Run Shellscript from Mac Automator

Question

In OS X 10.9.5

I wrote a Shell Script (via vim). Save it and navigate to this script and

sh code.shit runs perfect (in iTerm & Total Terminal).

The same command in the same directory produces via Mac Automator always an ERROR. Why?

in Automator and in Terminal.

echo $SHELL /bin/bash Why is it impossible to run a shellscript via Automator.

Mutant

Works for me. Does code.sh expect some input from somewhere? Can you run it with sh -x (or rather, bash -x, if it's really properly a Bash script) to see where exactly it's failing? – Lustreware

Does the file have a trailing newline? For me, it doesn't print anything, but succeeds; but I have a different version of OSX for testing (some really old one). – Lustreware

"Gestoppt" doesn't sound like an error proper, though. Did you stop it manually after some 30 seconds? – Lustreware

"Gestoppt": it means in German language "STOP". It is not the usual can't find lib-x or lib-y. Only STOP. The Shell-script itself contains a RScript. Rscript -e 'shiny::runApp(("/Users/Einstein/Git/RShiny/fooapp"),launch.browser=TRUE)' – Mutant

Well, yes, I get substantially the same message (albeit not in German) if I put sleep 1000 in the command to run, and press the Stop button after allowing it to run for a while. So I guess that's what you did as well. – Lustreware

The information above starkly constracts with the problem description. It is quite clear then that you don't get this error message if you run a script which contains echo $SHELL and that the actual problem (if there is one) is inside the R script. Nominating this question for closing. – Lustreware

Not sure about the significance of launch.browser but speculating that this is the actual source of your problem. – Lustreware

launch.browser isn't the problem. I tested several variations of execution the RScript - with and without shell script. Both variations, direct from terminal or as shell script working very well. But from Automator there is always a problem. I have no idea how to identify the difference of Terminal ans Automator-Temrinal (run shell script). – Mutant

Try running it with --verbose? – Lustreware

No, sorry, --verbosebrings no working process. I was in good hope that the chmodcould save the problem, but it doesn't. – Mutant

Answer 1

This problem can be solved by adding the following code above your current code:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

Dextroamphetamine

Answer 2

I suspect it's the cd Desktop bit. You can try:

(cd ~/Desktop; sh code.sh)

However:

• You should make code.sh executable so you don't need to invoke it with sh. This is done with chmod 0755 code.sh.

• If you need the shell script to work from a certain directory (i.e. the directory where the script is located) then build that into the script so it can be invoked with just ~/Desktop/code.sh:

  #!/bin/bash
  dir=$(dirname $0)
  cd $dir
  # do work
  

For example:

➜  ~  cat tmp/code.sh
#!/bin/bash
dir=$(dirname $0)
cd $dir
ls -l

➜  ~  chmod 0755 tmp/code.sh
➜  ~  tmp/code.sh
total 64
drwxr-xr-x   6 andy  staff    204 Feb 22 18:53 Archives
drwxr-xr-x  11 andy  staff    374 Jun 18 13:59 DerivedData
-rw-r--r--   1 andy  staff    225 May 20 13:44 MyFirstProgram.X
-rwxr-xr-x   1 andy  staff   3072 May 20 13:44 MyFirstProgram.exe
drwxr-xr-x   3 andy  staff    102 Jan  6  2014 bug_reports
-rwxr-xr-x   1 andy  staff     43 Aug  6 14:15 code.sh
-rw-r--r--   1 andy  staff  11539 May 20 08:33 iOS_Team_Provisioning_Profile_.mobileprovision
-rw-r--r--   1 andy  staff   1438 May 20 08:40 ios_development.cer
-rwxr-xr-x   1 andy  staff    272 Aug  5 08:55 script.sh

Uracil

Thx. this works perfect for any "normal" shell-script. – Mutant

@Teletubbi-osx Sorry I don't understand what you are saying. – Uracil

Your example runs perfect! My problem: my shell-script contains "material" that is easy to run by iTerm/Terminal etc. but not from Automator. I recreate this problem with 5 OS X machines (macbook air, macbook pro, iMac; 10.9.4/10.9.5). Its always the same; works from Terminal doesnt work from Automator. So it´s obvious that autmator is the problem. When you execute Rscript -e 'shiny::runApp(("/Users/Einstein/Git/RShiny/fooapp"),launch.browser=TRUE)' via Terminal, you can see the loading process and the browser opens - perfect. In Automator, no output ... – Mutant

Answer 3

Solution

Create two output files: In Automator: env > ~/Desktop/file_1.txt in iTerm: env > ~/Desktop/file_2.txt

DIFF

diff -y ~/Desktop/file_1.txt ~/Desktop/file_2.txt

And, voila, there are interessting differences! Insert the differences e.g. export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 to the script, and it works!

Mutant

Difference in PATH variable between Automator and Terminal is the main cause of this. Automator defaults to PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin while environmental variable would be similar to PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin so Automator is missing /usr/local/bin. Exporting PATH in Automator script should indeed fix the issue. – Calamite