Perform certain System Events, Mac OS X

Question

I would like to

• Shutdown
• Restart
• Logoff
• Sleep

My system through an application I'm making, I can't seem to find any native Objective C way to do it and it's really tough.

Can anyone guide me on the best way to do this:

I have tried:

NSString *scriptAction = @"restart"; // @"restart"/@"shut down"/@"sleep"/@"log out"
NSString *scriptSource = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"tell application \"Finder\" to %@", scriptAction];
NSAppleScript *appleScript = [[[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:scriptSource] autorelease];
NSDictionary *errDict = nil;
if (![appleScript executeAndReturnError:&errDict]) {
    //
}

That had no luck at all, also tried:

NSAppleScript* theScript = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:
                            @"Tell application \"Finder\" to restart"];
if (theScript != NULL)
{
    NSDictionary* errDict = NULL;
    // execution of the following line ends with EXC
    if (YES == [theScript compileAndReturnError: &errDict])
    {
        [theScript executeAndReturnError: &errDict];
    }
    [theScript release];
}

With no luck

Answer 1

I've been using the following code for over 8 years without issues:

MDRestartShutdownLogout.h:

#import <CoreServices/CoreServices.h>
/*
    *    kAERestart        will cause system to restart
    *    kAEShutDown       will cause system to shutdown
    *    kAEReallyLogout   will cause system to logout
    *    kAESleep          will cause system to sleep
 */
extern OSStatus MDSendAppleEventToSystemProcess(AEEventID eventToSend);

MDRestartShutdownLogout.m:

#import "MDRestartShutdownLogout.h"

OSStatus MDSendAppleEventToSystemProcess(AEEventID eventToSendID) {
    AEAddressDesc targetDesc;
    static const ProcessSerialNumber kPSNOfSystemProcess = {0, kSystemProcess };
    AppleEvent eventReply = {typeNull, NULL};
    AppleEvent eventToSend = {typeNull, NULL};

    OSStatus status = AECreateDesc(typeProcessSerialNumber,
         &kPSNOfSystemProcess, sizeof(kPSNOfSystemProcess), &targetDesc);

    if (status != noErr) return status;

    status = AECreateAppleEvent(kCoreEventClass, eventToSendID,
          &targetDesc, kAutoGenerateReturnID, kAnyTransactionID, &eventToSend);

    AEDisposeDesc(&targetDesc);

    if (status != noErr) return status;

    status = AESendMessage(&eventToSend, &eventReply,
                          kAENormalPriority, kAEDefaultTimeout);

    AEDisposeDesc(&eventToSend);
    if (status != noErr) return status;
    AEDisposeDesc(&eventReply);
    return status;
}

Note that the above code is based on the code from Technical Q&A QA1134, but mine is re-worked to use AESendMessage() rather than AESend(). AESend() is in HIToolbox.framework, which is in Carbon.framework and is therefore unavailable to 64-bit apps. (AESendMessage() is part of the AE.framework in CoreServices).