OSX: silently run .app

Question

Do someone know if there is a way to silently install an .app from a DMG using command line?

I'm not talking about apps that you have to copy to /Applications nor about the .pkg ones.

Example: http://download.qt-project.org/official_releases/qt/5.2/5.2.0/qt-mac-opensource-5.2.0-clang-offline.dmg

Answer 1

You can find the steps below to perform this:

1) hdiutil attach -mountpoint yourpath qt-mac-opensource-5.2.0-clang-offline.dmg

2) sudo cp -R your-.app-file-in-yourpath /Applications (this step might be .pkg file, and cannot verify the Qt installer right now).

3) hdiutil detach yourpath

Answer 2

.app packages are not meant to be installed silently. The only way you will be able to do what you want is by adding open -a application.app to execute it per the instructions given above, so for example:

#!/bin/bash

hdiutil attach -mountpoint /your-directory-path/installation-file.dmg
sudo cp -R /volumes/your-app-path-here/app-name.app /Applications
hdiutil detach /volumes/your-app-path-here/
open -a /Applications/applicationname.app