OpenIndex / JavaMacLauncher

a native Java launcher for macOS application bundles (aka JavaApplicationStub)

JavaMacLauncher 1.0.0

This application is a native Java application launcher written in Go, that is intended for integration into a macOS application bundle.

In times of Java 6, when Apple provided a Java Runtime Environment for macOS, there was a similar solution called JavaApplicationStub, which is unfortunately not usable with recent Java versions. Up to macOS 10.15 (Catalina) a binary was not necessary anymore to start a Java application from an application bundle. A simple Bash script like universalJavaApplicationStub could do the job.

Apple made some changes with macOS 11 (Big Sur). It is indeed still possible to use a Bash script for the task, but it has some downsides regarding security. If the application needs further permissions from the operating system (e.g. access to certain user folders or access to the screen), the user needs to grant permissions to Bash or /usr/bin/env — not to the Java application itself. Granting those permissions to those general utilities would undermine the system security and is also not intuitive for the user. This also might become a showstopper for publishing your application to the AppStore.

The universalJavaApplicationStub project addressed this issue by providing a compiled version of their Bash script. As they currently only provide binaries for Catalina and Big Sur we are not sure, if this approach also works with older versions of macOS — even if recent OpenJDK builds should work from macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) upwards.

Inspired by macstub we've decided to build our own native Java launcher to address these issues. As we are mostly developing on Linux systems this launcher is written in Go for easier development and testing. Cross compilation for macOS is currently not possible.

How to use

Assuming you have an application bundle called MyApplication.app, that provides its own Java Runtime Environment in this directory structure:

🗀 MyApplication.app
↳ 🗀 Contents
  ↳ Info.plist
  ↳ 🗀 MacOS
    ↳ JavaMacLauncher
  ↳ 🗀 Resources
    ↳ 🗀 bin
      ↳ java
    ↳ 🗀 conf
    ↳ 🗀 legal
    ↳ 🗀 lib
    ↳ 🗀 modules
    ↳ 🗀 share
      ↳ icon.icns
      ↳ splash.png

Things to consider:

• The JavaMacLauncher application (provided by this project) is placed in the Contents/MacOS folder with executable permission.

• The Java Runtime Environment with its files and folders is placed in Contents/Resources.

• The application's Java modules are stored in Contents/Resources/modules.

• The icon used by the application bundle is located at Contents/Resources/share/icon.icns.

• The splash image used during application startup is located at Contents/Resources/share/splash.png.

In this scenario the application bundle descriptor Contents/Info.plist would look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
        <string>6.0</string>

        <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
        <string>com.mycompany.myapplication</string>

        <key>CFBundleName</key>
        <string>MyApplication</string>

        <key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>
        <string>MyApplicationName</string>

        <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
        <string>1.2.3</string>

        <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
        <string>APPL</string>

        <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
        <string>JavaMacLauncher</string>

        <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
        <string>share/icon.icns</string>

        <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
        <string>10.9</string>

        <!-- Configure JavaMacLauncher. -->
        <key>JavaMacLauncher</key>
        <dict>

            <!-- Set java home directory. -->
            <key>JavaHome</key>
            <string>Contents/Resources</string>

            <!-- Set java command explicitly. -->
            <key>JavaCommand</key>
            <string>Contents/Resources/bin/java</string>

            <!-- Set further java options. -->
            <key>JavaOptions</key>
            <array>
                <string>-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8</string>
            </array>

            <!-- Set java class path entries. -->
            <key>JavaClassPath</key>
            <array>
                <string></string>
            </array>

            <!-- Set java module path entries. -->
            <key>JavaModulePath</key>
            <array>
                <string>Contents/Resources/modules</string>
            </array>

            <!-- Set application working directory. -->
            <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
            <string></string>

            <!-- Set application command. -->
            <key>ApplicationCommand</key>
            <string>-m com.mycompany.myapplication/com.mycompany.myapplication.MyApplication</string>

            <!-- Set further application command line arguments. -->
            <key>ApplicationArguments</key>
            <array>
                <string></string>
            </array>

            <!-- Set minimum reserved heap space. -->
            <key>HeapMinimum</key>
            <string>32m</string>

            <!-- Set maximum used heap space. -->
            <key>HeapMaximum</key>
            <string>512m</string>
          
            <!-- Set application splash image. -->
            <key>SplashImage</key>
            <string>Contents/Resources/share/splash.png</string>

            <!-- Set application name shown in the menu bar. -->
            <key>DockName</key>
            <dict>
                <key>default</key>
                <string>My Application</string>
                <key>de</key>
                <string>Mein Programm</string>
                <key>es</key>
                <string>Mi Programa</string>
                <key>fr</key>
                <string>Mon Programme</string>
            </dict>

            <!-- Set application icon shown in dock and menu bar. -->
            <key>DockIcon</key>
            <string>Contents/Resources/share/icon.icns</string>

            <!-- Enable global menu bar. -->
            <key>UseScreenMenuBar</key>
            <true/>

            <!-- Launch application in foreground. -->
            <key>LaunchInForeground</key>
            <true/>

        </dict>
    </dict>
</plist>

Configuration

JavaMacLauncher loads its configuration from the application bundle descriptor (Info.plist). All of its configurations are loaded from the JavaMacLauncher entry, which has to be <dict>:

<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <!-- Typical configurations before as required by macOS. -->

        <key>JavaMacLauncher</key>
        <dict>
            <!-- Configurations for JavaMacLauncher. -->
        </dict>
    </dict>
</plist>

Set Java home & Java command

You need to tell JavaMacLauncher, where to find a Java Runtime Environment to start your application.

<key>JavaHome</key>
<string></string>

<key>JavaCommand</key>
<string></string>

In case you are providing your own Java Runtime Environment within the application bundle, you should either set JavaHome or JavaCommand value.

• JavaHome points to the folder container the JRE / JDK.

• JavaCommand points to the java executable file.

• If JavaHome is set, the application sets the JAVA_HOME environment variable accordingly before starting the application.

• If neither JavaHome nor JavaCommand is set (or both are empty), the application tries to find the Java home folder automatically:

  • It looks for a JAVA_HOME environment variable, which is in most cases not available, if an application bundle is started regularly.

  • Otherwise, it launches /usr/libexec/java_home to determine a Java home.

• If a Java home was configured (or detected) and no JavaCommand was configured, the application assumes bin/java within the Java home directory to be the Java command.

• You might use relative paths for JavaHome and JavaCommand. These are converted to absolute paths based on the application bundle's absolute location.

Set Java command line options

You might specify further options, that are passed to the Java Runtime Environment.

<key>JavaOptions</key>
<array>
    <string>-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8</string>
    <string>-Dcom.mycompany.myapplication.setting=example</string>
</array>

Set Java class path or module path

If your application uses the old class path approach, you can add as much class path entries you like:

<key>JavaClassPath</key>
<array>
    <string>Contents/Resources/jars/MyApplication.jar</string>
    <string>Contents/Resources/more-jars/*</string>
</array>

If your application uses the new module path approach, you can add as much module path entries you like:

<key>JavaModulePath</key>
<array>
    <string>Contents/Resources/modules</string>
    <string>Contents/Resources/more-modules</string>
</array>

• You might use relative paths for JavaClassPath and JavaModulePath entries. These are converted to absolute paths based on the application bundle's absolute location.

Set working directory

You might configure a certain working directory. JavaMacLauncher changes to this directory before starting the Java application.

<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string></string>

• If WorkingDirectory is not configured or empty, JavaMacLauncher changes to user's home directory.

• You might use a relative path for WorkingDirectory. In this case the path is converted to an absolute path based on the application bundle's absolute location.

Set Application start command

You need to tell JavaMacLauncher how to start your application. There are multiple possibilities:

Starting from class path

Just provide the class path of your application's main class:

<key>ApplicationCommand</key>
<string>com.mycompany.myapplication.MyApplication</string>

Starting from module path

Just provide the module and class path of your application's main class:

<key>ApplicationCommand</key>
<string>-m com.mycompany.myapplication/com.mycompany.myapplication.MyApplication</string>

Starting from jar file

Just provide the application's JAR file to load:

<key>ApplicationCommand</key>
<string>Contents/Resources/jars/MyApplication.jar</string>

• Do not provide the -jar parameter in this case. JavaMacLauncher will add this automatically, if ApplicationCommand ends with .jar.

• You might use a relative path for ApplicationCommand. If the value ends with .jar, the path is converted to an absolute path based on the application bundle's absolute location.

Set Application command line arguments

You might add further command line arguments, that are passed to your application's main(String[] args) method:

<key>ApplicationArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>first argument</string>
    <string>second argument</string>
</array>

Set minimum & maximum heap size

You might provide a minimum and maximum heap size for the Java Runtime Environment.

<key>HeapMinimum</key>
<string>32m</string>

<key>HeapMaximum</key>
<string>512m</string>

• JavaMacLauncher sets the -Xms / -Xmx parameters accordingly.

• For further tweaking, you might dismiss HeapMinimum / HeapMaximum and provide your custom settings within JavaOptions.

Set application's splash image

You might specify the application's splash image:

<key>SplashImage</key>
<string>Contents/Resources/share/splash.png</string>

• If a SplashImage configuration is present, JavaMacLauncher will use the -splash parameter to start the Java Runtime Environment.

• You might use a relative path for SplashImage. In this case the path is converted to an absolute path based on the application bundle's absolute location.

Set application's name in Dock & Menubar

You might specify the application's name shown in the Dock and Menubar:

<key>DockName</key>
<dict>
    <key>default</key>
    <string>My Application</string>
    <key>de</key>
    <string>Mein Programm</string>
    <key>es</key>
    <string>Mi Programa</string>
    <key>fr</key>
    <string>Mon Programme</string>
</dict>

• Beside the default name you can provide alternative names depending on the language used in the user's operating system.

• If no default name was set but translations in other languages are available, JavaMacLauncher will fallback to the global CFBundleDisplayName or CFBundleName as default value for unsupported languages.

• If a DockName configuration is present, JavaMacLauncher will use the -Xdock:name parameter to start the Java Runtime Environment.

Set application's icon in Dock

You might specify the application's icon shown in the Dock:

<key>DockIcon</key>
<string>Contents/Resources/share/icon.icns</string>

• If a DockIcon configuration is present, JavaMacLauncher will use the -Xdock:icon parameter to start the Java Runtime Environment.

• You might use a relative path for DockIcon. In this case the path is converted to an absolute path based on the application bundle's absolute location.

Enable global Menubar

You might enable the global Menubar for the application:

<key>UseScreenMenuBar</key>
<true/>

• If a UseScreenMenuBar configuration is present and set to <true>, JavaMacLauncher will use the -Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true parameter to start the Java Runtime Environment.

Launch application in foreground

You might force application startup in foreground:

<key>LaunchInForeground</key>
<true/>

• If a LaunchInForeground configuration is present and set to <true>, JavaMacLauncher will start the Java Runtime Environment and wait until it was shutdown. Otherwise, JavaMacLauncher starts the Java Runtime Environment as background process and quits immediately.

• It seems to provide a slightly better user experience in macOS Big Sur to start the Java Runtime Environment in foreground. Otherwise, the tooltip on the Dock Icon shows java instead of the application name.

• We are not sure about further advantages / disadvantages about running in background / foreground. Therefore, we leave it up to you which method to use.

Supported operating systems

• Intended to be used on macOS (10.9 or newer). Releases are compiled for x86-64.
• Can be built for Linux or other Unix based systems, which might be useful for development and testing.

License

This application is licensed under the terms of the Apache License 2.0. Take a look at LICENSE.txt for the license text.

Third party components

• Go v1.16 (BSD License)
• MacDriver v0.0.2 (MIT License)
• go-plist v0.0.0-20201203080718-1454fab16a06 (BSD License)

Further information

• JavaMacLauncher at GitHub
• Releases of JavaMacLauncher
• Changelog of JavaMacLauncher