Check if a Mac OS X application is present

Question

I recall there being a Cocoa framework or AppleScript dictionary to check if an Application bundle with a specific name is installed at all, anywhere on the computer.

How do I do this? Either Cocoa, AppleScript, or command line are useful to me.

Rob Keniger · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-04T02:34:09.100

You should use Launch Services to do this, specifically the function LSFindApplicationForInfo().

You use it like so:

#import <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

CFURLRef appURL = NULL;
OSStatus result = LSFindApplicationForInfo (
                                   kLSUnknownCreator,         //creator codes are dead, so we don't care about it
                                   CFSTR("com.apple.Safari"), //you can use the bundle ID here
                                   NULL,                      //or the name of the app here (CFSTR("Safari.app"))
                                   NULL,                      //this is used if you want an FSRef rather than a CFURLRef
                                   &appURL
                                   );
switch(result)
{
    case noErr:
        NSLog(@"the app's URL is: %@",appURL);
        break;
    case kLSApplicationNotFoundErr:
        NSLog(@"app not found");
        break;
    default:
        NSLog(@"an error occurred: %d",result);
        break;          
}

//the CFURLRef returned from the function is retained as per the docs so we must release it
if(appURL)
    CFRelease(appURL);

do not forget if(appURL) before the release, in case it isn't found it will try to release an unexisting object, generating a crash — Daniel, May 03 '12 at 10:43
Note: LSFindApplicationForInfo seems deprecated as of 10.12. Anyone knows an alternative? — Anton Strogonoff, Feb 18 '17 at 05:33

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '11 at 15:01

3

From the command line this seems to do it:

> mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.apple.application-bundle" && kMDItemFSName = "Google Chrome.app"'

answered Mar 01 '11 at 15:01

Steve McLeod

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3

Using the Spotlight API to find an app will be much slower than using Launch Services. – Rob Keniger Mar 01 '11 at 15:42

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 28 '12 at 01:58

1

You can also use lsregister.

on doesAppExist(appName)
    if (do shell script "/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump | grep com.apple.Safari") ¬
    contains "com.apple.Safari" then return true
end appExists

That's pretty fast and you can do it from other languages like Python quite easily. You would want to play around with what you grep to make it most efficient.

edited Mar 28 '12 at 01:58

Rob Keniger

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answered Mar 01 '11 at 20:48

Clark

833
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You're right that it's a solution for languages that can't use native APIs. However, it would be overkill to call a command-line tool from a Cocoa app, since it just queries the very same Launch Services API. – Rob Keniger Mar 02 '11 at 01:11
True but the OP wasn't clear how he was using it. Plus others will certainly find this page for some other similar problem. – Clark Mar 02 '11 at 02:39

Robert Kniazidis · Answer 4 · 2023-04-20T13:50:53.883

Quick and easy, like this:

appInstalled("com.apple.Safari") --> true
appInstalled("com.api.finder") --> false
appInstalled("com.apple.finder") --> true
appInstalled("org.m0k.transmission") --> true, on my Mac, Transmission.app
appInstalled("org.videolan.vlc") --> true, on my Mac, VLC.app
appInstalled("com.apple.Music") --> true, on my Mac, Music.app
appInstalled("com.apple.iTunes") --> false, on my Mac, iTunes.app

on appInstalled(bundleID)
    try
        application id bundleID
        return true
    end try
    return false
end appInstalled

Check if a Mac OS X application is present

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