Platypus 4.0

June 18th, 2008

Author: Sveinbjorn Thordarson (sveinbjornt@simnet.is)

Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later


What is Platypus?

Platypus is a powerful development tool for creating application wrappers around scripts, i.e. creating MacOS X applications that execute a script which is bundled within the application. Scripts can thus be run transparently from the graphical window environment and integrate seamlessly with the user interface.

Platypus is written in Objective-C/Cocoa and is free, no-strings-attached open-source software distributed under the terms and conditions of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License which accompanies this document. The source code is available as a seperate download on the Platypus website.

Platypus is at this point a mature, feature-rich and stable application. I have invested considerable effort into developing it in the last five years. That being said, if you find Platypus to be a genuinely useful piece of software I ask you to please consider making a donation to support further feature development, bug fixes and web hosting.


How do I use Platypus?

Using Platypus is simple enough. You type in the name you want to assign to the application in the "App Name" field and then locate the shell script via a navigation dialog by pressing the "Select" button (or alternatively, drag the script or type in the path manually). You can then proceed to create the application by pressing the aptly named "Create" button.

Platypus sports a number of sophisticated features. These are adequately explained in the Help documentation. You can view the Help by opening Platypus and selecting "Platypus Help" from the "Help" menu. The documentation includes step by step tutorials and explanations of advanced features. Your download should also have included a folder containing some sample scripts. I am always looking for interesting scripts to accompany Platypus as examples, so if you are an accomplished scripter please consider sending me anything you think might fit the bill.

As of version 3.0, Platypus has a command-line counterpart platypus. You can install this command line tool from the Preferences. The man page for the command line tool is available from the Help menu.


How does Platypus work?

Platypus creates a MacOS X application (.app) bundle that contains an executable file and the script in question. When a Platypus app is launched, the executable file gets the script interpreter and other settings (authentication requirements, output type etc.) from configuration files in the Resources folder within the bundle and then executes the script according to those parameters by using either NSTask or AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges.

Platypus and Platypus-generated applications require Mac OS X 10.4 or later. In order to create Platypus apps that run on older versions of Mac OS X, you must use Platypus 3.4 or earlier.


Current To Do List:


Version history

22/6/2008 - Version 4.0

25/07/2006 - Version 3.4

24/02/2006 - Version 3.3

06/05/2005 - Version 3.2

06/05/2005 - Version 3.1

13/01/2005 - Version 3.0

29/11/2004 - Version 2.8

16/11/2004 - Version 2.7

11/10/2004 - Version 2.6

23/08/2004 - Version 2.5

11/08/2004 - Version 2.3

03/05/2004 - Version 2.2

27/04/2004 - Version 2.1

17/02/2004 - Version 2.0

21/11/2003 - Version 1.8

17/11/2003 - Version 1.7

14/08/2003 - Version 1.6

29/07/2003 - Version 1.5 released

18/06/2003 - Version 1.4 released

15/06/2003 - Version 1.3 released

13/06/2003 - Version 1.2 released

11/06/2003 - Version 1.1 released

09/06/2003 - Version 1.0 released



Sveinbjorn Thordarson
http://sveinbjorn.org/software
sveinbjornt@simnet.is