Launch iTerm2 and Run Command

This script demonstrates two concepts:

  1. Launching iTerm2 using PyObjC and running the script only after it is launched.

  2. Creating a window that runs a command.

Launching the app is useful when the script is run from the command line rather than from within iTerm2. To run this script from the command line you’ll need to install its dependencies first:

brew install python3
pip3 install iterm2
pip3 install pyobjc

Here’s the code:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import iterm2
import AppKit

# Launch the app
AppKit.NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().launchApplication_("iTerm2")

async def main(connection):
    app = await iterm2.async_get_app(connection)

    # Foreground the app
    await app.async_activate()

    # This will run 'vi' from bash. If you use a different shell, you'll need
    # to change it here. Running it through the shell sets up your $PATH so you
    # don't need to specify a full path to the command.
    await iterm2.Window.async_create(connection, command="/bin/bash -l -c vi")

# Passing True for the second parameter means keep trying to
# connect until the app launches.
iterm2.run_until_complete(main, True)

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