Tool for fixing zipped Mac app permissions
Download for Windows · Download for Mac · Changelog
Have you ever zipped a MacOS app on another OS (eg. Windows) and then discovered it wouldn't run when unzipped on a Mac?
For it to work, the ZIP must contain the correct UNIX executable permissions stored as "External Attributes". Since MacOS 10.15 Catalina, the files must also be marked as being zipped on UNIX. When zipped on other OS, these attributes are usually different or blank!
The solution is to modify certain file attributes, as if it had been zipped on a Mac.
Specifically, the "Creation System" must be set to 3 (UNIX) and the "External Attributes" must be set to 0755 (typical Mac executable).
There are some Python scripts and similar tools that partially do this.
macifyZip simplifies it to one terminal command (or one Explorer drag-and-drop), zero dependencies.
macifyZip can apply the above fixes to one or more ZIP files at a time:
macifyZip ZIPFILE
macifyZip ZIPFILE1 ZIPFILE2 ...
On Windows, this is equivalent to drag-and-dropping the ZIP files onto macifyZip.exe
Since v1.1, you can pass --browse (or no args at all) for a browse dialog.
The input ZIP file will be overwritten, unless you specify --outputZip FILE
macifyZip looks for contained files in the format *.app/Content/MacOS/*, but you can modify specific contained files with --modifyAttr FILE or all files with --all
For the full output of macifyZip --help, see help.txt