CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++linuxmacosinstallation
Mr. Boy
Mr. Boy

Reputation: 63816

Finding an installed application on Mac/Linux

If you have an application which relies on another app being installed, you ideally want your installer to find that dependency path automatically. On Windows you can use the registry but what about Mac/Linux? In this particular case it's a C++ application, if that makes a difference.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 541

Answers (4)

ap-osd
ap-osd

Reputation: 2834

The equivalent of a Windows Installer is the Linux Package Manager. The Package Manager handles dependencies and installs it (if it is not already present on the system). The dependency information for an application is stored within the package file. Each distribution has its own Package Manager, though the concept is the same.

There are plenty of resources online for specifics about a Package Manager. However, if you would like to get an overview in comparison with a Windows Installer, check out application management in GNU/Linux for Windows users.

Upvotes: 0

Adam Rosenfield
Adam Rosenfield

Reputation: 400642

In Mac OS X, if you're looking for an application that's bundled in a typical .app bundle, you can use Spotlight to find it from its bundle ID using the command line utility mdfind(1). For example, to find out if Firefox is installed (and where), run this command:

mdfind 'kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier == org.mozilla.firefox'

Upvotes: 1

thiton
thiton

Reputation: 36059

Generally, on UNIX systems you can expect all programs to reside in $PATH instead of being distributed in a hodge-podge collection of stupidly named and partially localized directories. So, essentially you don't need to find any dependency path - you just call the other "app" (program) via execvp, and the libc takes care of walking through the entries of $PATH and finding the executable.

In the classic UNIX model, you don't check anything in an installer, but just check at runtime whether an executable is available (with which, for example) or not.

Upvotes: 0

pmr
pmr

Reputation: 59841

If you try to distribute your application through any of the common package managers on Linux (apt, yum) you can add the application as a dependency. If you down the route of custom install scripts you need to resort to some kind of hackery. Either find out which package manager is in use on the system and try to query with it (which can fail, if the other application was installed without the package manager) or try something like which required_app.

Go for the first, if you want to do it right.

Upvotes: 1

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