ExampleQL - Makefile for macOS Quick Look plugin

ExampleQL is a Makefile for a barebone Quick Look plugin, without Xcode project intervention.

Theoretically, this plugin can be run in macOS >= 10.5, yet only tested in macOS [10.10, 10.14] If you tested it under macOS 10.10, please let me know.

Mandatory variables

You must define at least following Makefile variables in Makefile.inc

PLUGIN_NAME

PLUGIN_VERSION

PLUGIN_BUILD

# Reversed domain  Example: com.example
BUNDLE_DOMAIN

# Supported UTI types to generate preview/thumbnail
PLUGIN_SUPPORTED_UTI

Optional variables

You may alternatively specify following variables(default value will be used if not specified)

# Plugin bundle identifier
PLUGIN_BID

# Supported architectures
ARCHFLAGS

# Quick Look installation prefix
PREFIX

# macOS SDK root path
SDKROOT

# Minimal supported macOS version(should >= 10.5)
MACOSX_VERSION_MIN

# Copyright string embedded in Info.plist
COPYRIGHT

# Code signature identity
SIGNCERT

For a full list of optional variables, please check Makefile

Compile & load

# Use `release' target for release build; default is `debug'
make

mkdir -p ~/Library/QuickLook
cp -r ExampleQL.qlgenerator ~/Library/QuickLook

# Reset Quick Look Server
qlmanage -r cache
qlmanage -r

# Check if this Quick Look loaded
qlmanage -m plugins | grep ExampleQL

In side Finder, open a directory with supported-UTI files, so your Quick Look plugin can be invoked to generate thumbnail/preview.

Alternatively, you can use qlmanage(1) command line utility to generate thumbnail/preview manually.

Debugging & test

# for macOS >= 10.13
log stream --style compact --predicate 'process == "QuickLookSatellite" AND eventMessage CONTAINS "ExampleQL"' --color=auto

# for macOS >= 10.12
log stream --style compact --predicate 'process == "QuickLookSatellite" AND eventMessage CONTAINS "ExampleQL"'

# for macOS < 10.12
syslog -w 0 -k Sender QuickLookSatellite -k Message S ExampleQL

Please check Debugging and Testing a Generator for a comprehensive debugging tips.

Install/uninstall

# Install/uninstall Quick Look plugin for current user
make install
make uninstall

# Install/uninstall Quick Look plugin for all users
PREFIX=/Library/QuickLook sudo make install
PREFIX=/Library/QuickLook sudo make uninstall

Caveats

• This Quick Look plugin was written in Objective-C & C.

• main.c contains the generic CFPlug-in code necessary for a Quick Look generator to use, don't touch it.

• Mojave(10.14) is the last macOS release to support 32-bit apps, Apple LLVM 10.0.0 and above don't support i386 architecture, thus you should eliminate -arch i386 in ARCHFLAGS for 10.14 and above.

  Apple LLVM 10.0.0 and above drop library linkage with gcc_s.10.5(need confirmation), you should specify MACOSX_VERSION_MIN=10.6 before make(or declare it in Makefile.inc)

  # Make example for macOS 10.14 Mojave and above
  MACOSX_VERSION_MIN=10.6 ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" make [release]

References

Introduction to Quick Look Programming Guide

sindresorhus/quick-look-plugins

phracker/MacOSX-SDKs

QuickLook Plugins List

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Created 190121+0800