I'm new to applescripts and I'm trying to automate a process, but how do you change directory through the script when there are spaces inside the directory? My commands should be correct but a syntax error keeps popping up:
Expected “"” but found unknown token.
Here is my script:
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library"
end tell
I don't understand where it is wrong. It works fine on my terminal.
Thanks a bunch guys!!
UPDATE: this worked best!!
# surround in single quotes
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd '/Users/username/Pictures/iPhoto Library'"
end tell
The are a few ways.
# escape the quotes with a backslash. AND Escape the first backslash for Applescript to accept it.
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd ~/Pictures/iPhoto\\ Library"
end tell
# surround in double quotes and escape the quotes with a backslash.
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd \"/Users/username/Pictures/iPhoto Library\""
end tell
# surround in single quotes using quoted form of
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd " & quoted form of "/Users/username/Pictures/iPhoto Library"
end tell
# surround in single quotes
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd '/Users/username/Pictures/iPhoto Library'"
end tell
Also I do not thing the tild will expand when you use the quotes on the whole path.
So you will need to get the user name another way.
Examples:
# inserting the user name. And surrond in brackets so the name and path are seen as one string before the quotes are added
set whoami to do shell script "/usr/bin/whoami"
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd /Users/" & quoted form of whoami & "/Pictures/iPhoto\\ Library"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to set whoami to name of current user
# inserting the user name. And surrond in brackets so the name and path are seen as one string before the quotes are added
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd /Users/" & quoted form of (whoami & "/Pictures/iPhoto Library")
end tell
As you can see there is more than one way to do any of this.
Or just quote the directory part.
Example.
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "cd ~" & quoted form of "/Pictures/iPhoto Library"
end tell
Related
I am trying to run 2 commands stored in a variable with osascript
This is my start.sh
currentDirectory="cd $(pwd) && npm run start"
echo $currentDirectory
osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script '"${currentDirectory}"''
I am getting this as the output
sh start.sh
cd /Users/Picadillo/Movies/my-test-tepo && npm run start
83:84: syntax error: Expected expression but found “&”. (-2741)
#Barmar: The argument to do script needs to be in double quotes.
Yes; however, the way you’ve done it is still unsafe.
If the path itself contains backslashes or double quotes, AS will throw a syntax error as the munged AS code string fails to compile. (One might even construct a malicious file path to execute arbitrary AS.) While these are not characters that frequently appear in file paths, best safe than sorry. Quoting string literals correctly is always a nightmare; correctly quoting them all the way through shell and AppleScript quadratically so.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to do it:
currentDirectory="$(pwd)"
osascript - "${currentDirectory}" <<EOF
on run {currentDirectory}
tell application "Terminal"
do script "cd " & (quoted form of currentDirectory) & " && npm run start"
end tell
end run
EOF
Pass the currentDirectory path as an additional argument to osascript (the - separates any options flags from extra args) and osascript will pass the extra argument strings as parameters to the AppleScript’s run handler. To single-quote that AppleScript string to pass back to shell, simply get its quoted form property.
Bonus: scripts written this way are cleaner and easier to read too, so less chance of overlooking any quoting bugs you have in your shell code.
The argument to do script needs to be in double quotes.
osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script "'"${currentDirectory}"'"'
You should also put the argument to cd in quotes, in case it contains spaces.
currentDirectory="cd '$(pwd)' && npm run start"
Can someone tell me how to make the variable expand in the following, please:
MESSAGE="Public IP Address has changed"
osascript -e 'tell application (path to frontmost application as text) to display \
dialog "My message is ${MESSAGE} " buttons {"OK"} with icon stop'
The single quotes are preventing variable expansion: 3.1.2.2 Single Quotes
MESSAGE="Public IP Address has changed"
osascript -e 'tell application (path to frontmost application as text) to display \
dialog "My message is '"$MESSAGE"' " buttons {"OK"} with icon stop'
# ....................^^........^^
I'm using shell string concatenation there:
a single quote to close the first part of the single quoted string,
the variable expanded within double quotes,
a single quote to open the last part of the single quoted string.
I need to write an applescript to hide and unhide specific files. This is what I have so far, but apparently the spaces in the file name is causing problems.
tell application "System Events"
do shell script "chflags nohidden "/VOLUMES/Works/who/3130026 - Why Onspots.pdf""
end tell
Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance for the help.
You need to escape the quotes inside the shell command, using the backslash '\' character, like so
do shell script "chflags nohidden \"/VOLUMES/Works/who/3130026 - Why Onspots.pdf\""
I have been trying to figure out how to pass multiple parameters from an Applescript to a Terminal Command Script. For example when running a terminal command file you are able to receive parameters programatically like so:
#!/bin/bash
var=$1
var=$2
The Applescript Code that I have been working with is below for reference:
tell application "System Events" to set app_directory to POSIX path of (container of (path to me))
set thisFile to "Dev"
set testTarget to "/Users/lab/Desktop/TestTarget/"
do shell script "/Users/lab/Desktop/TempRoot/mycommand.command " & thisFile & testTarget with administrator privileges
Where I think I have gone wrong is the input of the second parameter. When I only had one parameter it went through just fine:
do shell script "/path/to/command/mycommand.command" &var with administrative privileges
I am curious as to what the correct syntax would be for passing in this second parameter. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know! Also if you need more information I would be happy to provide it!
You just need to add a space between your arguments. Right now, there is no space being added between thisFile and testTarget. Your command looks like this:
/Users/lab/Desktop/TempRoot/mycommand.command Dev/Users/lab/Desktop/TestTarget/
Change your shell script line to:
do shell script "/Users/lab/Desktop/TempRoot/mycommand.command " & thisFile & space & testTarget with administrator privileges
Something that I find helpful when building a script is to make sure my shell commands are correct before running them. So instead of building it directly, store the command in a variable and log it. Later, replace the logging statement with the do shell script command.
set shellScript to "/Users/lab/Desktop/TempRoot/mycommand.command " & thisFile & space & testTarget with administrator privileges
log shellScript
-- do shell script shellScript
I'm using AppleScript to launch a quick-and-dirty shell script:
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "$(" & quoted form of MyScriptPath & ")"
end tell
Which properly launches a Terminal window and inputs what I would expect:
~$ $('/my script path/myscript.sh')
However, it seems that anything outputted to STDOUT (via echo) is evaluated as if it was inside the $( ) when evaluating/calling the script in the first place:
#!/bin/sh
echo "foobar"
produces:
-bash: foobar: command not found
I've searched far and wide and have not really found a suitable way to escape spaces in the path (rather than using "quoted form of") in AppleScript before sending the script location to Terminal, but I'd much prefer that. I'm using "do script" rather than "do shell script" because the script launching in Terminal is interactive and needs to be focused.
How can I echo to STDOUT when calling the script through $( )?
You don't need $(...) to run a command, only to include the output of that command in another string. You simply need
tell application "Terminal"
activate
do script "/my script path/myscript.sh"
end tell