I am having a problem using the command 'open -a Mail' in the following
context:

In July I was experiencing Internet connectivity problems and Apple
technical support (phone, not Apple store) advised me to back up my
system (10.3 iBook G4) and restore the system from CD-ROM. I did so,
though it did not solve the problem (something else did) and as a result
I had a "Previous Systems" folder on my Macintosh HD. The folder was
essentially untouched since August.

During this time, I became accustomed to opening Mail from the command
line via 'open -a Mail'. I noticed that, even though I had an icon for
Mail in the dock, calling this command from the prompt would cause a
*new* Mail icon to appear and do its little bounce. I thought little of
this, even though this was a different behavior from the case where I
opened Safari from the command line: 'open -a Safari' did *not*
generate a new Dock icon for Safari, but simply caused the existing Dock
icon for Safari to bounce and launch.

The other night I decided that enough time had passed for me to trash
the Previous Systems folder. Once I did so, however, calling 'open -a
Mail' from the command-prompt caused the following error message to appear:

2004-12-17 17:58:58.150 open[733] LSOpenFromURLSpec() returned
-10660 for application Mail path (null).
2004-12-17 17:58:58.153 open[733] Couldn't launch application: Mail

Notwithstanding this error message, I could still launch Mail by
clicking on the Dock icon -- but I couldn't launch it from the command line.

When I restored the Previous Systems folder from the Trash, I was once
again able to launch Mail from the command-prompt. Once again, this
action did not cause the existing Dock icon for Mail to bounce; it
generated a *new* Dock icon for Mail which then bounced and launched.

So, can anyone explain why calling 'open -a Mail' from the command line
seems to cause my system to look for Mail in Previous Systems rather
than Applications? (I do not want to have to retain Previous Systems on
my disc indefinitely just so I can launch certain applications from the
command-line.)

Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan

Jim Keenan wrote:
[snip]
>
> So, can anyone explain why calling 'open -a Mail' from the command line
> seems to cause my system to look for Mail in Previous Systems rather
> than Applications? (I do not want to have to retain Previous Systems on
> my disc indefinitely just so I can launch certain applications from the
> command-line.)
>

Well, I didn't get and don't have an answer to that question. But I
appear to have fixed the problem in a relatively crude manner.

It appears that the version of Mail in /Applications was version 1.3.4;
that was the version referenced by the regular Dock icon. The version
of Mail in Previous Systems was a *later* version, 1.3.9 -- don't ask me
how that happened, 'cause I dunno. It appears that when I called 'open
-a Mail', the system wanted to use the most recent version, found it
under Previous Systems, generated a new Dock icon and launched it.
(Anybody got a better explanation?)

So what I did was to copy /Applications/Mail.app (v1.3.4) to a safe
spot, then copied v1.3.9 from Previous Systems into /Applications,
overwriting 1.3.4.

Now, when I call 'open -a Mail' from the command-prompt, the regular
Dock icon bounces and launches; no new Dock icon is generated. And
whether I launch from the Dock or the command-prompt, I get v1.3.9.

Or so it appears.

Jim Keenan

Jim Keenan wrote:

> Jim Keenan wrote:
> [snip]
>
>>
>> So, can anyone explain why calling 'open -a Mail' from the command
>> line seems to cause my system to look for Mail in Previous Systems
>> rather than Applications? (I do not want to have to retain Previous
>> Systems on my disc indefinitely just so I can launch certain
>> applications from the command-line.)
>>
>
> Well, I didn't get and don't have an answer to that question. But I
> appear to have fixed the problem in a relatively crude manner.
>
> It appears that the version of Mail in /Applications was version 1.3.4;
> that was the version referenced by the regular Dock icon. The version
> of Mail in Previous Systems was a *later* version, 1.3.9 -- don't ask me
> how that happened, 'cause I dunno. It appears that when I called 'open
> -a Mail', the system wanted to use the most recent version, found it
> under Previous Systems, generated a new Dock icon and launched it.
> (Anybody got a better explanation?)
>
> So what I did was to copy /Applications/Mail.app (v1.3.4) to a safe
> spot, then copied v1.3.9 from Previous Systems into /Applications,
> overwriting 1.3.4.
>
> Now, when I call 'open -a Mail' from the command-prompt, the regular
> Dock icon bounces and launches; no new Dock icon is generated. And
> whether I launch from the Dock or the command-prompt, I get v1.3.9.
>
> Or so it appears.
>
> Jim Keenan
yes, it seems in my 9 mo's of experience with OSX that, unlike old
Apples, which did what WE wanted, they now do what THEY think they should.
Kinda disturbing, eh?
GW