openapp(1)

✨ openapp(1) — the GNUstep System Manual glow-up ✨

okay bestie, welcome to openapp, from the GNUstep System Manual — the little command that launches your apps from the terminal like it's no big deal 💅

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🎀 NAME 🎀

openapp — launch applications from the command line. yes that's literally it and yes it's iconic 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

openapp [--find] [--debug [--gdb= debuger]] [ --library-combo=library-
combo ] application [arguments...]

(no we are not fixing debuger, that's canon, iykyk 💀)

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The openapp command lets you launch graphical GNUstep applications straight from the command line. main character energy fr fr ✨

application is the complete or relative name of the application program, with or without the .app extension — like Ink.app. both ways, she eats 💖

arguments are the arguments passed to the application. they get handed over, no questions asked 🫶

so here's the vibe check on how openapp finds your app: first it checks whether the application is in the current working directory. if not, it searches the GNUstep domains' Applications folders in this order:

1. User (i.e. ~/GNUstep/Applications)
2. Local
3. Network
4. **System`

first match wins. periodt 💅

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• --find application — will print out the full path of the application executable which would be executed, without actually executing it. it will also list all paths that are attempted, so you can see the whole search journey 🕵️♀️✨
• --debug application — starts the application in the debugger. by default that's gdb, but you can change it with the --gdb= argument or through the GDB shell variable 🔥
• *--library-combo=library-combo*— starts the application with the specified library combo. this is a <yellow>rarely used option in a non-flattened setup</yellow>. see thelibrary-combo(7)` man-page for more info about the different library combinations 📚
• --help — print above usage description. short, sweet, helpful, we love her 🎀

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Start Ink.app without additional parameters:

openapp Ink.app

Launch Ink.app and pass it the --debug argument:

openapp --debug Ink.app

To determine which executable is launched by openapp, type:

openapp --find Ink.app

The output of the above command might be something like:

/usr/GNUstep/Local/Applications/Ink.app/Ink

see? she's just a girl, standing in front of a binary path, telling you where it is 😭💖

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

• GNUSTEP_CONFIG_FILE — is used to determine where the GNUstep.sh configuration file is located. if the variable is not set, openapp tries to locate it in the folder where openapp was started, then in the user domain, and as a last resort in the system domain (or actually the place you configured with --with-config-file=) during building). 🫧
• GDB — sets the debugger to use when --debug is used. yes it's just called GDB. no we don't question it 💀

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

debugapp(1), GNUstep(7), gopen(1), library-combo(7), opentool(1) — go read the whole friend group, they're all slay 🌸

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👑 HISTORY 👑

work on openapp started October 1997. ancient. legendary. lowkey a historical artifact fr 🏛️

openapp was originally written by Ovidiu Predescu <ovidiu@net-community.com> and is now maintained by Nicola Pero <nicola.pero@meta-innovation.com>. passing the torch, iconic behavior 🫶

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

this manual page was first written July 2003 by Martin Brecher <martin@mb-itconsulting.com>. 📝

updated with notes from Hubert Chathi <uhoreg@debian.org> and Dennis Leeuw <dleeuw@made-it.com>, December 2007 by Dennis Leeuw. group project, group credit, we respect it 💅

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and that's the whole page bestie, no notes, go launch something cute 🎀✨

gnustep-make · 12/12/2007 · openapp(1) — ok bye ily, go read gopen(1) next 🦋💖