NeXTSTEP 3.0: MAB Application Services Problems

Disclaimer

This document pertains to the NeXTSTEP operating system, which is no longer a supported product of Apple Computer. This information is provided only as a convenience to our customers who have not yet upgraded their systems, and may not apply to OPENSTEP, WebObjects, or any other product of Apple Enterprise Software. Some questions in this Q&A document may not apply to version 3.3 or to any given specific version of NeXTSTEP.
Q: Why don't the services from my MAB [Multiple Architecture Binary] applications show up on my Release 3.0 machine?

A: When the service description file is located in an app wrapper of a MAB application and placed in ~/Apps, the services do not get properly registered on a Release 3.0 machine. However, the services are correctly registered on a post-Release 3.0 machine. This is a MAB bug in Release 3.0.

The workaround is to place a file or directory with a ".service" extension in either ~/Library/Services or /LocalLibrary/Services. A file with a ".service" extension must be a valid service description file. A ".service" directory must contain a valid service description file named "services" (e.g., the service description file would be named something like ~/Library/Services/myOwn.service or /LocalLibrary/Services/ALocalOne.service/services). Note that the extension ".service" does not end in an "s", but the file named services does. Also, the Workspace Manager only registers the services in these directories when the user logs in, it doesn't automatically update the service cache during a working session.

For more information on installing services, refer to ../AppKit/installing_new_services.

QA895

Valid for 3.0
Published Date: Feb 20, 2012