determine local system name

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
,
#1

I need (if possible) to find out the name (i.e., the Computer Name in the Sharing system preference panel) of the computer the script is running on:

set mycomputername to “? what goes here ?”
if mycomputername is “whatever” then
do something

any ideas?

Thanks!

#2

have you tried scripting the GUI

using the ui scripting

#3

Not yet. I was hoping to grab it directly as I’m not that familiar with scripting the GUI.

#4

According to this entry by Jonathan Nathan, this should do it. It works for me on OS X 10.2.8.

set mycomputername to do shell script "grep APPLETALK_HOSTNAME /etc/hostconfig | cut -d '=' -f 2"

– Rob

#5

Sweet! That did the trick.

Thanks!

#6

that should do quite nicely it worked for me as well

here is the code to but it in string

set computer_name to do shell script "grep APPLETALK_HOSTNAME /etc/hostconfig | cut -d '=' -f 2"
set computer_name to hex_to_string((text 2 thru -2 of computer_name) as string)


on hex_to_string(this_string)
	set return_string to ""
	repeat with i from 1 to length of this_string by 252
		try
			set return_string to return_string & (run script "«data cstr" & (text i thru (i + 251) of this_string) & "00» as string")
		on error
			set return_string to return_string & (run script "«data cstr" & text i thru -1 of this_string & "00» as string")
		end try
	end repeat
	return return_string
end hex_to_string
#7

I saw that note but mine is returned as a string. I wonder why the difference. [OS X 10.2.8 here]

– Rob

#8

i am using 10.2.8 as well and mine came up as hex

maybe some user pref somewhere along the line shrug
well we figured it out anyway thanks to jonathon nathan

#9

How about this…

do shell script "uname -a | awk '/.local/{print $2}'"
#10

the only difference i see is the punctuation and spaces

but who cares unless you need it

but it does seem simpler

#11

Or this, (not sure who to credit for the first one)

do shell script "awk '/ComputerName/ " & "{{{getline} print substr($0,12,length($0)-20)} exit}'" & " /private/var/db/SystemConfiguration/preferences.xml"

Or with Extra Suites

tell application "Extra Suites" to computer name of («event OXENSYSO»)

or

do shell script "hostname"