Bdtyktl

One option would be to use AppleScript:

$ osascript -e 'id of app "Finder"'

com.apple.finder

You could also do something like this:

$ bundle=$(mdfind -onlyin / kMDItemKind==Application | grep -i "/Finder.app$" | head -1)

$ defaults read "$bundle/Contents/Info" CFBundleIdentifier

com.apple.finder

Both of these are fairly slow (about 0.05-0.2s on my Air) though. Are there any faster or less hacky options?

How about reading the bundle identifier from the application's Info.plist file directly using PlistBuddy (8):

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Print CFBundleIdentifier' /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info.plist

mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -r SomeApp.app

Use lsappinfo

CC@~ $ lsappinfo info -only bundleid Finder

"CFBundleIdentifier"="com.apple.finder"

To get only the bundleid value, add | cut -d '"' -f4 to that command

CC@~ $ lsappinfo info -only bundleid Finder | cut -d '"' -f4

com.apple.finder

You don't have to handle your code with the path of that application, even the path changes.

As long as the application is started, you got an value.

Though it is not as fast as @surry's answer, but it's fast enough.

Values of kMDItemKind depend on the current localization.

How about this?

mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier 

     -raw "$(mdfind "(kMDItemContentTypeTree=com.apple.application) && (kMDItemDisplayName == 'photoshop*'cdw)" | head -1)"

If showing all filename extensions is enabled, kMDItemDisplayName contains .app for some applications but not others. This would also escape names that contain ', ", or :

a="Consultant's Canary"; a="${a//'/'}.app"; a=${a//"/\"}; a=${a//\/\\}; mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -raw "$(mdfind 'kMDItemContentType==com.apple.application-bundle&&kMDItemFSName=="'"$a"'"' | head -n1)"

Another option:

a=Finder; mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -raw "$(mdfind kMDItemContentType==com.apple.application-bundle | sed -E $'s|(.*/)(.*)|\1t\2|' | grep -F $'t'"$a".app -m1 | tr -d 't')"

A single osascript command might also be faster:

osascript -e 'on run args

set output to {}

repeat with a in args

set end of output to id of app a

end

set text item delimiters to linefeed

output as text

end' Finder 'AppleScript Editor'