Can't add "Run Shell Script" in Automator

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Level 1

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Can't add "Run Shell Script" in Automator

When I drag "Run Shell Script" to the right pane in Automator nothing happens. All other applications I've tried can be dragged to the right pane. In the system.log I can find the following message:

Feb 7 16:56:48 Bananaboat Automator[195]: Error : -[AMWorkflowView _addAction:Kör kommandotolksskript] : * -[NSTextView replaceCharactersInRange:withString:]: nil NSString given.

"Kör kommandotolksskript" is "Run Shell Script" in Swedish.

Any ideas how to fix this?

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Feb 7, 2009 8:09 AM

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Answer 1

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Feb 7, 2009 10:58 AM in response to serons

There are some actions that have problems with localization. Does the same thing happen if the system language is set to English?

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Answer 2

serons Author

Level 1

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Feb 7, 2009 11:09 AM in response to red_menace

I get the same message with the language set to English. I changed it in the configuration (cogwheel-icon) so that Automator started in English instead of Swedish. Here's the error message:

Feb 7 20:03:02 Bananaboat Automator[776]: Error : -[AMWorkflowView _addAction:Run Shell Script] : * -[NSTextView replaceCharactersInRange:withString:]: nil NSString given.

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Answer 3

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Feb 7, 2009 12:11 PM in response to serons

You might have a corrupted file in the action, in which case you could reload it with something like Pacifist. You can't get the digest of a directory, so for comparison, compressing a copy of /System/Library/Automator/Run Shell Script.action on my desktop gives me the following:
sha1 digest: c209b69777f6a3301d72ddf0eb0ad4e7d4230741
md5 digest: 09e4ade9056ada3294ffb93bd16de1a7

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Answer 4

serons Author

Level 1

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Feb 7, 2009 12:21 PM in response to red_menace

I get different digests.

~/Desktop $ sha1sum Run\ Shell\ Script.action.zip
2095a23ec9c0802e926e97a61f03e8ad05637bcb Run Shell Script.action.zip
~/Desktop $ md5sum Run\ Shell\ Script.action.zip
9beab349890d8e30ff67ad8a2e04688b Run Shell Script.action.zip

What can I do now?

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Answer 5

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Feb 7, 2009 1:37 PM in response to serons

You can use Pacifist to extract the original action from your OS install disk - http://www.charlessoft.com/

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Answer 6

Mar 18, 2012 2:56 AM in response to serons

I'm encoutering exactly the same problem and same error message:

Error : -[AMWorkflowView _addAction:Run Shell Script] : * -[NSTextView replaceCharactersInRange:withString:]: nil NSString given.

I'm unable to add a "Run shell script" action into an Automator workflow.

I'm using Mac OSX 10.5.8 on a version 2.0.4 of Automator.

Any help?

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