'Is there a command-line interface to list all Bluetooth devices in range on mac? [closed]

I want to list all in-range Bluetooth devices, ideally with hostnames, but MAC addresses would be sufficient. I need a command that performs an active scan so I can poll to see if my device is nearby, not one that lists previously paired devices.

My use-case is detecting whether my Bluetooth headphones or iPhone are in range of my Mac, to trigger security setting changes (e.g. sudo timeout). I've done a fair bit of Googling, and the only things I seem to be able to find are iOS swift code examples. I would be happy with a macOS Swift code example, AppleScript example, bash example, or pointers to good docs as answers.

I've looked at these options so far:

  • blued: prints a list of mac addresses but they don't seem to change when devices go in or out of range or connect, and they aren't matched up to hostnames
  • blueutil (brew install blueutil): only prints power state, not device names
  • bluetoothaudiod: no usable interface
  • This Objective-C code Create a Terminal-Based Bluetooth Monitor in XCode?: I get several errors when compiling so it's hard to test it
  • Using AppleScript to read it out the Bluetooth Explorer.app GUI
  • Using dtrace to see how Bluetooth Explorer.app computes the list: difficult last resort
  • The Proximity App from this forum post: Doesn't have a command line interface, so I cant query it remotely. I can write a script that stores the state in a file to read later, but it only works for one device at a time.

Edit 2017/01: Found this SO answer with details on finding nearby devices in Swift:
List devices that are in range of Bluetooth device in Swift

Edit 2017/10: Found an updated SO answer for Swift 3 & 4.0: Nearby Bluetooth devices using Swift 3.0

objective-cswiftmacosbluetoothapplescript


Solution 1:[1]

In Terminal, the command :

system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType

gives you all the details about Bluetooth, including devices paired, with their names, MAC address. Result is unfortunately a bit too much, but with sed or grep command, you should extract what you need.

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

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