"Application Not Responding" check

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

Is there a way to determine if an app (FileMaker) has locked up, and then force quit and relaunch that app if it has?

Thanks in advance.
Keith

#2

You might be able to send a simple command to FMP to see if it responds. If it doesn’t, one might assume that it is frozen. I don’t know how to force quit an app but I suspect that a shell command might be required. This might serve as the framework for the script.

set v to ""
try
	tell application "FileMaker Pro" to set v to version
end try

if v is "" then
	-- force quit
end if

set exists_ to true
tell application "System Events"
	repeat until exists_ is false
		delay 2
		set exists_ to exists process "FileMaker Pro"
	end repeat
end tell

tell application "FileMaker Pro" to launch

– Rob

#3

What if application dont return version information because it dont have AppleScript Dictionary?

#4

I think Rob’s way of getting Filemaker to perform an action is a good way of testing if the app has locked up, as for Force Quit I have found that a shell script is very effective.

do shell script "kill_pid=`ps ax | grep FileMaker | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'`; kill $kill_pid"

tell application "FileMaker Pro" to activate
#5

Ps seems to have a STATE column in its results.

If you look in the man page there is a list of STATES. Not sure if one of these indicates ‘Not RESPONDING’ as such.

set The_app to "FileMaker Pro"
tell application "System Events"
	try
		set pid to the unix id of process The_app as Unicode text
		
	end try
end tell
set state to paragraph 2 of (do shell script "ps -p " & quoted form of pid & "  | awk '{ print $3 }'")
#6

I’ve looked through the man page for state and there’s a Z state that says “Marks a dead process (a ``zombie’').” or T that says “Marks a stopped process.”. I’m not sure if any of these states are present when FileMaker crashes but if you can replicate a crash and run Marks script then maybe you could do something like:

if state = "Z" then
do shell script "kill_pid=`ps ax | grep FileMaker | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'`; kill $kill_pid"

tell application "FileMaker Pro" to activate
end if
#7

You can just use the one script :slight_smile:

set The_app to "FileMaker Pro"
set state to ""
tell application "System Events"
	try
		set pid to the unix id of process The_app as Unicode text
		set state to paragraph 2 of (do shell script "ps -p " & quoted form of pid & "  | awk '{ print $3 }'")
	end try
end tell

if state = "Z" then
	do shell script "kill " & pid
	
	tell application The_app to activate
end if