Pass multiple Automator variables to Run Shell Script?

I have two Automator variables I'd like to pass to Run Shell Script. I'm missing something obvious, but how is this done?
Thanks in advance

i don't know a nice way to do it but in general any input passed to a shell script will be stored in $@ if input is passed as arguments.
in particular, if you stack two "get value of variable actions" one after another and follow it by "run shell script" both variables will be stored in $@ as a list. just try it out with the default
for f in "$@"
do
echo "$f"
done
You'll see that both variables will be echoed.

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How to pass video file name to run shell script

Trying to make an automator script that will 1. Start a video capture, 2. Stop video capture, 3. Rename video, 4. Run Shell Script. Here is the shell script:
for f in "$@"
do
echo "$f"
/usr/bin/podcast --server my.podcast.server --user myself --pass mypass --submit --file $f --workflow "my workflow" --metadata /path/to/file
done
Question:
Do I need to create a variable in the automator script to pass it to the script? If I need the variable do I also need to use both Set Value of Variable and Get Value of Variable? If I don't need a variable does $f need quotes around them?

I'm not familiar with the terminal command /usr/bin/podcast so I don't know what it does but what i said is correct. to pass a file to this action you don't need any variables. the previous action in the workflow should output the video file you want to process, that's all. how you arrange that is up to you. it's clear that you have to fill in appropriate things in that shell script like " my workflow" and path to metadata. But if you have questions about how this shell action works you should ask people who made it.

Automator/Applescript not running shell script properly

I can open Terminal, and this command works:
lame -h --abr 256 /Users/myhome/Desktop/Some\ Wav\ File.wav /Users/myhome/Desktop/TheMP3.mp3
But when I try to run the same command in applescript from Automator, it fails.
set sourceFile to quoted form of POSIX path of "/Users/myhome/Desktop/Some Wav File.wav"
set mp3File to quoted form of POSIX path of "/Users/myhome/Desktop/TheMP3.mp3"
set command to "lame -h --abr 256 " & sourceFile & " " & mp3File
display dialog command
do shell script command
The display dialog outputs:
lame -h --abr 256 '/Users/myhome/Desktop/Some Wav File.wav' '/Users/myhome/Desktop/TheMP3.mp3'
Which, as little as I know of applescript, is how applescript handles spaces in filesnames. Can anyone please help?

You need *do shell script* attribute described in the 10.4 Changes section of http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/releasenotes/AppleScript/RN-AppleScript/R N-104/RN-10_4.html#//appleref/doc/uid/TP40000982-CH104-SW1 Additional info can be gained by posting to the AppleScript and Unix forums under OS X Technologies.

Is it possible to pass a variable from a shell script back to an Automator action?

Is it possible to pass a variable from a shell script back to an Automator action?
For instance, if I assign a value of foo to $var1 in my shell script how would I retrieve/pass that value in the next Automator action. I see that there is a variable called "Shell Script" but I can't any information on how to use it.

red_menace,
Thanks but I still don't understand how to pass a single value that was set in the UNIX scipt back to Automator has a variable. Take the example below, I write 4 varables to STDOUT and all 4 are stored in a variable named "storage". How do I assign 1 of these values to the Automator "storage" variable? For instance if I wanted to assign the value of $var2 to "storage" , how would I do that?

Trouble using Run Shell Script with python in Automator

Hi. I have a python script I want to run in Automator (update_puzzles.py). All it does is check, rearrange and update files and there is not supposed to be any input. I can get the script to run outside of Automator, in Terminal, by navigating to the right directory and typing "python update_puzzles.py"
I must not be setting up Run Shell Script correctly. I have it set to /bin/bash and Pass Input to stdin. The command line simply reads python /pathname/update_puzzles.py (where pathname is the path to the .py file, which I got by dragging the file onto the Run Shell Script command window). There are no actions before this in my workflow and the action after is View Results.
The log says Run Shell Script failed, and the error is "Traceback (most recent call last):"
Any suggestions?
Thanks so much.

If the script is expecting to do stuff with files in the same directory as the executable, you will probably need to add a statement to change to the appropriate working directory. The shell used in the Automator *Run Shell Script* action is a generic one that does not share any of the environment variables that the Terminal uses.

Apple Automator - Run Shell Script Application

Morning, hope somebody can point of my error please.
I'm attempting to create an Application wrapper for a minecraft server.
I've done the following
Automator > Application
I've dragged in 'Run Shell Script'
The Shell dropdown is '/bin/bash'
The Pass input is 'as arguments'
In the script I have '
cd /Volumes/3Tb/Bukkit_live
/usr/bin/java -Xmx2G -jar /Volumes/3Tb/Bukkit_live/minecraft_server.jar nogui
Now when I run it through the automator app, it works fine, the server starts, however when I try and run it as a standalone application it does nothing ?
Please help.
Thanks in advance.
Darren

Best guess is that there is an environment variable in your Terminal session that does not exist when you are running an Automator workflow.
You could try running an Automator workflow that does Run Shell Script with something like
( pwd
id -a
echo $#
echo "$@"
printenv
) >/tmp/automator.environment.txt
Then do 2 things. Run it within Automator and copy the /tmp/automator.environment.txt file someplace safe. Next save it as an Automator app and run it that way. Compare the 2 automator.environment.txt files and see if anything significant is different between the 2.
This is just a guess (an educated guess, as this sort of thing has happened to others in the past when they see a difference between running a script interactively and running it as an embedded app).

Accessing multiple Automator variables in a Run Applescript action

I have an Automator app set up with 4 variables feeding into a Run Shell Script with the following code. And it runs perfectly.
/Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC/aerender -sound ON -project $1 -comp "$2" -output $3/$4
However, I need to be able to see the progress of the Script while it processes in the Terminal window. So, I'm setting up a Run AppleScript to tell Terminal to run the script, but I'm getting two problems.
code:
on run {input, parameters}
          set aVar to item 1 of input
          set bVar to item 2 of input
          set cVar to item 3 of input
          set dVar to item 4 of input
          tell application "Terminal"
activate
                    do script "/Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC/aerender -sound ON -project aVar -comp \"bVar\" -output cVar/dVar"
          end tell
end run
Problem 1--Either my syntax or method of setting the 4 variables to access the array of 4 input variables is wrong. And I don't know enough about AppleScript to figure it out.
Problem 2-- AppleScript really doesn't like the spaces in "Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC" even though the Terminal has no problem with it. But it errors out before it even gets to Terminal.
Any help that anyone can give will be greatly appreciated.

The backslash is also used as the escape character in an AppleScript string, so to actually get the character you need to escape it (you can also use the term quoted form of to let AppleScript figure out how to quote the string). To use the variables, you need to use the concatentation operator to mix the variables and text pieces - by putting a variable inside the string the identifier just becomes text.
Your string should look something like:
"/Applications/Adobe\\ After\\ Effects\\ CC/aerender -sound ON -project " & aVar & " -comp " & bVar & " -output " & cVar & "/" & dVar
or perhaps
quoted form of "/Applications/Adobe After Effects CC/aerender" & " -sound ON -project " & aVar & " -comp " & bVar & " -output " & quoted form of (cVar & "/" & dVar)

Automator and "Run Shell Script" error

First, if I'm in the wrong place with this- sorry. Figured this was an OS kind-of thing.
I recently migrated to a new iMac ... I brought along an Automator script; I've been using it for years to perform a little rsync backup to an USB HDD. It's 'never' given me any problems ... until now!
"*Run Shell Script*" encountered an error .. but alas, the system log is devoid of messages ... and the verbose log I have running indicates that all the files are copied/backed-up ... I would love any input on this that might help me get back on the feet. .....
*Here's what my Shell Script Looks like:*
Shell Option: /bin/bash
Pass Input: to stdin
rm -dfr '/Volumes/Backup HD/*********'
rm -dfr '/Users/***********/Library/Logs/Profile_Backup.log'
rsync -rltv /Users/******** '/Volumes/Backup HD/' > /Users/*******/Library/Logs/Profile_Backup.log
(I'm sure there's way to only sync the changed stuff between backups ... but I've simply preferred the fresh copy approach).
*I do however note this in my logs when I open Automator:*
12/14/10 3:15:46 PM [0x0-0x42042].com.apple.automator.Backup[464] Application Stub: OpenScripting.framework - scripting addition "/Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax" declares no loadable handlers.

@Tony T1
Thanks, I'll certainly adjust the log file as suggested
In troubleshooting the problem I went the terminal route - and issued each command ... during the rsync process I was getting an error ... turns out when it was syncing the SyncServices folder it was encountering a copy of the keychain ... which had root permissions - naturally rsync was not able to copy the file (personally I have no idea why the keychain would be being sync'd with anything)!
I removed the file from the sync ... I'm still doing some "debugging" to correct the problem-
Again, thanks for the assist!

Automator runs shell script differently

hi
i build a little shell script that mounts my network-shares when they are available - that's works perfect if run by terminal but if i run it via Automator-Run shell script it does ******** - it doesn't seem to recognize my variables and creates dirs like $“Data“ instead of just Data
can anyone help me with that?
#!/bin/bash
# connects to network shares if server available
#config - wich server and mountpoints, login
server=$"192.168.2.1"
serverName=$"NAS(AFP)"
dir=$“Data“
dir2=$“Data1“
login=$“xxx“
pw=$“xxx“
#connect-test and create mountfolders
ping -q -c3 $server > /dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
if [ -d "/Volumes/"$dir"" ]; then
echo "folder $dir exists"
else
echo "creating folder $dir"
mkdir "/Volumes/"$dir""
fi
if [ -d "/Volumes/"$dir2"" ]; then
echo "folder $dir2 exists"
else
echo "creating folder $dir2"
mkdir "/Volumes/"$dir2""
fi
#mount
mount_afp "afp://"$login":"$pw"@"$serverName"._afpovertcp._tcp.local/"$dir"" "/Volumes/"$dir""
mount_afp "afp://"$login":"$pw"@"$serverName"._afpovertcp._tcp.local/"$dir2"" "/Volumes/"$dir2""
echo „ping ok“
else
echo „failed to connect to $serverName“
fi

FYI. If you create an Alias of a mounted volume, the Alias will record all the connection information, except the password. If your keychain is not locked, then when double clicking on the Alias, it will get the password from the keychain and mount the networked volumes (assumes you allowed the password to be stored in the keychain when you first mounted the volumes interactively).
The Aliases can be put into your System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Startup Items if you like.
If this is a laptop and you are re-mounting the volumes when you get to a specific location, you might want to look at ControlPlane
<http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39644/controlplane>

Perl's __END__ doesn't work under Automator's Run Shell Script action

Howdy,
I have a large embedded data file in my Perl source file using the _END_ token. It works great at the command line, but when I copy and paste my Perl code into the Run Shell Script code window and execute it, reading the special file handle DATA always returns 0 lines.
Help?
-Eric

Originally I was using $@ to parse a string and get the result pasted by the service. That was a while ago. There, I noticed that some Japanese characters were messed up. Basically all the kana characters that come with voicing markers like が-ga (instead of か-ka) etc. I did not have the time to pursue that issue though.
Then, last night, I found that a colleague of mine had tried to use $@ to feed to a local dictionary application called ding (http://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/Local/urz/ding/). His problem was with characters that had umlauts. After verifying how he wrote his action I remembered that I had similar issues with Japanese.
Basically his command was "/path/to/ding $@"
That's supposed to use the selected string as an argument to pass to ding, which will launch a Wish application where the string is used as the searched item.
From Terminal, that works a treat. But the exact same line in Automator (with input as argument, not as stdin) messed the composition and the resulting string was not recognized by ding as a match to what it was supposed to match.
So, I tried a few things to get to the core of the issue and found that a simple "echo [accented characters]" was enough to reproduce the difference in string handling between Automator and Terminal. That difference is also reproduced on a number of person's machines.
I have a number of services that basically revolve on "run shell script" actions and involve 3rd party application outputs, preference files etc. so it would not be convenient to show that to you.
I have sent a mail about this issue to the automator list yesterday too:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/Automator-users/2011/Jun/msg00004.html

How to prevent Automator's "run shell script" to create fully decomposed forms of my strings ?

I am using Automator's "run shell script" and I am seeing that it outputs fully decomposed forms of my strings.
For example, when I set the action to "echo été" in a service (with "Replace selected text" activated) and run that into a Textwrangler window, I'll get fully decomposed forms that Textwrangler won't understand. But when I simply type that command into Terminal, I get my string in composed form.
The problem is not the display issue, but the fact that if I want to run grep for example in "run shell script", I will not be able to find the proper strings since the forms are different.

Originally I was using $@ to parse a string and get the result pasted by the service. That was a while ago. There, I noticed that some Japanese characters were messed up. Basically all the kana characters that come with voicing markers like が-ga (instead of か-ka) etc. I did not have the time to pursue that issue though.
Then, last night, I found that a colleague of mine had tried to use $@ to feed to a local dictionary application called ding (http://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/Local/urz/ding/). His problem was with characters that had umlauts. After verifying how he wrote his action I remembered that I had similar issues with Japanese.
Basically his command was "/path/to/ding $@"
That's supposed to use the selected string as an argument to pass to ding, which will launch a Wish application where the string is used as the searched item.
From Terminal, that works a treat. But the exact same line in Automator (with input as argument, not as stdin) messed the composition and the resulting string was not recognized by ding as a match to what it was supposed to match.
So, I tried a few things to get to the core of the issue and found that a simple "echo [accented characters]" was enough to reproduce the difference in string handling between Automator and Terminal. That difference is also reproduced on a number of person's machines.
I have a number of services that basically revolve on "run shell script" actions and involve 3rd party application outputs, preference files etc. so it would not be convenient to show that to you.
I have sent a mail about this issue to the automator list yesterday too:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/Automator-users/2011/Jun/msg00004.html

Passing variables to a shell script

Hello all,
I have an applescript that is passing two variables to a shell script. Both variables are being passed, but the script isn't running as I would expect and I can't figure out what it's doing and why.
Here is the applescript:
delay 5
tell me to activate
display dialog "Please enter the following information."
property RoomNumber : ""
display dialog "Enter the room number and building (ie 1312CAC):" default answer RoomNumber
set the RoomNumber to text returned of the result
property StationNumber : ""
display dialog "Enter the Station Number:" default answer StationNumber
set the StationNumber to text returned of the result
do shell script ("echo " & RoomNumber & StationNumber & " | /Users/labadmin/Desktop/labbuild.sh")
and here is the shell script
#!/bin/sh
RoomNumber="$1"
StationNumber="$2"
compname=($RoomNumber$StationNumber)
scutil --set ComputerName $compname
scutil --set LocalHostName $compname
scutil --set HostName $compname
echo "Done setting the computer name"
The only name it sets is the ComputerName. LocalHost is blank and hostname is set to Localhost
Can someone see what I'm doing wrong here?
Thank you in advanced.

The line
do shell script ("echo " & RoomNumber & StationNumber & " | /Users/labadmin/Desktop/labbuild.sh")
should be
do shell script ("/Users/labadmin/Desktop/labbuild.sh " & quoted form of RoomNumber & " " & quoted form of StationNumber)
In your original code, you are using echo to pass the variables to stdin of the script instead of as command-line parameters. You also don't handle the case where a value is left blank.

Automator - Run Shell Script - Does not return when script launches firefox

Automator does not work the same on my MacBooks as my Mac mini! Both are latest Snow Leopard. I'm trying to automatically setup my MacBook after it decides if I'm at work, or elsewhere.
The Automator Action "Run Shell Script" (Shell: /usr/bin/perl) does NOT return control when attempting to launch Firefox:
system("/Application/Firefix.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -private news.google.com &");
Note: the ampersand should cause Firefox to start as a background process.
It only returns control after I close Firefox. I have a "Show Growl Notification" as the second action, so I know that the first action has not completed. Odd thing is that this works on my Mac mini. I also noticed that another difference: on my MacBook status is displayed in the top toolbar when the Automator application is running.
Any ideas?

Thanks, it worked. I forgot about stderr and stdin.
I'm using Perl as it is part of a bigger script. I can quickly and easily figure out if I am at work where my MacBook is plugged into a network:
my $ethernet = qx(ifconfig en0) =~ m{status:.active}xms;
if ($ethernet) {
# setup stuff for work environment
} else {
# setup stuff for mobile environment
}

Can't add "Run Shell Script" in Automator

When I drag "Run Shell Script" to the right pane in Automator nothing happens. All other applications I've tried can be dragged to the right pane. In the system.log I can find the following message:
Feb 7 16:56:48 Bananaboat Automator[195]: Error : -[AMWorkflowView _addAction:Kör kommandotolksskript] : * -[NSTextView replaceCharactersInRange:withString:]: nil NSString given.
"Kör kommandotolksskript" is "Run Shell Script" in Swedish.
Any ideas how to fix this?

You might have a corrupted file in the action, in which case you could reload it with something like Pacifist. You can't get the digest of a directory, so for comparison, compressing a copy of /System/Library/Automator/Run Shell Script.action on my desktop gives me the following:
sha1 digest: c209b69777f6a3301d72ddf0eb0ad4e7d4230741
md5 digest: 09e4ade9056ada3294ffb93bd16de1a7

Run Shell Script

Hi,
I'm new to Automator so I don't really know what to do:
What I want to do is run this line and create an "application" for my dock
virtuoso-t -f -c /usr/local/var/lib/virtuoso/ontowiki/virtuoso.ini &
so I choose "Run Shell Script" Workflow in the Automator Menu. Set the Shell to /bin/zsh (that's what im using) pass input: to stdin.
The workflow runs with no errors, but the virtuoso server does not start
any ideas?
Thanks daniel

The shell used doesn't have any of your environment variables (it is just a generic shell with no custom settings), so if virtuoso isn't in the standard path it won't be found. It is usually a good idea to use full paths anyway, especially when using Automator's Run Shell Script or AppleScript's do shell script. I am also going to guess that the missing space between the -t option is a typo.

Pass multiple Automator variables to Run Shell Script?

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