Maxim Ananov
- Charlie Stigler
- Eita Hayashi (Japanese)
- Gleb M. Borisov, Maxim Ananov (Russian)
- Wouter Broekhof (Dutch)
- Rasmus Andersson / Spotify (French and Spanish)
- Markus Kirschner (German)
- Fredrik Nannestad (Danish)
- Georg Alexander Bøe (Norwegian)
- Marco Improda (Italian)
- Venj Chu (Simplified Chinese)
- Sérgio Miranda (European Portuguese)
- Victor Figueiredo and BR Lingo (Brazilian Portuguese)
- AppLingua (Korean)
- Czech X Team (Czech)
- Marek Telecki (Polish)
- Petar Vlahu (Macedonian)
- Václav Slavík (Hungarian, Serbian, and Turkish)
- Erik Vikström (Swedish)
- Inndy Lin (Traditional Chinese)
- aONe (Catalan)
- Marek Hrusovsky (Slovak)