How do I run a binary from a Cocoa app? - objective-c

Question

I'm making a simple launcher for a binary so I can have it appear in my launchpad.
My initial thought was that running system("./myProgram"); would be sufficient, but it doesn't appear to actually do anything as the terminal instance it runs doesn't stay open after running the command, immediately shutting down whatever other tasks the program did.
So my question is, is there a way for me to do this that keeps it open indefinitely?
Edit: I want my launcher to close immediately after launching the program, so it would be less than ideal to rely on something that requires it to stay open
Edit: the following all work, but only when run from xcode, when running it stand-alone it doesn't launch the program at all
system("open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app myProgram");
system("open myProgram");
system("/bin/sh -c ./myProgram&");
system("./myProgram&");
NSTask *task = [[NSTask alloc] init];
[task setLaunchPath: #"/bin/bash"];
[task setArguments: #[#"-c", #"./myProgram"]];
[task launch];
NSTask does not give any errors, and it doesn't throw any exceptions either when the app runs
Literally every other aspect of the program works, it just won't launch, and it won't say why
Based on all the "feedback" here's what I got so far. And it still doesn't work unless I provide an absolute path (which is no good in case I want to move it later)
//
// AppDelegate.m
// DFLauncher
//
// Created by Electric Coffee on 11/02/15.
// Copyright (c) 2015 Electric Coffee. All rights reserved.
//
#import "AppDelegate.h"
#interface AppDelegate ()
#property (weak) IBOutlet NSWindow *window;
#end
NSString *CURRENT_DIR;
NSString *FILE_PATH;
NSString *INIT_PATH = #"/data/init/init.txt";
NSString *VOLUME_ON = #"[SOUND:YES]";
NSString *VOLUME_OFF = #"[SOUND:NO]";
BOOL contains(NSString *a, NSString *b) {
return [a rangeOfString: b].location != NSNotFound;
}
NSData *replaceString(NSString *fileContents, NSString *from, NSString *to) {
return [[fileContents stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString: from withString: to]
dataUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}
#implementation AppDelegate
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching: (NSNotification *)aNotification {
CURRENT_DIR = [[NSFileManager new] currentDirectoryPath]; //[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
//NSLog(#"%#", CURRENT_DIR);
FILE_PATH = [CURRENT_DIR stringByAppendingString: INIT_PATH];
_fileContents = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile: FILE_PATH
encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding
error: NULL];
if (contains(_fileContents, VOLUME_OFF))
[_toggleMute setState: YES];
if (contains(_fileContents, VOLUME_ON))
[_toggleMute setState: NO];
}
- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(NSNotification *)aNotification {
}
- (IBAction)playButtonClick: (id)sender {
//system("open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app df"); // doesn't quite work
//system("open /Applications/df_osx/df");
//system("/bin/sh -c /Applications/df_osx/df&");
//system("/Applications/df_osx/df&");
NSString *gamePath = [CURRENT_DIR stringByAppendingString: #"/df&"];
NSTask *task = [NSTask new];
[task setLaunchPath: #"/bin/bash"];
[task setArguments: #[#"-c", gamePath]];
NSError *error = task.standardError;
[task launch];
[NSAlert alertWithError: error];
//[NSApp terminate: self];
}
- (IBAction)folderButtonClick: (id)sender {
system("open .");
}
- (IBAction)quitButtonClick: (id)sender {
[NSApp terminate: self];
}
- (IBAction)mute: (id)sender {
NSData *result;
NSFileManager *fm = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
if ([sender state] == NSOffState)
result = replaceString(_fileContents, VOLUME_OFF, VOLUME_ON);
else
result = replaceString(_fileContents, VOLUME_ON, VOLUME_OFF);
[fm createFileAtPath: FILE_PATH contents: result attributes: nil];
}
#end

Answer 1

Hacky solution that works (but isn't elegant at all)
I had to replace
FILE_PATH = [CURRENT_DIR stringByAppendingString: INIT_PATH];
With
CURRENT_DIR = [[[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath] stringByDeletingPathExtension] stringByDeletingLastPathComponent];
To get the correct path for the file, but it works now.