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How can I launch OS X's ScreenSharing from the command line and have it connect to a specified system?

2 Answers 2

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open vnc://server.address[:port]
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  • 3
    open vnc://user@pass:server:port also works if you want to pass in some credentials. The security risks of doing this is yours to consider. Apr 28, 2012 at 5:16
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    open vnc://user@server:port is also useful and doesn't have the security risks associated with having your password show up in the process list
    – Michael
    Jan 23, 2013 at 15:18
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    I never thought to type man open before today. It can do a lot. Jan 12, 2016 at 18:59
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    Correct syntax to use password is vnc://user:password@server:port
    – levsa
    Oct 27, 2016 at 8:47
  • Know of a way to use the VNC password as an argument to this? Thanks Feb 8, 2017 at 22:57
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If you have access for assistive devices activated in System Preferences, you can try saving the following AppleScript in AppleScript Editor and executing it via command line:

tell application "Screen Sharing"
    activate # start Screen Sharing if not running yet
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "a" using command down # this will cause the address to clear
        keystroke "127.0.0.1" # replace with your host
        key code 36 # press enter
    end tell
end tell

Save as Sharing.scpt, and execute as osascript /path/to/Sharing.scpt.

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