Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
How can I run a shell script on multiple different computers with the same code? If I have it run from
/users/'my name'/desktop/etc.
then it won't work when I use it on a different computer, because the user name will be different. Is there any way to run it directly without going through the user directory?
The AppleScript command I think you're looking for is:
(path to Desktop Folder) as text
or
(path to Desktop Folder)
But that would return an HFS path and the code you posted is a POSIX Path so you could change it to:
set homePath to POSIX path of (path to Desktop Folder) as text
As stated in the comment there is $USER for the terminal and per memory you can still call it in AppleScript with something like:
do shell script "$USER"
If path to desktop folder doesn't work you can try just path to desktop.
Addressing the comment. I was taught HFS path and alias path were the same, will make it another question for clarity.
Building the path as text is a habit when concat strings or if I was going to take the path and call it later in a do shell. For example:
(path to desktop folder)
in Script Debugger returns an HFS path. When you combine a directory as it was shown in the OP's question a compiling error occurs with:
(path to desktop folder & "foobar:")
and a
(path to desktop folder) & "foobar:"
when I've called paths using path to I've had to write them as:
(path to desktop folder as text) & "foobar:"
I was unfamiliar to short user name of (system info) and path to home folder but that's good to know. One issue with the question is the OP marks it with terminal and AppleScript so the solution is somewhat complicated.
alias path; it returns an HFS path. Your second code line doesn't require coercing to text: POSIX path returns a text object. Your third code line is an unnecessary call to a shell script, as the same information can be retrieved via short user name of (system info) and also via system attribute "USER". Likewise, the home folder path can be got with system attribute "HOME" (and, of course, the usual path to home folder route).
path to desktop folder in Script debugger returns an HFS path" which isn't correct. Leaving aside the "HFS path" vs |"alias path" dilemma for now, what we do know is that path to desktop folder will always return an alias, by which I am referring to both the AppleScript object specifier and the class called "alias". Cont'd...
This will detect what is the username with which you/script have/has logged in and changes to that directory. you can pre-pend it to your script:
user=`whoami`
cd "/Users/$user"
$USER already exists in many shells. Please see my comment against the OP's question. Also, there would be no need to place $USER outside the double quotes. cd "/Users/$USER" is fine.
user as already mentioned $USER should already exist. Not that I would use your answer, but if I did I write it as cd "/Users/$(whoami)" instead.
Nov 30, 2018 at 10:57
~/Desktop/blahblahblah. The~is shorthand for "the current user's home directory".$USER, which contains the name of the home folder. So, you would write:"/Users/$USER/My Folder", for example.$HOMEin place of~as it (~) can be problematic, and it's recommended to use$HOMEover it when usingdo shell scriptin AppleScript.