Automator help - passing filename to shell script

Question

Automator help - passing filename to shell script

Hello all.
I am trying to do a simple automator service where if I select a file and right click and run the service that it grabs that filename location and passes it to a shell script to run. In this case it is mkvdts2ac3.

Right now I have a service called MKVDTS2AC3. In it I have "Get Selected Finder Items" then "Run Shell Script" with the following command ~/mkvdts2ac3/mkvdts2ac3.sh -n $@
I had read that $@ should grab the file location from the Get Selected FInder Items action, but it doesnt seem to be passing properly. I get an error when running the service.

Thanks!

MacBookPro Unibody, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 1, 2010 4:03 PM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jan 1, 2010 4:11 PM in response to Brian Critchlow

first, you do not need get selected finder items in an automator workflow saved a service. it already takes selected finder items as input provided you specify that at the top of the service. next, you need to check the option in 'run shell script' action to accept input as arguments. and its input is a list not a single finder item. so you either need to do this


for f in "$@"
do
~/mkvdts2ac3/mkvdts2ac3.sh -n "$f"
done

to process all items in the list or this


for f in "$@"
do
~/mkvdts2ac3/mkvdts2ac3.sh -n "$1"
done

to only process the first item in this list and discard the rest.

Message was edited by: V.K.

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Answer 2

Jan 4, 2010 6:00 PM in response to V.K.

thanks! but i still get "The action “Run Shell Script” encountered an error."

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Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jan 4, 2010 6:03 PM in response to Brian Critchlow

make sure the "shell script" action is set to take input as arguments. also, does the command work correctly if you run it directly in terminal?


~/mkvdts2ac3/mkvdts2ac3.sh -n /path/to/file

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Answer 4

tjenvy

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2010 9:25 AM in response to Brian Critchlow

Hello, I know this is old, but did you ever solve this problem and get it working. For some strange reason I was getting other odd errors. If you were able to get it working properly, any chance of uploading it? Thanks in advance!!

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