Get folder containing automator script

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Level 2

299 points

Get folder containing automator script

I have an Automator script that calls a shell script (bash) to do its work. How can my shell script learn the folder pathname that contains the Automator script/app that invokes it?

In particular, I want the Automator script to create a folder in the same directory as the script, with the new folder's name being today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format. Doing this through a shell script is not a requirement, but I'm a Unix programmer, and don't have AppleScript skills.

MacBook Pro 17", macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 22, 2019 7:53 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 22, 2019 8:17 AM in response to Ken Nellis

If you know the path to the Bash script including the script name, and that path were assigned to Bash variable x, then use:

mkdir -p "${x%/*}/$(date "+%F")"

If $x was /Users/yourname/Desktop/rtnpath.py, the above would create a new folder named 2019-04-22 (today) on your Desktop.

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Answer 2

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Apr 24, 2019 6:52 AM in response to Ken Nellis

AppleScript's path to me will return the path to the current application/script. You can incorporate this in your workflow to do what you want:

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Answer 3

Ken Nellis Author

Level 2

299 points

Apr 24, 2019 7:15 AM in response to VikingOSX

The path to the bash script would be $0, but what I was looking for is how the bash script could learn the location of the Automator script, which would be in a different location. There would be one bash script in a central location and possibly multiple Automator scripts placed in the folders where I want date-named folders to be created. HOWEVER, further research resulted in a pure AppleScript solution, which allows double-clicking on an AppleScript saved-as app to create the desired folders.

The actual AppleScript follows. I welcome any suggestions to improve on this novice effort (thank-you, Google!), which contains items that I don't quite understand.

tell application "Finder"

set {year:y, month:mon, day:d} to (current date)

set ys to y as string

set ms to mon * 1 as string

if the length of ms is 1 then set ms to "0" & ms

set ds to d as string

set fname to ys & "-" & ms & "-" & ds

set dname to container of (path to me) as alias

make new folder at folder dname with properties {name:fname}

end tell

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Answer 4

Ken Nellis Author

Level 2

299 points

Apr 24, 2019 7:22 AM in response to Camelot

Wow, thanx! This gives me a new appreciation for what Automator can do. I think my AppleScript solution will work for now.

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Get folder containing automator script

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