Changing the Finder "Open With" contextual menu from the command line
The command line tool duti (http://duti.sourceforge.net) can be used to change default file-application launching associations as shown by the Finder "Open With" contextual menu. Changing the Finder "Open With" contextual menu means changing the default way we "open" documents on the command line as well.
The "lsregister" command can be used to dump or rebuild the Launch Services database.
The "lsregister" command can be used to dump or rebuild the Launch Services database.
export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin export IFS=$' \t\n' # download & install duti, MacVim and TextMate # duti - set default UTI handlers # cf. http://duti.sourceforge.net/documentation.php and # http://developer.apple.com/macosx/uniformtypeidentifiers.html cd ~/Desktop curl -L -O http://downloads.sourceforge.net/duti/duti-1.3.0.pkg.tar.gz tar -xzf duti-1.3.0.pkg.tar.gz open -a Installer duti-1.3.0.pkg stat -x /usr/local/bin/duti duti -h man duti # MacVim, http://code.google.com/p/macvim/ cd ~/Desktop curl -L -O http://macvim.googlecode.com/files/MacVim-7_2-stable-1_2.tbz tar -xjf MacVim-7_2-stable-1_2.tbz #open MacVim-7_2-stable-1_2.tbz # uses BOMArchiveHelper (10.4) or Archive Utility (10.5) respectively mv -i MacVim-7_2-stable-1_2 MacVim mv -i ~/Desktop/MacVim /Applications # TextMate, http://macromates.com cd ~/Desktop curl -L -O http://macromates.com/textmate/files/TextMate_1.5.7.dmg hdiutil mount ~/Desktop/TextMate_1.5.7.dmg cp -Ri '/Volumes/TextMate 1.5.7/TextMate.app' /Applications hdiutil unmount '/Volumes/TextMate 1.5.7' #/usr/bin/sudo /bin/ln -s /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/mate /usr/local/bin/mate # get the path to the "lsregister" command locate lsregister | head -n 1 find /System/Library/Frameworks -type f -name lsregister -ls find /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework -type f -name lsregister -ls alias lsregister="/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister" #/usr/bin/sudo /bin/ln -s `locate lsregister | head -n 1` /bin/lsregister # alternative # rebuild Launch Services database #alias rlsdb='lsregister -kill -r -f -all system,local,user' # Mac OS X 10.5; cf. http://9stmaryrd.com/2008/05/16/158 alias rlsdb='lsregister -kill -r -f -domain local -domain system -domain user' rlsdb lsregister -h lsregister -dump | grep -i duti lsregister -dump | grep -i MacVim lsregister -dump | grep -i TextMate lsregister -dump | grep -i TextEdit lsregister -dump | grep -i Safari lsregister -dump | grep -i helpviewer lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*uti:[[:space:]]+(.*)$/ \1/p' | sort | uniq | nl lsregister -dump | grep '[[:space:]]uti:' | awk '{ print $2 }' | sort | uniq | nl lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*identifier:[[:space:]]+([^[:space:]].*)$/ \1/p' | sort | uniq | nl lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*path:[[:space:]]+([^[:space:]].*\.app)$/ \1/p' | sort | uniq | nl lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*uti:[[:space:]]+(.*)$/ \1/p' | nl | egrep -i 'duti|MacVim|TextMate|TextEdit|Safari|helpviewer' lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*identifier:[[:space:]]+([^[:space:]].*)$/ \1/p' | nl | egrep -i 'duti|MacVim|TextMate|TextEdit|Safari|helpviewer' lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*path:[[:space:]]+([^[:space:]].*\.app)$/ \1/p' | nl | egrep -i 'duti|MacVim|TextMate|TextEdit|Safari|helpviewer' lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*uti:[[:space:]]+(public\..*)$/ \1/p' | sort | uniq | nl lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*uti:[[:space:]]+(.*text.*)$/ \1/p' | sort | uniq | nl alias utis="lsregister -dump | grep '[[:space:]]uti:' | awk '{ print \$2 }' | sort | uniq" alias utis="lsregister -dump | sed -E -n -e 's/^.*uti:[[:space:]]+(.*)$/\1/p' | sort | uniq" utis utis | grep -i 'public\.' | nl defaults read com.apple.LaunchServices # ... or just use wsupdate from http://osxutils.sourceforge.net # move & copy the same file unset -f mc function mc() { if [[ $# -gt 1 ]] || [[ ! -e "$@" ]]; then return 1; fi tmpfile="${@}.tmp-${RANDOM}" printf "%s\n" "$tmpfile" /bin/mv "$@" "${tmpfile}" /bin/sleep 0.2 /bin/cp -p "${tmpfile}" "$@" /bin/rm "${tmpfile}" return 0 } unset -f mc function mc() { if [[ $# -gt 1 ]] || [[ ! -e "$@" ]]; then return 1; fi tmpfile="/tmp/tmpfile.tmp-${RANDOM}" printf "%s\n" "$tmpfile" /bin/mv "$@" "${tmpfile}" /bin/sleep 0.2 /bin/cp -Rp "${tmpfile}" "$@" /bin/rm -Rf "${tmpfile}" return 0 } echo hello world > ~/Desktop/test.txt echo hello world > ~/Desktop/test.html # switch between Safari & Help Viewer as the default launching app for html files open ~/Desktop/test.html # cf. http://duti.sourceforge.net/documentation.php printf "%s\n" 'com.apple.helpviewer public.html all' | duti #mc ~/Desktop/test.html wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.html open ~/Desktop/test.html printf "%s\n" 'com.apple.Safari public.html all' | duti wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.html open ~/Desktop/test.html rlsdb # switch between TextEdit, MacVim & TextMate as the default launching app for plain text files open ~/Desktop/test.txt printf "%s\n" 'com.macromates.textmate public.plain-text all' | duti open ~/Desktop/test.txt wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.txt printf "%s\n" 'org.vim.MacVim public.plain-text all' | duti open ~/Desktop/test.txt # type: ":q" or ":x" to quit test.txt wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.txt printf "%s\n" 'com.apple.TextEdit public.plain-text all' | duti open ~/Desktop/test.txt wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.txt # cf. http://duti.sourceforge.net/documentation.php /bin/cat > ~/Desktop/test.duti <<-'EOF' com.apple.helpviewer public.html all com.macromates.textmate public.plain-text all EOF # remove white space at line beginning ed -s ~/Desktop/test.duti <<< $',s/^[[:space:]]*//\nw' open -e ~/Desktop/test.duti duti -v ~/Desktop/test.duti wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.html open ~/Desktop/test.html wsupdate ~/Desktop/test.txt open ~/Desktop/test.txt #-------------------------------------------------- # GUI alternative to switch the default launching app for a single file [right-click on a file] + [alt] -> "Always Open With" # GUI alternative to change the default launching app for all files of the same kind [right-click on a file] -> "Get Info" -> "Open with:" -> [select an app] -> "Change All ..."
