QProcess not accepting arguments in MacOS (works in Windows)

[Rory_1]

I am running Qt 5.10 on MacOS 10.13.2

I am trying to open photoshop with one or more selected images in MacOS. In terminal this works:

open "/Users/roryhill/Pictures/4K/2017-01-25_0030-Edit.jpg" -a "Adobe Photoshop CS6"

The following works in Windows but not MacOS:

QString app = "\"/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Adobe Photoshop CS6.app\"";  // diff file path for windows
QStringList arguments;
arguments << "/Users/roryhill/Pictures/4K/2017-01-25_0030-Edit.jpg";
QProcess *process = new QProcess();
process->start(app, arguments);

In MacOS I get the error: "FailedToStart". If I drop the arguments in the last line and use:

process->start(app);

then photoshop opens, so the path to the photoshop executable is working.

I have also tried using the executable inside the app container:

"/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Adobe Photoshop CS6.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Photoshop CS6"

Again this works to open photoshop but fails when arguments are added.

This also fails:

process->setArguments(arguments);
process->setProgram(app);
process->start();

Omitting setArguments() fails too using this procedure:

process->setProgram(app);
process->start();

Could this be some permissions issue in MacOS?

[mrjj]

Hi
What happens if you do ?
QDesktopServices::openUrl(QUrl("file:///Users/roryhill/Pictures/4K/2017-01-25_0030-Edit.jpg"));

[Rory_1]

@mrjj said in QProcess not accepting arguments in MacOS (works in Windows):

QDesktopServices::openUrl(QUrl("file:///Users/roryhill/Pictures/4K/2017-01-25_0030-Edit.jpg"));

That opens the image in preview, so I guess permissions are okay.

[Rory_1]

@Rory_1

If I change the executable to preview:

app = "/Applications/Preview.app";

then it all works as expected, so the issue seems to be with photoshop. I have also tried the latest version of photoshop with the same issues.

[mpergand]

try to use open.

open -b org.mozilla.firefox "Samsung A3 2017.pdf"

open the pdf file with Firefox
(I don't have photoshop)
Tape "man open" in the Terminal for details.

[Rory_1]

@mpergand said in QProcess not accepting arguments in MacOS (works in Windows):

try to use open.

open -b org.mozilla.firefox "Samsung A3 2017.pdf"

open the pdf file with Firefox
(I don't have photoshop)
Tape "man open" in the Terminal for details.

Thanks. I will try this. I have to take a family break and I will report back tomorrow.

[SGaist]

Hi,

You'll likely have to use the full path to the executable within the application bundle rather than the bundle itself.

[Rory_1]

@SGaist said in QProcess not accepting arguments in MacOS (works in Windows):

Hi,

You'll likely have to use the full path to the executable within the application bundle rather than the bundle itself.

Thanks for the suggestion. As I mentioned in my original post I have tried this and it did not work.

I think my issue is related to how MacOS manages file locks. I can get the code to work with preview once and then the next time I get an error "the file couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." This seems to be a common problem where preview maintains a lock on the file after the application has been closed. I'm going to take a look at QLockFile to see if it can help.

[Rory_1]

@Rory_1 Update: I have partially solved my problem by resetting permissions on my macbook.

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

The code now works consistently for all applications, including adobe Bridge, except photoshop. I assumed (bad plan) that photoshop accepted command line arguments (and it does in windows) but might not in MacOS.

I do not believe the remaining issues are related to QProcess so I am marking this as solved.

Thanks to @SGaist, @mpergand and @mrjj for your assistance!