"See" shell scripts in action with applescript

Alec Jacobson

September 13, 2009

weblog/

Here's a simple script to open Terminal.app and execute a shell script.

tell application "Terminal"
	activate
	do script "ls"
end tell

Note: Note the subtle difference from another applescript feature you might be used to, namely do shell script. The latter, do shell script, when executed anywhere in an applescript runs a script at root level (but without root permissions). So running a script like:

set contents to do shell script "ls"

The variable contents will hold the return of ls for the root directory, /. On the other had something like the code at the top will execute ls at the default location of a new Terminal window, which (unless you have changed it) is by default the home directory of the current user. So in a Terminal tell block,

do script "ls"

opens a new terminal window and executes ls in that window, presumably at the user's home directory, ~.