How can I change a file or folder icon using the Terminal

Question

How can I change or set the icon for a file or folder, in the terminal, do I need to use a scripting language?

Answer 1

You'll need the Developer Tools installed, and then the following might work. This takes the graphic in icon.png and applies it to file.ext.

# Take an image and make the image its own icon:
sips -i icon.png

# Extract the icon to its own resource file:
/Developer/Tools/DeRez -only icns icon.png > tmpicns.rsrc

# append this resource to the file you want to icon-ize.
/Developer/Tools/Rez -append tmpicns.rsrc -o file.ext

# Use the resource to set the icon.
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a C file.ext

# clean up.
rm tmpicns.rsrc
# rm icon.png # probably want to keep this for re-use.

Answer 2

With the benefit of several years of hindsight:

user588's answer and koiyu's answer work well, but they rely on utilities (Rez, DeRez, and SetFile) that:

• aren't installed by default (they come with either Xcode or the developer command-line utilities)
• are now deprecated (Rez and DeRez, because they relate to Carbon)

osxiconutils look interesting, but won't compile any longer (as of OSX 10.10.4).

---

Therefore I've created CLI fileicon, which should work on a pristine OSX machine (no prerequisites); it is a Bash script based primarily on xattr, xxd and an embedded Python script that calls Cocoa, courtesy of this helpful answer.

It allows setting/removing/extracting custom icons for/from files or folders, including on APFS volumes on macOS 10.13 (High Sierra).

You can install it as follows:

• If you have Node.js installed, from the npm registry, with
  [sudo] npm install -g fileicon
• Otherwise:
  • Download the CLI as fileicon (this link will stay current).
  • Make it executable with chmod +x fileicon.
  • Move it or symlink it to a folder in your $PATH, such as /usr/local/bin (requires sudo).

Here's the usage information; for complete information, refer to the manual:

$ fileicon -h

Set a custom icon for a file or folder:

    fileicon set      <fileOrFolder> <imageFile>

 Remove a custom icon from a file or folder:

    fileicon rm       <fileOrFolder>

 Get a file or folder's custom icon:

    fileicon get [-f] <fileOrFolder> [<iconOutputFile>]

 Test if a file or folder has a custom icon:

    fileicon test     <fileOrFolder>

 -q ...  silence status output

 Standard options: --help, --man, --version, --home

Answer 3

I almost started a bounty on this, because I didn't manage to change the icon of a folder using @mankoff's answer. But I found a solution.

---

To change folder's icon you don't point Rez -append tmp.rsrc to the folder but a special Icon\r file inside the folder. If you haven't set a custom icon to the folder before, the file probably will not exist, but Rez creates it on–the–fly. Deleting the Icon\r file will remove the custom icon, so to prevent accidents it is good to be hidden.

These are the modifications to the mankoff's answer:

# Append a resource to the folder you want to icon-ize.
Rez -append tmpicns.rsrc -o $'myfolder/Icon\r'

# Use the resource to set the icon.
SetFile -a C myfolder/

# Hide the Icon\r file from Finder.
SetFile -a V $'myfolder/Icon\r'

Answer 4

In addition to Ruby, here's a Python version:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import Cocoa
import sys

Cocoa.NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().setIcon_forFile_options_(Cocoa.NSImage.alloc().initWithContentsOfFile_(sys.argv[1].decode('utf-8')), sys.argv[2].decode('utf-8'), 0) or sys.exit("Unable to set file icon")

./set-image.py image.png myfile

Python that pre-installed in Mac OS already has PyObjC so you don't have to install any packages.

Answer 5

Check out setfileicon (source code), an utility created by Damien Bobillot.

Download the binary here: http://maxao.free.fr/telechargements/setfileicon.gz

After unpacking the file, make it executable:

chmod +x setfileicon

Then you can use it as follows:

./setfileicon "my-icon.icns" "my-file-or-directory"

Answer 6

I have a github project where I create AppleScript "droplets" from [shell/bash, python, perl, ruby, etc.] scripts that take file paths as arguments. I wrote this bash function for changing the icon of an folder (because AppleScript bundles are Folders with a .app extension).

replace_icon(){
    droplet="$1"
    icon="$2"
    if [[ "$icon" =~ ^https?:// ]]; then
        curl -sLo /tmp/icon "$icon"
        icon=/tmp/icon
    fi
    rm -rf "$droplet"$'/Icon\r'
    sips -i "$icon" >/dev/null
    DeRez -only icns "$icon" > /tmp/icns.rsrc
    Rez -append /tmp/icns.rsrc -o "$droplet"$'/Icon\r'
    SetFile -a C "$droplet"
    SetFile -a V "$droplet"$'/Icon\r'
}

Once defined, you call the function with 2 arguments:

replace_icon /path/to/AppleScript.app /path/to/icon.png

or

replace_icon /path/to/AppleScript.app http://i.imgur.com/LmUvWqB.png

As you can see the second argument can be an image on your system, or a URL.

NOTE: That crazy looking $'/Icon\r' thing that I do is because the name of the Icon file ends with a literal carriage return \r. See for yourself with:

find my-applescript.app -maxdepth 1 | less -U

Answer 7

Assuming that we have icns-file already. Create temp resource file which points to icns-file:

$ echo "read 'icns' (-16455) \"Icon.icns\";" >> Icon.rsrc

Append the resource file as value of extended attribute "com.apple.ResourceFork" to a file:

$ Rez -a Icon.rsrc -o FileName.ext

Show the icon of the file:

$ SetFile -a C FileName.ext

Append resource file as value of extended attribute "com.apple.ResourceFork" to a magic icon file inside current folder:

$ Rez -a Icon.rsrc -o Icon$'\r'

Show the icon of current folder:

$ SetFile -a C .

Hide the magic icon file inside current folder (press ⇧⌘. to show/hide hidden files in Finder):

$ SetFile -a V Icon$'\r'

Additional details

Icon data is stored as value of extended attribute "com.apple.ResourceFork" (Terminal command "xattr -p com.apple.ResourceFork FileName.ext" prints the value). For a folder there is magic (which is empty and hidden) file Icon$'\r' inside the folder. To extract icon data from extended attribute "com.apple.ResourceFork" into plain text resource file (from which we know correct icns-type identifier "-16455"):

$ DeRez -only icns FileWithIcon.ext > Icon.rsrc
$ DeRez -only icns /Folder/With/Icon/Icon$'\r' > Icon.rsrc

Under macOS 10.13 High Sierra command $ sips -i ImageFile.icns/png/jpg generates error "--addIcon is no longer supported". Switch "-i" means "--addIcon" as extended attribute "com.apple.ResourceFork" onto this file itself using the content of this image file.

Answer 8

Another option is to use MacRuby:

/usr/local/bin/macruby -e 'framework "Cocoa";NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace.setIcon(NSImage.alloc.initWithContentsOfFile("/tmp/a.png"),forFile:"/tmp/file",options:0)'

You can download an installer for MacRuby from http://macruby.org.

Answer 9

Strangely enough the best solution seems to be not to use Apple's own tools but the Python code because it has various advantages not being limited by:

• output file resolution
  (it works till 1024x1024)
• input file format
  (tried with ICNS and PNG)
• permissions to install
  (define it as a function)

Update

Now (on macOS Sierra) @koiyu’s answer seems to work, so you could use this two-liner to copy the icon from a source folder to your destination folder:

#!/bin/sh

DeRez -only icns $1/Icon$'\r' > icon.rsrc; Rez -a icon.rsrc -o $2/Icon$'\r'
SetFile -a C $2; SetFile -a V $2/Icon$'\r'; rm icon.rsrc

Answer 10

In the recent macOS version (10.14), sips -i icon.png will get a --addIcon is no longer supported error.

It also needed Developer Tools installed. This takes the graphic in Icon.png and applies it to file.ext, just like user588's answer:

# Covert Icon.png to tempicons.icns:
sips -s format icns Icon.png --out tmpicns.icns

# Create temp resource file which points to tempicons.icns:
echo "read 'icns' (-16455) \"tmpicns.icns\";" >> tmpicns.rsrc

# append this resource to the file you want to icon-ize.
Rez -a tmpicns.rsrc -o file.ext

# Use the resource to set the icon.
SetFile -a C file.ext

# Clean up
rm tempicons.icns && rm tmpicns.rsrc