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Create an OS X "alias" application that simply opens another OS X application.
alias-app Example.app ExampleAlias.app
Creates an OS X application bundle that simply opens another OS X application. The icon used by the original application is also used for the alias application. In effect, this creates an application alias that is recognized in Spotlight and the rest of the system as an application.
Homebrew installs applications to /usr/local, which is not indexed by
Spotlight. The brew linkapps command creates symbolic links in
/Applications (or ~/Applications when passed the --local flag),
but Spotlight doesn't index symbolic links.
In order to create an application bundle that is indexed by Spotlight and that opens an instance of MacVim installed with Homebrew, we can use the following command:
alias-app /usr/local/Cellar/macvim/7.4-73_1/MacVim.app /Applications/MacVim.app
/Applications/MacVim.app can now be used to open the homebrew-install MacVim.
Since this is particularly useful for linking homebrew-installed
applications, included in the homebrew directory are commands for
aliasing applications installed by both homebrew and homebrew cask. To
use them, symlink them from a location in your $PATH (eg, ~/bin/)
and call them using either brew aliasapps or brew cask aliasapps
(for homebrew and homebrew cask, respectively) after installing new applications.
Note: both script assume that your both homebrew and homebrew cask are
symlinking applications in the local ~/Applications directory. While
this is the default for homebrew cask, homebrew requires using the --local
flag when linking apps, ie, using the following command: brew linkapps --local
Neither of the homebrew commands are required by alias-app itself, and
the alias-app command can be used completely independently of them.