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How do I create a shell script on a Macintosh?

A reader writes:

I've started to go through your shell script book Wicked Cool Shell Scripts but there is still something I'm unclear on. I'm showing my ignorance here, but how exactly do you save a shell script so you can use it later?"

Dave's Answer: If you're comfortable using the vi editor within the Mac OS X environment, your best bet is to open up a Terminal window (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and type in the script directly.

If not, you can use an application like BBEdit, save the file as text-only with or without line breaks, then open up the Terminal application and type in the name of the script, as in sh myscript.sh (assuming you saved the file as 'myscript.sh').

The final step is for you to actually make the script executable, which you can do by using the chmod command, as in: chmod +x myscript.sh.

Once you've done that - particularly if you have the script in one of the directories in your PATH - you can execute the script by simply typing its name at the command line.

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Categorized: Mac OS X Help , Shell Script Programming (Article 3746)
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Comments

Hello,

How can I create one that will delete the file "cache.db" in the directory "Library/Application Support/Shutterbypass" I was hoping there was a way to create a file that i can save to my desktop and just double click on it and this will happen automatically. Like a batch file in Windows.

Thank you,
Soheb V

Posted by: Soheb at September 3, 2009 1:55 AM

Hello,

write this on a text doc and save file as 'remove_cache.sh':

#!/bin/bash
rm /Library/Application Support/Shutterbypass/cache.db
exit

Then select it from Finder and cmd+i to get file info. On 'Open With' go browse and select Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities).

Then open Terminal.app and write:

chmod +x (and drag from finder the script 'remove_cache.sh')

That's all, when double click the script, it will delete the cache.db.

Salut,
Xapa

Posted by: xapa at October 21, 2009 8:22 AM

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