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macosshelliconsexecutabledock

How to remove the dock icon of a shell executable?

I have a java application built with Eclipse, for Mac OS X. This app is installed via a .pkg file and supposed to be daemonized. Everything works fine, with Macbooks (Pro, Retina), but with the iMac I work on, when the application launches, i have an icon on the Dock, as you can see on the following link.

I have already tried the solution in this topic: stackoverflow.com/a/620950/3641679 but it didn't work (I still have the Dock icon). Currently the Info.plist looks like this.

What can I do?

Thank you for the time you'll be taking to help me.

Information (assuming the app name is testapp)

  • I stop or start the daemon using launchctl start/stop
  • When I double click on the executable (in testapp.app/Contents/MacOs/testapp) i have the testapp.app in the Dock (with the icon file specified in the Info.plist). Here is a screenshot res.cloudinary.com/doit0eqlo/image/upload/v1400750376/app_k3adzh.png
  • Sorry for some links, I must have 10 reputation to post more than 2 links.
Solution

  • So, I finally found the solution! The solution is in several steps.

    Step 1: Editing the Info.plist

    I had to add the LSBackgroundOnly key. It is a string and has to be set to 1.

    As said in the Apple Documentation :

    LSBackgroundOnly

    specifies whether this app runs only in the background. If this key exists and is set to “1”, Launch Services runs the app in the background only.

    Information:

    Although the documentation specifies this key is a boolean, setting it to a string with the value 1 in it does the trick.

    To do so:

    1. Go to your app's folder

    2. Go into the .app's folder then the Contents one (eg. /Applications/test.app/Contents)

    3. Open the Info.plist with any text editor you want (SublimeText, TextEdit,Xcode, etc.)

    4. Add the following lines before the closing dict tag (</dict>)

    <key>LSBackgroundOnly</key>

    <string>1</string>

    Save everything.

    Step 2: Edit the appname.ini

    Initially I only did the part 1, so it wasn't enough. I found the solution in this question.

    The file is in the 'Contents/MacOs' folder inside your application's .app (e.g /Applications/testapp.app/Contents/MacOs/testapp.ini).

    1. Open the .ini file (with any text editor you want).

    2. Before the -vmargs line, add the following line: -nosplash

    3. After the -vmargs line, add the following two lines:

      -Xdock:hidden
      -Dapple.awt.UIElement=false

    Save the file, and now you can launch the app: it shouldn't be any icon neither in the Dock nor in the 'Force Quit' window, but your app should be running in the background.

    Hope this helps,