mscript reports "java not installed" on Mac M5 works on other platforms

[wiggi88]

running mscript on my MacBook Air M5 returns "java not installed". Java is installed and working. I have tried Java 21 and Java 26 and confirmed Java versions and JAVA_HOME. Does anyone know a solution to this or alternatively the correct HTTP POST command format to run a rescan from the command line?

[simoncn]

Thanks for letting me know about this problem. The default location of the java executable has changed and mscript has not been updated to recognise the new location.

As a workaround, you can run the following command to do a rescan:

java -jar /Applications/MinimServer.app/Contents/Java/mscript.jar -c rescan

I tried this on macOS Tahoe and it failed with this message:

Server not responding: localhost:9790

I think this is happening because the java executable is not configured with the necessary permission to access the macOS local network. This permission is required if you are running macOS Sequoia or Tahoe.

The HTTP POST format is described in this section. For this to work, the application sending the HTTP POST must be configured with the necessary permission to access the macOS local network.

I will fix the mscript problem with the java executable location and I will think about how to work around this macOS local network access limitation.

[wiggi88]

(14-07-2026 10:18)simoncn Wrote:  Thanks for letting me know about this problem. The default location of the java executable has changed and mscript has not been updated to recognise the new location.

As a workaround, you can run the following command to do a rescan:

java -jar /Applications/MinimServer.app/Contents/Java/mscript.jar -c rescan

I tried this on macOS Tahoe and it failed with this message:

Server not responding: localhost:9790

I think this is happening because the java executable is not configured with the necessary permission to access the macOS local network. This permission is required if you are running macOS Sequoia or Tahoe.

The HTTP POST format is described in this section. For this to work, the application sending the HTTP POST must be configured with the necessary permission to access the macOS local network.

I will fix the mscript problem with the java executable location and I will think about how to work around this macOS local network access limitation.

Thank you for the prompt reply.

java -jar /Applications/MinimServer.app/Contents/Java/mscript.jar -c rescan works on my Mac.

I couldn't work out how to send a POST command from the documentation but I found the format that mscript uses from a working linux installation and Wireshark. This command works on my Mac:

curl -X POST http://<IP Address>:9790 -H "Content-Type: text/plain" -d rescan

[simoncn]

Thanks for this helpful information. What version of macOS are you running?

[wiggi88]

(14-07-2026 15:36)simoncn Wrote:  Thanks for this helpful information. What version of macOS are you running?

Tahoe 26.5.2

[simoncn]

Thanks for the quick reply. After some more experiments, the rescan command is working but the about command (which I used for my test) is not working. This means that mscript is not being blocked because of a local network permission issue. The about command is working on Windows.

I will look into what is causing the problem with the about command not working on macOS.

[wiggi88]

The mscript about command is working for me using your workaround:

david@Davids-Air ~ % java -jar /Applications/MinimServer.app/Contents/Java/mscript.jar -c about
+*about
MinimServer 2.2 update 274, Copyright © 2012-2026 Simon Nash. All rights reserved.
Running on local host Davids-Air.lan
MinimServer[Davids-Air.lan] is running

[simoncn]

Does the "about" command respond immediately or is there a delay of a few seconds?

On my setup, there is a delay of about 5 seconds before "about" responds. This causes the mscript network connection to time out, which triggers the "Server not responding" error.

The delay is caused by a Java API call that the "about" command is making to get the host name. On my Mac, the host name is "Simons-MacBook-Air.local". If you are not seeing this delay, it could be because your host name ends in ".lan" instead of ".local".

I am working on a change that will replace the Java API call with another way of getting the host name when running on macOS.

[wiggi88]

It responds immediately.

Good to know that you are working on a fix.