How to kill TextEdit from the command line

Question

How to kill TextEdit from the command line

During writing some new software I channel diagnostics to TextEdit and graphics to Preview.
I make some changes, I get new TextEdit and Preview windows.
The problem is with TextEdit: after a few steps TextEdit's content would not change.
Then I need to abort it (making it active, command-q) and repeat the run.

I am wasting time on this, so I'd like a "kill TextEdit's_pid" instruction be part of my run-time
command. However, I can't get the pid of TextEdit by ps. If the terminal is active for ps to be issued,
TextEdit is necessarily not, so it will not show up.
I can't find a ps option that would list it.

Any idea, Unix folks?

Thanks
Mike-oz

PowerPC G5, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on May 31, 2008 3:11 AM

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Answer 1

Clea Rees

Level 4

1,245 points

May 31, 2008 5:26 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi


ps x | grep TextEdit

You should use a kill signal which terminates TextEdit gracefully to avoid problems, I think.

The reason it doesn't show up with just ps is not that it is not active but that it does not have a controlling terminal.

- cfr

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Answer 2

May 31, 2008 5:23 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

Use the following:

killall TextEdit

Should turn the trick.

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Answer 3

May 31, 2008 9:29 AM in response to mistersquid

Gents, thank you very much. I liked "ps -x | grep TextEdit" and the reasoning behind it.
However, it turns up two items (grep TextEdit itself shows up) and one need to extract
the pid from the proper one. Not a problem, but killall is an instant solution.
Thank you again,
Mike-oz

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Answer 4

Bill Scott

Level 6

11,465 points

May 31, 2008 10:01 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

Another option (slightly less harsh):


osascript -e "Tell app "TextEdit" to quit"

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Answer 5

Clea Rees

Level 4

1,245 points

May 31, 2008 1:16 PM in response to Bill Scott

Bill Scott wrote:
Another option (slightly less harsh):
osascript -e "Tell app "TextEdit" to quit"

Yes - that's one of the advantages of getting the PID and using kill, too - you can quit the application gracefully by sending a "quit" signal rather than the software termination signal which is, as you say, harsher, I think.
- cfr

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Answer 6

May 31, 2008 5:48 PM in response to Clea Rees

I guess that that this osascript business should be ok, but when I try to use it, I get an

Unmatched ".

message. I've tried single quotes without backslashes, that was syntax error.
God moves in mysterious ways, or could this be a bug in 10.5.3?

Mike-oz

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Answer 7

Jamesho

Level 1

8 points

Jun 3, 2008 6:59 AM in response to Miklos Somogyi

If you are using csh or tcsh try:

osascript -e 'Tell app "TextEdit" to quit'

That works for me in 10.5.3 using tcsh with Terminal.

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Answer 8

Jun 3, 2008 7:15 AM in response to Jamesho

Yep, this one is working. Just why the other form did not work? Certainly it was balanced double
quotes (10.5.3, tch, terminal).

Thank you very much,

Mike-oz

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Answer 9

Clea Rees

Level 4

1,245 points

Jun 3, 2008 1:08 PM in response to Miklos Somogyi

Mike-oz wrote:
Yep, this one is working. Just why the other form did not work? Certainly it was balanced double
quotes (10.5.3, tch, terminal).

Obviously something about how tsch handles quotes and escapes. Odd, I grant you:


echo " " "

" " "


echo " "


echo " " " "

" "


echo " " " "

<error>

This is on Tiger and I know tcsh on Tiger is buggy. I don't know about on Leopard. Have you considered bash?!

- cfr

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Answer 10

Jun 3, 2008 3:07 PM in response to Clea Rees

Clea,

I get the same answers under Leopard (10.5.3). Anyway,

osascript -e 'Tell app "TextEdit" to quit'

works. That's another problem how to make it into a working alias! I've tried a few versions then
just gave up. tcsh does not like backslashes, period.

Mike-oz

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