eenylaunch

Quick run dialog for macOS

eenylaunch is a quick run dialog for macOS, kind of like a better version of the Windows Win+R run dialog but for macOS. You can use it to:

• Open paths. Quickly enter your home directory in Finder by hitting OptionShiftR and typing ~, get to your downloads by typing ~/Dow and hitting Tab, or get to some weird config path without clicking around in Finder with ~/Libr, Tab, /App, TabTabTab, /een, Tab, Enter.
• Open URLs. Press OptionShiftR and paste in a web URL to open it in your browser, or even type something like vnc://MacBook.local to start a Remote Desktop session.
• Run commands in the Terminal. Force-quit something by hitting OptionShiftR and typing killall Application, or clear the DNS cache with sudo dscacheutil -flushcache, or run any other quick one-off command.

screenshots

installation

You can download eenylaunch from the Releases page. the binaries are not signed (because I haven't sent apple $100) so you will have to bypass the macOS security prompts.

If you have Python installed, you can also run eenylaunch as a Python script by cloning the repository, running pip3 install ., and then python3 run.py. You can also build eenylaunch as an .app yourself.

usage

opening

while running, you can open eenylaunch at any time by pressing the configured keyboard shortcut, which defaults to OptionShiftR. you can change this in in the Preferences, accessible via the ... button.

run behavior

You can enter a path, URL, or terminal command into the Run box.
What you enter determines what action will be taken when you press Run:

• If you enter a path to a file, eenylaunch will open the file.
• If you enter a path to a directory, eenylaunch will open the directory in Finder.
• If you enter a URL, eenylaunch will open the URL.
• If you enter any other text, eenylaunch will interpret it as a terminal command and run it in the Terminal.

If you want to override the decision eenylaunch makes about how to handle the text you have entered, press the down arrow button to the left of the Run button to view more options.

For URLs or paths, the down arrow button lets you choose to open the URL or path in any application that can handle it. For example, eenylaunch will default to opening https://example.com in your default browser, but you can press the down arrow button to open it in a different installed web browser.

autocomplete

eenylaunch supports multiple features to make path entry easier.

• A tilde (~) will be interpreted as your home directory.
  • Example: ~/Downloads for your downloads folder
• A tilde with a username after it will be interpreted as the home directory of that user.
  • Example: ~timapple for the home directory of the user "timapple", ~guest for the home directory of the Guest user
  • Note that this refers to the "account name" and not the "full name" of the user.
• Pressing Tab while a partial path is entered will complete the rest of the path.
  • Example: entering ~/Down then Tab will complete to ~/Downloads
  • If there are multiple completion options, like with the partial path ~/D, you can press Tab multiple times to go through available options (~/Desktop, ~/Documents, ~/Downloads) and press ShiftTab to go back to the previous option.
  • If all completion options for a certain partial path begin with the same prefix, eenylaunch will partially complete the path before completing the entire path. For example:
    • ~/Library/App, Tab
    • ~/Library/Application S, Tab
    • ~/Library/Application Scripts, Tab
    • ~/Library/Application Support

Additionally, you can press OptionLeft/OptionRight to jump your cursor backwards or forwards through space-separated parts of the text. You can also press CommandLeft/CommandRight to jump your cursor to the start or end of the text.

URLs

eenylaunch supports all URLs with handlers available on your system, not just http/https URLs. Some examples:

• https://example.com will open in your default browser
• vnc://MacBook.local will open in the Screen Sharing app
• rdp://192.168.1.40 will open in Microsoft Remote Desktop if installed
• file:///Applications will open in Finder

You can view a full list of URL handlers with this Terminal command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -dump URLSchemeBinding

browsing for a path

Press "Browse..." to browse for a path to enter into the Run box.

drag and drop

You can drag and drop any file into eenylaunch to enter its path into the Run box, or drag any text into eenylaunch to enter it into the Run box.

history

Press the history button to the right of the run box to reenter a recent path, URL, or command.
By default, eenylaunch keeps 20 items. You can change how many history items are kept (including to zero, disabling history) in the Preferences, accessible via the ... button.

running on startup

To run eenylaunch in the background when you log in, add eenylaunch to your macOS Login Items.

building

to build eenylaunch as a .app, clone the repository, install briefcase and run briefcase build macOS app. the output .app bundle will appear in ./build/eenylaunch/macos/app.