do shell command help

[packetsmacker]

here is my code.

try
tell application “Finder” to set the source_folder to (folder of the front window) as alias
on error – no open folder windows
set the source_folder to path to desktop folder as alias
end try

–do shell script "cd " & source_folder
do shell script “cd /Users/me/Desktop/;touch temp123”

do shell script “cd” & source_folder & “;ls >>/Users/me/Desktop/temp123”

i want the output of the ls command to be the files in the source_folder but in this case it get the ls output of the root of the HD.

[StefanK]

Hi,

the shell expects POSIX paths (slash separated)
and it’s much easier to work with absolute paths instead of using the cd command

try
	tell application "Finder" to set the source_folder to (folder of the front window) as alias
on error -- no open folder windows
	set the source_folder to path to desktop -- path to desktop IS an alias
end try


do shell script "touch " & quoted form of (POSIX path of source_folder & "temp123")
do shell script "ls  " & quoted form of POSIX path of source_folder & " >" & quoted form of (POSIX path of source_folder & "temp123")

[packetsmacker]

that worked great.

Thanks

[packetsmacker]

StefanK,

would you want to help me the rest of my script. here is the whole thing including the part you fixed before

---

try
tell application “Finder” to set the source_folder to (folder of the front window) as alias
on error – no open folder windows
set the source_folder to path to desktop folder as alias
end try
do shell script "touch " & quoted form of (POSIX path of source_folder & “temp123.txt”)
do shell script “ls " & quoted form of POSIX path of source_folder & " >” & quoted form of (POSIX path of source_folder & “temp123.txt”)

delay 1
tell application “TextEdit”
activate
open “Users:me:Documents:scripts:temp123.txt”
end tell

–tell application “TextEdit” to open ((path to application “TextEdit” as text) & quoted form of (POSIX path of source_folder & “temp123.txt”))

---

this part works but I can’t hard code the path.

tell application “TextEdit”
activate
open “Users:me:Documents:scripts:temp123.txt”
end tell

This part errors and says it can’t find the file

tell application “TextEdit” to open ((path to application “TextEdit” as text) & quoted form of (POSIX path of source_folder & “temp123.txt”))

I would like to use the second option. Any ideas? the file is created and i can open it with text edit after the script ends

[StefanK]

I’d like to repeat:

path to desktop

results an alias so the coercion as alias is useless

why not directly?

try
    tell application "Finder" to set the source_folder to (folder of the front window) as alias
on error -- no open folder windows
    set the source_folder to path to desktop
end try

set ls to (do shell script "ls " & quoted form of POSIX path of source_folder)
tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    if (count documents) = 0 then make new document
    set text of document 1 to ls
    set name of document 1 to name of (info for source_folder)
end tell

Note: shell scripts work with POSIX paths, AppleScript works with HFS paths (colon separated)

[packetsmacker]

i am confused.

How does that open the file? are you first opening textedit then creating the file inside textedit?

[StefanK]

the script inserts the directory list into a TextEdit document directly

[packetsmacker]

Sorry for that last post. i should have read your code closer. that works great. thanks