Im in windows terminal and I would like to open directories in file explorer, while in WSL2 Ubuntu.
I tried typing "explorer.exe Desktop/", but it opens Documents, in fact every time I try to run it, it just opens Documents, except when I type "explorer.exe .", then it opens the current directory correctly, but I want it to work with any directory I give it. Any ideas?
Edit 1: I found this function, just add it to your ~/.bashrc and it works
start(){
path=$(wslpath -w "$1")
/mnt/c/Windows/explorer.exe "$path"
}
Type start "Some Path" without quotation marks and it opens the path in file explorer, also I saw that I needed to add quotation marks around argument of explorer.exe
Answer is in post, but I will type it here again.
Put this function in your ~/.bashrc
start(){
path=$(wslpath -w "$1")
/mnt/c/Windows/explorer.exe "$path"
}
Now when you type start "Some Path" you will open it in file explorer. You can also remove /mnt/c/Windows/ from /mnt/c/Windows/explorer.exe if you want.
PTH (Path to here): Basically what my problem was that I was trying to read user input for the path to recreate the start command from cmd and powershell, but in wsl2 that was a lot harder because it doesn't have GUI so it doesn't know how to open it using xdg-open or other tools. Using read command from bash was not good enough because of the newline it always gives the user to type, but this uses arguments and takes the next thing you type in bash instantly which is awesome. Functions in bash work with arguments like lets say programs in c where you type ./program arg1 arg2 arg3..., where in bash it is the same, the number indicating the argument, so $0 is the zero-th argument which is always the name, so we don't use it. Starting from $1 $2 $3 and so on are the arguments which are usable in bash functions. In our case typing "start Desktop/", $1 is assigned "Desktop/", which is then converted to C:\Users<Your Username>\Desktop and assigned to $path. Then $path is passed to /mnt/c/Windows/explorer.exe to finally open in file explorer. Pretty nifty right? That's what I said first time 1 minute ago when I first saw and understood bash functions.
"Desktop/" doesn't actually resolve to a folder. Try the following:
explorer.exe "c:\users\<YOUR USERNAME>\Desktop"
This provides the full (absolute) path to explorer.exe.
Related
I have a very simple bash script that I run often from the cli, but I've found it's frustrating to have to open a terminal, identify the right file, and run it and think the easiest way would be to run it as an option from a right-click. I am running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
The script is just erasing exif data, leaving the orientation tags, essentially this:
exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile # -Orientation file-*.jpg
Is there a way to have the script identify which image I'm right clicking on? I'm at a loss what to put in the file-*.jpg part which will be a variable for "whatever image I'm right-clicking on right now."
Tried searching for a good while on how to do this but am clearly either not using the right search terms or else this isn't done very often. Thank you in advance for any help!
if you want your script to run in file manager right-click menu you have to change your script and define file(s) as arguments. this happens simply by changing your file section with $1 to $n as the parameter(s).
as far as I know ubuntu uses nautilus as an file manager.
you can run nautilus-actions-config-tool either from your terminal or from dash and define your script a name and a command to run. you can follow this link for illustration learning :
ubuntu nautilus defile script in menu
for example :
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" != "" ]; then
echo "Positional parameter 1 contains value $1"
else
echo "Positional parameter 1 is empty"
fi
for all arguments :
#!/bin/bash
if [[ "$#" -gt 0 ]]; then
for arg in "$#"; do
echo $arg
done
fi
here is the image that shows the script worked
I know the question is a little older, but I can provide you with the solution.
You have to set up FileManager-actions, an extension for GNOME/Nautilus (but it also works for other file managers).
Setup filemanager-actions on Ubuntu 20.04
sudo apt update
sudo apt install filemanager-actions
Then run fma-config-tool and create a new action.
When creating an action, please ensure that:
[v] Display item in selection context menu
is flagged; otherwise, you will not see the context menu during the file selection.
Prepare the script you want to execute
Prepare a script that does what you need. Touch in /tmp, mv it in /usr/bin and give it execute permissions:
touch /tmp/your-script
# edit it with your editor
sudo mv /tmp/your-script /usr/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/your-script
In your script, you can reference the filename using $1.
FILENAME=$1
echo $FILENAME
In the variable FILENAME you will find the selected file name.
Configure Nautilus-action command
To let nautilus pass the filename, insert the script path and the argument string in the' command' tab.
To fully answer your question, to let Nautilus pass the filename as a script argument, you have to specify %f.
At this point, quit the Nautilus instance and open it again:
nautilus -q
nautilus
Now, let's have a try! Right-click on a file and check out the result!
Appendix 1 - Filemanager-actions formats
%f A single file name, even if multiple files are selected.
%F A list of files. Each file is passed as a separate argument to the executable program.
%u A single URL. Local files may either be passed as file: URLs or as file path.
%U A list of URLs. Each URL is passed as a separate argument to the executable program.
%d Base directory
Here you can find a comprehensive list.
Appendix 2 - Sources
Check out my post blog in which I actually realize something similar: https://gabrieleserra.ml/blog/2021-08-14-filemanager-actions-ubuntu-20-04.html
Reference to all possible formats for FileManager-actions: https://askubuntu.com/a/783313/940068
Realize it in Ubuntu 18.04: https://askubuntu.com/a/77285/940068
I am trying to learn UNIX.
I am using a book called “Wicked Cool Shell Scripts”.
I am told that .bash_profile contains my login for bash and that I can add paths to it so that commands I enter in Terminal will find the scripts I am writing.
The contents of my current bash_profile is:
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH
When I type echo $PATH I get:
/usr/local/opt/php#7.0/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin
I would like to add a path so that - as the book suggests - I can write scripts and refer to them directly from the command line, instead of having to constantly navigate to that directory to run them.
I have a file with a shebang. It runs fine when I type its name and am in the same directory. I have moved that file to the folder scripts, which is located under crg/Users/ (ie: Users/crg/scripts)
According to this book, I can now alter my $PATH to include that directory, so that when I type that filename, the program will run.
I cannot do this successfully.
I don’t know why.
After every edit, I quit terminal and reopen it, to ensure it is using the newly edited bash_profile.
As per the books instructions on page 5, I have tried entering this in my bash_profile:
export PATH=”/Users/crg/scripts/:$PATH”
I save my bash_profile, quit Terminal, reopen it and type echo $Path
This is the result:
”/Users/crg/scripts/:??
This is not right. In fact, it's wildly wrong. And it does not allow me to run scripts from the folder indicated. It also seems to completely overwrite whatever was in the bash_profile before this, so I cannot - after doing this 'simple edit' suggested by a 'professional' - run a php -version command from the Terminal.
I am at a complete loss as to why this is happening.
Why is there a quotation mark at the beginning of this line (but not at the end)?
What's with the colon and the 2 question marks at the end of this line?
How do I add/append a path to my bash_profile?
More questions:
When I try and solve this on my own using “the Internet”, I discover many interesting versions of this ‘simple’ process: Here’s one suggested by a ‘professional’:
export PATH="${PATH}:/path/to/program/inside/package"
This is very different from what the book says...
Here’s another version of ‘how to do it’ by ‘a professional’:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin/modemZapp
Notice that this one doesn’t even have quotes. In both, the PATH variable comes before the actual path.
Why are there so many 'versions' of how to perform this simple task?
Can someone please tell me how to add a path to my .bash_profile?
UPDATE: I have followed the advice here, (add it to etc/paths) but this does not work either.
I get the exact same thing when I type echo $PATH in a new Terminal:
/usr/local/opt/php#7.0/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr:/usr/local/share/npm/bin:/Users/fhb/scripts:/opt/X11/bin
I can't help but note a comment on that last page: "I have been through at least a dozen different methods for adding directories to $PATH. Why are there so many and why do so few of them work?"
To answer your first question if you look closely your quotes are ” instead of ". I'm guessing you edited either your bash_profile or this post in a rich text editor instead of a plain text one. I would recommend notepad for Windows or nano for *nix if you are writing code. To fix this issue, replace the ” with ".
To answer your second question, bash is quite forgiving and will allow you to set a string variable in multiple different ways, even without quotes. However you can run into issues when a string contains whitespace, for example: /Users/lilHenry/my scripts.
The "${PATH}" syntax is just another way to declare a string. It has the benefit that it allows you to interpolate variables into a string like so:
prefix="foo"
echo "${prefix}bar"
This will output foobar, whereas echo "$prefixbar" will not output anything as the variable prefixbar has not been set. I would suggest sticking with the export PATH="/Users/me/bin:$PATH" syntax.
I'm a very novice and infrequent applescript experimenter. I've tried for several hours now to learn the individual applescript commands for the following task, but I always run into errors. Perhaps someone much more adept at applescript will find this task easy and quick, and for that I would be very grateful. Here is the task:
I want to be able to manually select a document or file within the finder and then execute the following unix command on that file. I would then store the script under Finder's "Services" menu. The unix command is:
srm -rfv -m path/filename
In my attempts, I assumed that a script that would open Terminal and execute the command would be the way to go, but just couldn't get anything to work. Thank you in advance to any good programmers who can whip out such a script for me.
My tip: Create such services using Automator!
Create a new Service in Automator
Choose "File & Folder" as Input and "Finder"
Add "Run shell script"
Choose "as arguments" as input
Change echo "$f" to your command srm -rfv -m "$f"
Save it as "Safe delete"
From now on, if you select a file inside Finder you will find the option "Safe delete" in the context menu.
Enjoy, Michael / Hamburg
Craig's comment is pertinent, but I am just focus on the script itself, not on the shell command. the script bellow must be saved as Application and each time you drop 1 or more file on its icon, the shell script command will be executed for each file :
on open myFiles
repeat with aFile in myFiles -- repeat loop in case you drop more than 1 file on the icon script
try
do shell script "srm -rfv -m " & (quoted form of POSIX path of aFile)
end try
end repeat
end open
Still make sure that in your shell command 'srm -rfv', the 'v' is necessary because this script will not display any thing ! I don't think so. also I did not display error during remove. what do you want to do with error (like write protect, ...) ?
Update: I missed that the OP wants to create an OS X Service that integrates with Finder. ShooTerKo's answer shows how to do that (and his solution doesn't even require use of AppleScript).
The only potentially interesting thing about this answer is that it demonstrates AppleScript commands to open a file-selection dialog, get the chosen file's POSIX path and run a shell command with it, with some general background information about executing shell commands with do shell script.
Try the following:
# Let the user choose a file via an interactive dialog.
set fileChosen to choose file
# Get the file's POSIX path.
set filePath to POSIX path of fileChosen
# Use the path to synthesize a shell command and execute it.
do shell script "echo srm -rfv -m " & quoted form of filePath
Note:
There's no explicit error handling; if you don't want the script to just fail, you'll have to add error handling (try ... on error ... end try) to handle the case of the user canceling the file selection and the shell command failing (unlikely in this case).
The shell command has echo prepended to it in order to perform a dry run (see its output in Script Editor's Result pane); remove it to perform the actual deletion.
quoted form of is important for ensuring that a string value is included as-is in a shell command (no risk of expansion (interpretation) by the shell).
do shell script will NOT open a Terminal window - it will simply run the shell command hidden and return its stdout output, which is usually what you want. If the shell command signals failure via a non-zero exit code, an error is raised.
I've just started using Terminal (the CLI for Mac OS X).
When I run a command, get some information back, run another command, get more info etc., it is hard (on the eyes) to find a certain point on the screen (e.g. the output for the command before last).
Is there a way of adding a vertical empty space to the end of each output/ after each command is run that has no output?
Each new command that you enter is preceded by a "prompt", and these can be customized (though the exact way to customize depends on the shell). Since you mention Mac OS X I'm assuming you are using the default bash shell, in which case the absolute simplest way to add a blank line is like this: PROMPT_COMMAND=echo. You can run that command to try it out, or add it to a startup file (like .profile in your home folder) to have it done automatically each time.
If you use Bash 4.4 and you want a blank line after your prompt, you could set the PS0 prompt to a newline:
PS0="\n"
Now, this will be inserted every time you run a command:
$ echo "Hello"
Hello
Wondering this too, I've looked at the menu options in Terminal & most of the control characters one can type in and nothing does this on a keystroke. You can however enter an echo command, it alone to leave a single blank line below it before the next prompt. echo \n will add an extra blank line to that, echo \n\n to do 2 extra, ie. 3 blank lines, etc. (you can also do echo;echo;echo getting the same effect)
You can create a shell alias like alias b='echo;echo' (i couldn't seem to get the \n notation to work in a alias), then entering b on a prompt will leave a double-blank line, not bad. Then you gotta figure out how to save aliases in your .profile script.
I tried making an alias for the command ' ' ie. space character, which I though you could type like \ (hmm, stack overflow not formatting this well, that's backslash followed by a space, then return to execute it), but the bash shell doesn't seem to allow an alias with that name. It probably wouldn't allow a function named that either (similar to alias), though I didn't check.
I often use the fish shell, and I found that it does allow a function with that name! Created with function ' '; echo \n; end and indeed it works; at the shell prompt, typing the command \ (again backslash space) leaves a double blank line.
Cool, but.. I tried saving this function using funcsave ' ' (how you save functions in fish, no messing with startup scripts!) and afterwards the function no longer works :^( This is probably a bug in the fish shell. It's in active development right now though, I think I'll report this as a bug since I would kind of like this to work myself.
One could also send Apple a feature request through their bug reporter for an Insert Blank Line menu/keyboard command in Terminal. If someone pays attention to your request it might be implemented in a year maybe.
I wanted to solve exactly the same, and for anyone interested in doing the same, I used what tripleee said in his comment here - I created a .bash_profile (see details here) with the line export PS1="\n\n$ ".
Hopefully that helps someone else too!
I'm writing a ruby script that will automate backing up my laptop to my ssh server. I seem to be stuck on a system call though.
$x = "C:\\Program Files\\7-Zip\\7z.exe"
###calibre library###
$library = "C:\\Users\\maste_000\\Documents\\Calibre Library"
system($x, "a library.7z", $library, " -r")
I'm trying to call the exe 7z and create a file called library.7z, from the directory pointed to by $library. No matter how I arrange this though I keep getting a 7z command error. I'm assuming this has something to do with how I'm performing the system call though.
I'd guess that you want this:
system($x, 'a', 'library.7z', $library, '-r')
That would give you the same effect as this at the command prompt:
C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe a library.7z "C:\Users\maste_000\Documents\Calibre Library" -r
Assuming, of course, that I haven't completely forgotten how quoting works with the Windows command line.
The space in $library won't matter when you use the multi-argument form of the system; part of the reason that you use this version of system is to avoid all the weird quoting that you need when the shell is in the way. The main thing is that you probably need to separate 'a' and 'library.7z' so that they are two arguments rather a single argument with a space as the second character; without that separation you'd be saying this:
C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe "a library.7z" "C:\Users\maste_000\Documents\Calibre Library" -r
and that doesn't look right.