Whats different when you executable a scripts in OSX? - macos

I have a question I have been trying to fix for a while. I want to understand what's the difference between starting a script from the command line and making it executable and then running it from the Finder.
Because this is what I am experiencing;
I have a simple script called trash-files which contains this command:
trash ~/Downloads/*
When I run from the terminal it works as expected; however if I doubleclick the shell script in the finder I see this:
/Users/xx/Desktop/trash-files: line 1: trash: command not found
I hope anyone can tell me why this doesn't work as expected

trash is not a standard command in OS X. Is it something defined in your ~/.profile or a similar file? If so, these are not run for non-login shells, such as those created to run a script.

If you're using homebrew, you could run
brew install trash
which would install the necessary scripts to have the trash command work in the way you're expecting.

There is a folder in your home folder location called
.Trash
The "dot" in front of the folder name makes it hidden while searching for it in finder. You'll have to use Terminal to execute the following command:
cd ~/
ls -la
This will change the directory to the current logged in users home folder, then second command will list files and show hidden files. You can then run:
rm .Trash/*
This will remove everything inside the Trashcan on the dock.
So open TextEdit from the /Applications folder, go to "Format" and make it "Plain Text". Paste in the two lines below.
#!/bin/sh
rm ~/.Trash/*
Save the file as "emptyTrash.sh" (uncheck use txt extension). Save it to your Desktop or wherever you'd like. Then open Terminal, cd (change directory) to where the files is and run this command to make the script executable:
chmod +x emptyTrash.sh
Then you can execute the script by cd (changing directory) to path where the script is, and run:
./emptyTrash.sh
That's it.

Related

Script for copying a folder somewhere using Git Bash

I want to copy a folder ~/Projects/LocalProject onto my server //VM-Server/ServerProject.
I know that I can use GitBash:
cp -r directory-name-1 directory-name-2
But what I'm curious about is, can I create a script to do that by double clicking that script, or adding it as a command to my GitBash, cause I will need that alot?
--Edit--
Tried nothing, as I don't know how to do that. Yes there are hidden files, I don't want them to be copied. There shouldn't be newer files on the destination. I need to manually run it, I thought that's clear as I mentioned the option to have a executable script / or a terminal command.
Option 1: Batch file
You don't even need git-bash; you can make a batch file in any text editor, name it copy to server.bat, and type in cp C:\Users\<Your username>\Projects\LocalProject \\VM-Server\ServerProject.
You can also make a .sh file for use in bash. The command is the same, just make note that Windows uses \, while bash uses / for directory tree
Option 2: Alias
Open your bash_profile file (it's in your git bash install location).
Add a line at the end of the file that says alias copyToServer = 'cp ~/Projects/LocalProject //VM-Server/ServerProject'. Then close git-bash, reopen it and use the command by typing copyToServer as a bash command. (It doesn't need to be named copyToServer)

cd commands not working from .bash_profile on MobaXTerm

I'm on Windows 10, using MobaXterm. I have a persistent home directory, and I've created .bash_profile there. My .bash_profile contains:
echo "Loading bash profile."
cd "/drives"
When I open a new MobaXterm tab, I get:
Loading bash profile
: No such file or directory
But when I run:
cd "/drives"
from the command line, it changes directory to /drives.
I don't really need to go to /drives when a tab starts up, what I want to do is create alias for cd commands that go to long directory names without having to type them out every time, but no cd commands will work from .bash_profile, I always get 'No such file or directory'. Any ideas?
I contacted MobaXTerm support, and their reply was to convert the .bash_profile to unix format with this command:
dos2unix /home/mobaxterm/.bash_profile
Now the cd commands work as expected.

Move .app with .command on Mac

I'm trying to make a command to move an app I made to the applications directory without having to make a full installer. Right now this is the command I'm running with the proper permissions (I used chmod +x install.command):
mv My\ Application.app /Applications/
This gives me the output
mv: My Application.app: No such file or directory
logout
If I just run this command in the terminal it works, any idea what's going on?
EDIT:
I can't seem to manipulate "My Application.app" at all from the .command file. I tried running just rm -r "My Application.app" and it still can't seem to find the directory. The .command is in the same directory as "My Application.app"
If you aren't running this script from the dir that holds "My Application.app"
then you need to have the full path to "My Application.app".
Also you should try it with quotes.
mv "/path/to/My Application.app" /Applications/
.command files don't run with their current working directory set to the directory they are in, which is why it doesn't work; it's running in your home directory. You'll need to use either an absolute path, or a path relative to your home directory, not relative to the directory of the .command file.

How can I cd to an alias directory in the Mac OSX terminal

Is there a way to get into an alias directory from shell with the command "cd" ? It always returns that "htdocs" isn't a directory.
Edit: I made the shortcut with the OS GUI -> rightclicked the htdocs directory and chose "Alias..." (i'm using a german OS if it's not alias maybe it's called shortcut in english?) then i moved it to my home directory (because my terminal starts from there when i open it).
All i want is to open my terminal and type "cd htdocs" so that i can work from there.
you can make symbolic link to it.
ln -s EXISTING_PATH LINK_NAME
e.g.
ln -s ~/Documents/books ~/Desktop/
Reference
Enter into a directory through an alias in Mac OS X terminal
All i want is to open my terminal and type cd htdocs so that i can work from there.
The easier approach is probably to ignore the links and add the parent directory of your htdocs directory to the CDPATH environment variable. bash(1) will check the contents of the CDPATH environment variable when you type cd foo to find the foo directory in one of the directories listed. This will work no matter what your current working directory is, and it'll be easier than setting symbolic links.
If the path to your htdocs is located /srv/www/htdocs/, then you could use CDPATH=/srv/www. Then, cd foo would first look for /srv/www/foo/ and change to it if it exists; if not, then it would look for foo in the current working directory and change to it if it exists. (This might get confusing if you have multiple htdocs directories on your system; in that case, CDPATH=.:/srv/www would let you change into a child directory easily but still use the /srv/www/htdocs/ version if no ./htdocs directory is present.)
You can add the CDPATH=/srv/www line to your ~/.bashrc file so it works every time you start a terminal.
I personally use this to quickly work in the directory which is present deep inside one of my Volumes in my Mac.
Open your ~/.bash_profile, create an alias to the directory by adding this:
alias cdh="cd /Volumes/Haiku/haiku/src/apps/superprefs"
Save it, restart your terminal. Now on typing cdh in your terminal should change the working directory to the one mentioned as the alias.
I am not sure how OSX exposes Alias links but since you are using bash you can just create a variable in your .bashrc file.
On its own line put:
htdocs=YourDirectoryPath/
Once you have restarted bash you can just type cd $htdocs
There is a old hint on macworld to do this in a way that is integrated with BASH: Enable 'cd' into directory aliases from the Terminal
Plus, here is an answer that uses this solution on superuser.
You may be able to use osascript to do this -- this command seems to work:
cd "`osascript -e "on run aFile" -e "set aFile to POSIX file aFile as alias" -e "tell application "\""Finder"\"" to return POSIX path of ( ( original item of aFile ) as text ) " -e "end run" path_to_my_Finder_alias 2>/dev/null`"
Basically this command is running an AppleScript that finds the destination path of the argument (path_to_my_Finder_alias) in a subshell, then wraps it in double quotes, and changes the directory to it.
Maybe someone with a little more bash expertise can turn it into a bash alias or function.
try:
alias cdgo=`echo cd /root/go/`
cdgo will run, then get command "cd /root/go/" and enter, and it will change your directory in current terminal process
It works on my centos, no test with osx

How to make a shell script global?

I am on Mac's OS 10.6, and I am trying to learn a thing or two about shell scripting. I understand how to save a shell script and make it executable, but I am wondering what I can do or where I can save the file to make it global (that is, accessible no matter what folder I am in).
For example, if I save a .sh file in the /Users/username/ directory and make it executable, I can only execute that script in that specific directory. If I navigate to /Users/username/Downloads, for example, I can't execute the script.
Also, any suggestions of resources for learning more about shell scripting would be helpful. Thanks
/usr/local/bin would be the most appropriate location. Mac OS X has it in the PATH by default
There are two ways to do it -
Put your script in usr/local/bin and make sure it is executable(chmod +x my_script)(This is already set in the path, you can check by doing an echo $PATH)
Create a folder in your home directory called bin. (For your personal scripts)
cd ~ (Takes you to your home directory)
mkdir bin (create a bin folder)
vim .bash_profile (to set path environment variable)
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH (Press i then add this line and then do esc and type :wq)
Now you can just type the name of your script and run it from anywhere you want.
** NOTE: If you want to run the script with a shortened command rather than typing your entire filename, add the following to your .bash_profile:
alias myscript='my_script.sh'
Then you can run the script by simply typing myscript. (you can sub in whatever alias you'd like)
Traditionally, such scripts either go in ~/bin (ie: the bin directory in your home directory) or /usr/local/bin/ The former means the script will only work for you, the latter is for scripts you want anybody on the system to be able to run.
If you put it in ~/bin, you may need to add that to your PATH environment variable. /usr/local/bin should already be on the path.
In mac operating system
Open bash ~/.bashrc file.
add path of your script in your bashrc file , using
export PATH="$PATH:/Users/sher.mohammad/Office/practice/practiceShell"
Open your ~./bash_profile file and add [[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc
open new terminal window
Now whenever you will open your terminal your script will be loaded
This one is super easy if you are familiar with your bashrc file! This will entirely use just your .bashrc file and takes 2 seconds to accomplish.
(I use Arch Linux Manjaro so I use .bashrc located in my home directory)
The code to be placed in your .bashrc file:
# Simple bashrc method to launch anything in terminal from any directory
YOURCOMMAND () {
cd /path/to/directory/containing/your/script/ && ./YOURSCRIPT
}
As you can see, first you use the simple 'cd' command and give it the directory of the scripts location, then use '&&' so that you can make the next command executed right after, and finally open your script just as you would normally! Super easy and saved right in your .bash file! :)
Hope I've helped someone!
Sincerely,
AnonymousX
On using bash shell, write that script as function and then put it to the .bashrc or source the file which containing that function by "source file_name"
Now execute the script by function call in the shell.
Either saving it in /usr/bin (or any other directory present in PATH) or editing PATH to include the directory you saved it in will basically make it run in any directory.
from the working directory of 'script.sh'" mv [script.sh] /usr/local/bin"( not tested but seems to be the least complex way IMO.)
You should put it in the global executable directory on your machine. I think that would usually be /usr/bin on Unix-based operating systems (this would however most often require super user privileges on that machine).
You could also put it in any other directory that is in the $PATH environment variable, although it would only work for those users who have that directory in that variable.
You can find the value of $PATH by typing echo $PATH in a shell. The directories are separated by :.

Resources