mac-jetbrains-sudo-launcher

Allows to automatically run as root the latest version of any of JetBrains instruments, installed via Toolbox on Mac.

use-case

One day I needed to start built-in PHP web server on port 80 on Mac with PhpStorm Run tool. I tried it but got a Permission denied error. Then I found where PhpStorm executable is, launched it with sudo and web server started without any problem. It could be good enough workaround (btw, maybe there is more easy way, idk), but it makes no sense to run the exact version of application when using JetBrains Toolbox launcher and autoupdate.

So I wrote this sudo launcher.

usage

By default this script is set up to launch PhpStorm from its default path (~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/PhpStorm/ch-0/{$versionNumber}/PhpStorm.app/Contents/MacOS/phpstorm). You can modify this behavior by changing variables theAppToLaunchPath and theRelativeExecPath.

• theAppToLaunchPath should be set to a path to the folder, that contains installed version of the application in appropriate named subfolders (e.g. 173.4127.29, 172.4144.1459). By default it's ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/PhpStorm/ch-0/.

• theRelativeExecPath should be set to a path from a concrete version folder to the executive file of application. By default it's PhpStorm.app/Contents/MacOS/phpstorm.

The launcher script will:

1. scan theAppToLaunchPath for subfolders;
2. interpret their names as versions;
3. sort this versions to find the latest one ;
4. run as root the latest version of the app using theRelativeExecPath.

Then you can export this script as an app and run it any way you want.