Endless Loop

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

Hello,

my script will run in an endless loop. But there might be rare cases when I would like to stop the script.
Currently I have “repeat while true” around the whole script. But then I need to kill the script process in order to stop the script. Thus, is there a more elegant solution?

Regards,
Christoph Gartmann

#2

If you’re running it in the script editor, click stop. You don’t give enough info otherwise.

#3

The script is started automatically during system startup. So there is no script editor involved. My question is a more principal one. Instead of “repeat while true” I am looking for some condition to replace “true” that can be triggered from outside the script.
One thing I thought about could be some file. As long as it is not present the loop continues. What else could one do?

Regards,
Christoph Gartmann

#4

Assuming your script is running as a script application with a name, then run another script to kill it:

do shell script "killall scriptName"
#5

I think you want to be using a stay-open application and an “on idle” handler instead of a repeat loop. With the “on idle” handler you can just right-click on the app in the dock to quit it or you can issue a quit command from another script.

Here’s some links to tutorials about this handler…
http://applescriptsourcebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=17523
http://macscripter.net/articles/482_0_10_0_C/

#6

Hi,
I have lots of Stay Open applications that, on the odd occasion I might want to pause. I use a similar solution to your suggestion. The script below looks for a specific file every time it runs and if it finds the file it presents the user with a dialog, allowing them to either cancel the script or continue. Hope this is of some help?

on idle
	set source_folder to (path to desktop as string) & "test folder" as alias
	tell application "Finder"
		set content_List to name of every file of source_folder
		if content_List contains "stop script.txt" then
			set the_query to display dialog "Script has been paused, what would you like to do?" buttons {"Cancel Script", "Continue Script"} default button "Continue Script"
			if button returned of the_query is "Cancel Script" then
				error number -128
			else
				delete (source_folder as string) & "stop script.txt" as alias
			end if
		end if
		display dialog "continuing script" giving up after 3
	end tell
end idle

Thanks,
Nik