Icon and URL Refresh

Features

• The Caffeinator menu-bar icon has been refreshed to more clearly distinguish between disabled and enabled states.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause Caffeinator to crash when attempting to start a custom Caffeination with no options.
• URLs now point correctly to the new repository and update servers.

Big Sur Style

Features

• Caffeinator is now a universal app, so it will run natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon systems.
• This update adopts the new design language of macOS Big Sur:

  • Caffeinator's icon has gotten a rounded-rectangular redesign.

  • The menu bar icon has been made monochromatic to align with the appearance of other menu bar items in Big Sur. The Caffeinator icon is now semitransparent when disabled and opaque when enabled.

    If you prefer the existing green style, don't worry: just run

    defaults write com.aaplmath.Caffeinator UseGreenColorScheme -bool YES
    

    in the Terminal and restart Caffeinator to switch to the old color scheme. (If you'd like, you can do this before updating so that the update will automatically revert to the old style after installation.)

Bug Fixes

• Some UI issues and translation errors were corrected.

Scripting

Features

• Caffeinator can now be automated! This release adds support for scripting Caffeinator with AppleScript or JavaScript for Automation. Using these technologies, you can now start or stop a Caffeination, configure Caffeination options, and observe the configuration and status of a Caffeination. To see all of the functionality Caffeinator exposes and how you can start using it in your own scripts, check out the Caffeinator scripting dictionary.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Features

• This release introduces global keyboard shortcuts to quickly start a regular, process-based, timed, or custom Caffeination from anywhere with just a keypress. By default, no shortcuts are assigned; they can be configured under the Advanced menu. See the updated Help documentation for more information.
• The Custom Caffeination window has received an under-the-hood redesign.
• Caffeinator now uses the latest versions of Swift and CaffeineKit.

Bug Fixes

• Missing window title localizations were added.

Visible Custom Caffeinations

Bug Fixes

• Fixes an issue where the Custom Caffeination window didn't come to the foreground when opened.

Sparkly UI

Features

• The Process-Based Caffeination window now lets you choose from a list of running processes—no more searching for PIDs in Activity Monitor! (There is still an option to manually input a PID, though, if you would prefer.) There is also an advanced process selector that shows daemons and other system processes for power users.
• In addition to the new selection window, Process-Based Caffeinations can now detect the name of virtually every process you Caffeinate, not just app bundles. This means that you'll see the name of the process you're Caffeinating in the Caffeinator menu rather than "PID ####."
• The Timed Caffeination window has also been redesigned. It now features inputs for hours, minutes, and seconds; you no longer need to convert everything to seconds.
• Caffeinator now uses Sparkle to update. Among other things, this means that updates are now entirely automatic (once you approve them) and happen in the background. Updates are now also signed and verified before downloading, making them more secure. Even better, you no longer need to re-authorize Caffeinator to run every time you update.
• The Caffeinator disk image installer for first-time installation has been redesigned.

Bug Fixes

• Some missing Spanish translations were added.

Custom Caffeinations

Features

• This update replaces Caffeinate with Arguments with the new Custom Caffeination, a friendlier (but equally powerful) way to specify custom parameters for a Caffeination.
• The updater window has been made significantly more robust. It now displays both the current and pending versions as well as GitHub release notes.
• The Help window has been redesigned and now contains additional help topics.

Bug Fixes

• The Caffeinate Display option now once again works properly.
• Caffeinator no longer crashes if you attempt to start a Custom Caffeination without argument values for Timed or Process-Based.
• It is no longer possible to accidentally open multiple copies of the same window (except for the updater window).
• Certain failures during update checks now display the correct error title.

CaffeineKit

Features

• You can now automatically start and stop Caffeinations by right-clicking or option-clicking on the Caffeinator menu bar icon
• The Arguments panel has been redesigned and is now more compact
• All Caffeinator UI elements now adapt to macOS' Dark Mode
• Caffeinator now automatically discards and recreates windows to reduce its memory footprint

Notes

• Caffeinator is now based on the CaffeineKit library
• Caffeinator now uses Storyboards for its interface files
• Caffeinator has been updated for Swift 5

No More Zombies

Features

• Caffeinator is now (mostly) available in Spanish! (see Notes for the caveat)
• Caffeinator can now automatically detect any extra caffeinate processes running on your computer that could interfere with Caffeinator's functionality and, with your permission (of course!), terminate them

Bug Fixes

• Caffeinator now properly intercepts kill signals and ensures that any active Caffeination, if one exists, is properly terminated before the app quits, once and for all eliminating the "zombie" caffeinate process problem (unless you send Caffeinator SIGKILL…)

Notes

• The Help dialog has not been translated to Spanish, and remains in English regardless of the localization requested
• Caffeinator no longer uses App Sandboxing
• The caffeinate man page seems to have been removed by Apple. As a temporary workaround, run man caffeinate in Terminal to view the man page; a fix to the broken link will come in a later release

Auto Update

Features

• Caffeinator can now notify you of available updates. It will automatically check for updates once a day and notify you if one is available
• Caffeinator has been updated to use the latest features of Swift 4 and is fully compatible with macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Bug Fixes

• This release resolves an issue that could cause the app to crash when the app icon was clicked while a dialog box was active

Installation

• The Caffeinator installer window should now appear properly, without any UI scaffolding (in the past, it may have appeared as a regular Finder window)

Caffeinator is now officially available under the MIT License, which is also reflected within the application in this update.