How to Programmatically Retrieve Running Application Bundles in macOS?

Programmatically Retrieve Running Application Bundles in macOS

Introduction:
Obtaining a list of running application bundles in macOS is essential for various scenarios such as time tracking, process monitoring, and parental controls. However, relying solely on sysctl() to retrieve running processes may not provide sufficient information about their associated application bundles.

Solution:
Leveraging Cocoa APIs in Swift offers an effective solution:

<code class="swift">import Foundation
import AppKit

// Get all running applications
let workspace = NSWorkspace.shared
let applications = workspace.runningApplications

for app in applications {
    print(app)
}</code>

This code retrieves the NSRunningApplication objects for each running application, which contain the desired bundle identifier.

Additional Considerations:

• Using C/Objective-C: Similar functionality should be possible using C/Objective-C APIs, though the exact approach may vary.
• Availability: Support for NSRunningApplication is available in macOS 10.8 and later.
• Privacy: Access to application bundle identifiers may require specific user permissions.

Implementation Benefits:

• Easy-to-use Objective-C API
• Provides detailed information about running applications
• Facilitates time tracking, process monitoring, and other related tasks

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