How to check in AppleScript if a MacOS App is Universal or not? - vba

Question

I need to take a couple decisions in my project based on whether a certain App on MacOS is Universal (x86_64 arm64) or Intel (x86_64). I understand that there are ways to run shell script using AppleScript on Mac and so, essentially, what I am looking for is a command which can return whether an App is Universal or not. I believe the command would need to take the App's executable binary's location as input, which the project is already aware of.
Please note that I can only run AppleScript in my project because of limitations in VBA. If it's possible to run a shell script directly from VBA on a macos, that solution would be more than welcome.
PS: I am very new to VBA on mac, so please understand if this sounds like a silly question.

Answer 1

The file shell utility can determine the file type, which for the application executable will include the architectures. Note that older "universal" binaries include an i386 (or even ppc) architecture, so a check should be made to see if the architectures contain arm64.
The following handler will return the architecture types of an application (remove the statement getting the executable as needed), with an option to return a boolean if it is a universal application:
use framework "Foundation" -- for NSBundle
use scripting additions
return architectures for (choose file of type "com.apple.application-bundle") -- with isUniversal
on architectures for appPath given isUniversal:isUniversal : false -- given argument is optional
set appPath to POSIX path of appPath
set appPath to (current application's NSBundle's bundleWithPath:(appPath))'s executableURL's |path| as text
set archTypes to paragraphs of (do shell script "/usr/bin/file -bh " & quoted form of appPath)
set arm to false
set archList to {}
if (count archTypes) > 1 then -- multiple architectures
repeat with anItem in rest of archTypes
set anArch to last word of anItem
if anArch contains "arm64" then set arm to true -- for newer universal apps
if anArch is not in archList then set end of archList to anArch
end repeat
else -- single architecture
set end of archList to last word of (archTypes as text)
end if
if isUniversal is true then return ((first item of archTypes contains "universal") and arm)
return archList
end architectures