How to pass a variable from shell script to applescript

Question

I have a shell script that checks if folders have a set number of files and displays error messages to the user. I use applescript to display the error message. Is there a way to pass the variables of the shell script to the AppleScript?

Here is what I have:

declare -i count=5;
osascript -e 'tell app "Xcode" to display dialog "Counted $count items." buttons {"Continue"}'

I want the output to be Counted 5 items. but it just comes out as Counted $count items. How can I pass a shell script variable to the applescript?

jonvuri · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22 12:34:03Z

5

There are three solutions:

Use "" instead of '' so that the $var will be expanded by the shell
Close the quote, put the var, and reopen with no spaces (e.g. 'string'$var'rest of string'). However, this is unsafe if the variable can contain spaces.
Use formal command line arguments with your AppleScript script

answered Oct 22, 2012 at 12:34

jonvuri

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2 Comments

Dominic Mortlock Over a year ago

Cheers. I used the second method because I don't have spaces and it was the easiest to implement.

user2975337 Over a year ago

If var contains spaces, I found this to work: osascript -e 'display dialog "string1'"$var"'string2"'

Dominic Mortlock · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22 13:41:12Z

2

Just to clarify, this is what I did in the end to get it to work.

declare -i count=5;
osascript -e 'tell app "Xcode" to display dialog "Counted '$count' items." buttons {"Continue"}'

answered Oct 22, 2012 at 13:41

Dominic Mortlock

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