Open command ignores --args

[gaufde]

I am using nix-darwin to install PyCharm:

{
  description = "nix-darwin system flake";

  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
    nix-darwin.url = "github:LnL7/nix-darwin";
    nix-darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager/master";
    home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    mac-app-util.url = "github:hraban/mac-app-util";
    nix-homebrew.url = "github:zhaofengli-wip/nix-homebrew";
  };

  outputs = inputs@{ self, nix-darwin, nixpkgs, mac-app-util, nix-homebrew, home-manager }:
    let
      mkDarwinSystem = { systemParams ? { } }:
        let
          configuration = { pkgs, config, ... }: {

            nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;

            # List packages installed in system profile. To search by name, run:
            # $ nix-env -qaP | grep wget
            environment.systemPackages =
              [
                pkgs.jetbrains.pycharm-professional
              ];

            homebrew = {
              enable = true;
              brews = [
                "mas"
              ];
              casks = [
                "firefox"
              ];
              onActivation.cleanup = "zap";
            };

            # Auto upgrade nix package and the daemon service.
            services.nix-daemon.enable = true;

            # Home manager (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9yKm_k5cVA&t=184s).
            users.users.gaufde.home = "/Users/gaufde";
            home-manager.backupFileExtension = "backup";
            nix.configureBuildUsers = true;
            nix.useDaemon = true;

            # Necessary for using flakes on this system.
            nix.settings.experimental-features = "nix-command flakes";

            # Enable alternative shell support in nix-darwin.
            programs.zsh.enable = true;

            # Set Git commit hash for darwin-version.
            system.configurationRevision = self.rev or self.dirtyRev or null;

            # Used for backwards compatibility, please read the changelog before changing.
            # $ darwin-rebuild changelog
            system.stateVersion = 5;

            # The platform the configuration will be used on.
            nixpkgs.hostPlatform = "aarch64-darwin";
          };
        in
        nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
          modules = [
            configuration
            mac-app-util.darwinModules.default
            nix-homebrew.darwinModules.nix-homebrew
            {
              nix-homebrew = {
                enable = true;
                enableRosetta = true;
                user = "gaufde";
              };
            }
            home-manager.darwinModules.home-manager
            {
              home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true;
              home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
              home-manager.users.gaufde = import ./home.nix;
              _module.args.systemParams = systemParams;
            }
          ];
        };
    in
    {
      # Build darwin flake using:
      # $ darwin-rebuild build --flake .#m1macbookpro
      darwinConfigurations = {
        # Default configuration
        "m1macbookpro" = mkDarwinSystem {
          systemParams = {
            restore = false;
          };
        };

        # Restore configuration
        "m1macbookpro-restore" = mkDarwinSystem {
          systemParams = {
            restore = true;
          };
        };
      };

      darwinPackages = self.darwinConfigurations."m1macbookpro".pkgs;
    };
}

This seems to work since spotlight is able to find PyCharm. However, I like to open my projects in PyCharm like this:

open -nb "com.jetbrains.pycharm" --args "/Users/gaufde/Path/To/ProjectDir"

Unfortunately, this only opens the PyCharm app. The path argument seems to be ignored. If I use the homebrew cask to install PyCharm instead, then the above script works perfectly.

I am very new to Nix still, and so I'm not super familiar with all the pieces yet. But, is this functionality something that I should expect to work with mac-app-util configured the way it is above?

 nix-info -m
 - system: `"aarch64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 23.6.0, macOS 14.7.2`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.24.11`
 - channels(root): `"nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/rr1allmsx88garhjfkfsj14z3d9qf8b6-source`

• I have substituted 7 sections in this template.
• I have tested this with the nixpkgs-unstable branch and the problem persists

[hraban]

Yep this is a known problem and I'm not sure it can be solved using just applescript. I tried my hand at this in https://github.com/hraban/mac-app-util/tree/pure-osascript but it didn't seem to pan out. I'm working on seeing if maybe a fully compiled swift app can do this.

It's not a priority for me, and not to be too lawyery about it, but: it's not listed as a feature of this app :) the primary goal is "launch an application from spotlight." It would of course be nice to support generic open ... too, but since I don't really use that myself, I'm in no particular hurry :D

Anyway, valid point, not saying it's WONTFIX, but definitely not jumping on this any time soon :)

[gaufde]

Thanks for the fast response!

It's not a priority for me, and not to be too lawyery about it, but: it's not listed as a feature of this app :) the primary goal is "launch an application from spotlight." It would of course be nice to support generic open ... too, but since I don't really use that myself, I'm in no particular hurry :D

I totally understand, I just wanted to ask since it seems related to this app's purpose.

Do you know what the underlying issue is? There is a gist that tries to solve the spotlight problem a different way: https://gist.github.com/elliottminns/211ef645ebd484eb9a5228570bb60ec3, but is full open ... support something that is generally tricky with symlinks/aliases?

I think that if needed, I can move all my GUI-based apps to brew to solve this issue.

[hraban]

That uses mkalias which is a fundamentally different approach which is incompatible with certain apps , and yields very inconsistent results with spotlight indexing unfortunately. I cut my teeth on this with applescript and I have a very strong feeling the only way forward is a full-blown objective-c / swift app which does the trampolining. I've just written literally zero lines of either of those ever so it's gonna take a while to even get that ball rolling I'm afraid :/

[hraban]

I should probably at least add an explicit note in the readme about "why not mkalias" because it's a recurring question.