Dec 29, 2019 Using Finder 1. It’s the icon at the bottom of the screen that looks like a two-toned smiling face. Click Applications. It’s in the left panel of Finder. If you don't see 'Applications' in the left panel, click Go at. Click Utilities. You may have to scroll down to find it. But for older versions of Mac OS X, and because app bundles aren't designed to be passed command line arguments, the conventional mechanism is to use Apple Events for files like here for Cocoa apps or here for Carbon apps. You could also probably do something kludgey by passing parameters in using environment variables. The command line is not only powerful, it can also be dangerous. Learn how to use commands for deleting files and folders correctly to make sure your time with Terminal is a productivity godsend.
Calling Command-Line Tools
In AppleScript, the
do shell script
command is used to execute command-line tools. This command is implemented by the Standard Additions scripting addition included with OS X.Note
The Terminal app in
/Applications/Utilities/
is scriptable and provides another way to execute command-line tools from scripts. Executing Commands
The direct parameter of the
do shell script
command is a string containing the shell code you want to execute, as demonstrated in Listing 39-1, which simply lists a directory.APPLESCRIPT
Listing 39-1AppleScript: Executing a simple shell command that lists the contents of a directorydo shell script 'ls /Applications/'
(*
--> Result:
'App Store.app
Automator.app
Calculator.app
Calendar.app
...'
*)
Since the direct parameter of
do shell script
is a string, you can concatenate it with other strings at run time. Listing 39-2, for example, concatenates a shell command to a previously defined parameter value.Mac Execute App From Command Line System
APPLESCRIPT
Listing 39-2AppleScript: Concatenating a command with a valueset theHostName to 'www.apple.com'
do shell script 'ping -c1 ' & theHostName
Quoting Strings
Mac Execute App From Command Line Free
The shell uses space characters to separate parameters and gives special meaning to certain punctuation marks, such as
$
, (
, )
, and *
. To ensure that strings are treated as expected—for example, spaces aren’t seen as delimiters—it’s best to wrap strings in quotes. This process is known as quoting. If your string contains quotes, they must also be escaped (preceded by a /
character) so they are interpreted as part of the string. Listing 39-3 shows an example of an error occurring as a result of a parameter that contains a space.APPLESCRIPT
Listing 39-3AppleScript: An error resulting from a string containing a spaceset thePath to '/Library/Application Support/'
do shell script 'ls ' & thePath
--> Result: error 'ls: /Library/Application: No such file or directoryrls: Support: No such file or directory' number 1
The easiest way to quote a string is to use the
quoted form
property of the text class, as demonstrated in Listing 39-4. This property returns the string in a form that’s safe from further interpretation by the shell, regardless of its contents.APPLESCRIPT
Listing 39-4AppleScript: Quoting a string to prevent errorsset thePath to quoted form of '/Library/Application Support/'
--> Result: '/Library/Application Support/'
do shell script 'ls ' & thePath
(*
--> Result:
'App Store
Apple
...
'
*)
More Information
For more information about the
do shell script
command, see Commands Reference in AppleScript Language Guide and Technical Note TN2065.Copyright © 2018 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2016-06-13