10

How would I go about creating an AppleScript command that when I just run the script (or double click it in Finder?), it would run a set of terminal commands? The set of commands completely remove MySQL, and it has become a pain to constantly write them out. The commands are:

sudo rm /usr/local/mysql
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*
sudo rm /etc/my.cnf

There is also another command sudo nano /etc/hostconfig that opens a file and I need to delete a line from the file, but that seems like it'd be too hard to code, so I guess I can do that by hand. But it would be a huge help to do this automatically with a single script.

Would it just be a bunch of these commands?

do shell script (...)

Thanks, Hristo

Improve this question
1
  • To change/add/remove a few lines in a text file, you could use the sed(1) command, which is serial editor. Works great with regular expressions to find the line you want to remove or change, or insert a new line before or after. See the man page or some videos on YTube. Commented Jan 20, 2024 at 15:44

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
18

Yes, you would use do shell script.

However, for the commands where you execute as super user (sudo) you would instead use with administrator privileges. So, for sudo rm /usr/local/mysql you'd do:

do shell script "rm /usr/local/mysql" with administrator privileges

If your list of commands is long, then it might just be easier to put all your commands into a single shell script file, and then execute that shell script using do shell script:

do shell script "/path/to/shell/script" with administrator privileges
Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

when I do do shell script "rm /usr/local/mysql" with administrator privileges, it gives me an error and tells me that /usr/local/mysql is a directory. That is actually a symbolic link to a different directory... what is the problem?
try rm -rf /usr/local/mysql
17

You don't actually need to use AppleScript for this - just put all the shell commands in a text file and give it a .command suffix and make sure it's executable (e.g. chmod +x my_script.command) - this will make it double-clickable in the Finder.

Improve this answer

3 Comments

The .command suffix isn't quite enough -- you also have to include a shebang (i.e. add #!/bin/bash as the first line of the text file) and add execute permission to the file (i.e. run chmod +x /path/to/file.command). BTW, the big advantage of using this vs. an AppleScript is that it runs in Terminal, so you can actually interact with the script (very important if you want to use e.g. nano to edit a file).
@Gordon: yes, good point, I should have said that it needs to be an executable shell script with a shebang line.
note, though, that when using sudo in a .command you'll still have to enter your password. if you want the script to just run on its own, this link has some good tips on how to do that: askubuntu.com/questions/155791/…
0

I find that .scpt files work best but this is just a preference thing.

Open "Script Editor" and add the following command:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql; sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*; sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM; sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*; sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*; sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*; sudo rm /etc/my.cnf; say job completed successfully" with administrator privileges
Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.