NSTask and whitespace

Scripting Forums AppleScriptObjC and Xcode
#1

Hi! I’m trying to write an application that handles a simple “rsync” shell command task. I build an array list with the command’s arguments and create the NSTask thing:

set arrayList to {"-CaviuE", "--filter='exclude .fseventsd'", src, tgt}

set rsync to current application's NSTask's alloc's init()
tell rsync
	setStandardOutput_(outputpipe)
	setStandardError_(outputpipe)
	setLaunchPath_(cmdPath)
	setArguments_(arrayList)
	|launch|()
end tell

Note the second argument in arrayList. It contains a space character, which leads to an error and prevents the script from working. How can I circumvent whitespace in argument strings?

#2

Try this:

set arrayList to {“-CaviuE”, quoted form of “–filter=‘exclude .fseventsd’”, src, tgt}

#3

Thanks. But no luck. The shell command says now “No such file or folder” and seems to take that argument as a file path rather than an exclude instruction. Even when I try an argument with no whitespace character inside, like quoted form of “–stats”. Did I miss something?

#4

Is your launchPath the full path to the command?

#5

Yes. It’s bundled with the application and within its directory. Leaving that argument out the command works.

#6

I’ve had another look, and I don’t think you need quoted form – your original looks correct. What error does it generate?

#7

Meanwhile I changed the code so much, I don’t get this error again. Now it resets my read pipe when I put in this argument. (The original one.) Can’t figure out why. But I managed to circumvent that whole thing by including a rule file for rsync. That works very well. Here’s what I did for everyone, who is encountering the same issues:

set arrayList to ¬
{ ¬
	"-CaviuE", ¬
	"--exclude-from=" & (current application's NSBundle's mainBundle's pathForResource_ofType_("excludes.txt", missing value) as string), ¬
	src, tgt ¬
}

The file excludes.txt contains some lines like:

- .fseventsd

But thanks for your support, Shane!