Continue to next command without waiting this one to complete

cirno · February 1, 2011, 7:18am

I have code like this:


do shell script "mycommand" --this takes forever to complete
more AppleScript code here

I want to run mycommand and immedeately after that run “more AppleScript code here” so i dont need to wait mycommand to complete.

DJ_Bazzie_Wazzie · February 1, 2011, 12:38pm

Put it in the background with an ampersand. Your Applescript code is almost immediately finished while mycommand continues.

cirno · February 1, 2011, 2:53pm

I tried this and it don’t work:

do shell script "mycommand &" --this takes forever to complete
more AppleScript code here

Krioni · February 7, 2011, 9:44pm

You should look at the Background Process section of Apple’s Technical Note on the “do shell script” command: TN2065, found at http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html

Summary: The ampersand is often not enough - you need redirect the output for most processes, either to a file you can read to check progress, or to /dev/null if you want to ignore all output and errors.