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Can someone tell me what exactly do I need to do from this explanation?

After extensive trial-and-error, and a lot of fruitless Googling, I found the solution required modifying the executable status of the "inner" application file. This line:

chmod +x SomeApp.app/contents/macos/*

Fixed the problem in all cases that I observed. The +x flags a file as executable, and the only file in the /contents/macos/ directory is a binary representing the actual file that should be executed when you double-click the application (a .app file is really just a folder).

Hope this helps someone else!

1 Answer 1

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You need to

  • launch Terminal [Applications/Utilities], then type or copy/paste
    chmod +x [including a space after the x]
  • then drag the app you need to change the perms straight onto the Terminal window, which will fill in the correct path
  • hit Backspace once, as the last task will add an unnecessary space
  • Then you need to add the sub-path to the actual executable inside the app, so copy this & paste it onto the end of your current Terminal line /Contents/MacOS/*
  • Hit Enter

This will change the permissions to executable.

An example of the 'finished' Terminal command, using TextEdit as the example
chmod +x /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/*

Note:
Terminal never tells you "Success" or "Done" etc. If you see it add a new line saying
yourMac:~ yourname$ then it's finished.
If there's an error it will report that.

If you get an error saying you do not have permission to do this, then start over, but use
sudo chmod +x for the first step.
This is, in effect, "Administrator Override" mode.
You will be asked to provide your Mac password when you hit Enter [which will not show at all as you type it] then hit Enter again.

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  • in Linux at least you can use stat following your chmod command to check new permissions - that is; read, write and execute. ss64.com/osx/stat.html seems to suggest that stat is available in macOS as well - maybe this can be of use to OP.
    – QuickishFM
    Jul 25, 2020 at 13:13
  • stat will give you the octal. ls -l will show you the simple perms drwxr-x--x+ etc. ls -le will give you full including ACLs.
    – Tetsujin
    Jul 25, 2020 at 13:22

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