Sending commands and strings to Terminal app with Applescript

Question

I want to do something like this   tell application  Terminal    activate   do script  ssh user server com    --    write user s password   --    write some linux commands to remote server end tell   For example to log in to the server  enter the password  and then login to mysql and select a DB  I type that every day and it would be really helpful to bundle it into a script     Also  is there a reference of what commands  properties  functions  etc  do applications  Terminal  Finder  etc  have available to use within Applescript  thanks   EDIT  Let me clear this up  I don t want to do several  do script  as I tried and doesn t work  I want to open a Terminal window  and then emulate a human typing in some characters and hitting enter  Could be passwords  could be commands  whatever  just sending chars to the Terminal which happens to be running ssh  I tried keystroke and doesn t seem to work

User · Answer

Your question is specifically about how to get Applescript to do what you want   But  for the particular example described  you might want to look into  expect  as a solution

User · Answer

How about this   There s no need for key codes  at least in Lion  not sure about earlier   and a subroutine simplifies the main script   The below script will ssh to localhost as user  me   enter password  myPassw0rd  after a 1 second delay  issue ls  delay 2 seconds  and then exit   tell application  Terminal      activate     my execCmd  ssh me localhost   1      my execCmd  myPassw0rd   0      my execCmd  ls   2      my execCmd  exit   0  end tell on execCmd cmd  pause      tell application  System Events          tell application process  Terminal              set frontmost to true             keystroke cmd             keystroke return         end tell     end tell     delay pause end execCmd

User · Answer

As EvanK stated each do script line will open a new window however you can run two commands with the same do script by separating them with a semicolon  For example   tell application  Terminal      do script  date time  end tell   But the limit appears to be two commands   However  you can append  in window 1  to the do script command  for every do script after the first one  to get the same effect and continue to run as many commands as you need to in the same window   tell application  Terminal      do script  date      do script  time  in window 1     do script  who  in window 1 end tell    Note that I just used the who  date  and time command as an example   replace with whatever commands you need

User · Answer

I built this script  It is in Yosemite and it is bash script using AppleScript to choose a list of users for SSH servers  Basically you define an IP and then the user names   when the application launches it asks who you want to login in as   the SSH terminal is launched and logged in prompting a password             --- --- --- --- ---    JD Sports Fashion plc    Apple Script    Khaleel Mughal    --- --- --- --- ---     SHELLSTAGINGSSHBASH    --- --- --- --- ---       set stagingIP to  192 162 999 999   set faciaName to  choose from list   admin    marketing    photography cdn     if faciaName is false then     display dialog  No facia was selected   with icon stop buttons   Exit   default button   Exit   else     set faciaName to  item 1 of faciaName       tell application  Terminal          activate         do script  ssh    amp  faciaName  amp       amp  stagingIP  amp         end tell  end if   I highly recommend though  Nathan Pickmans post above about Shuttle  http   fitztrev github io shuttle     a very smart and simple application

User · Answer

Petruza   Instead of using keystroke use key code  The following example should work for you   tell application  System Events      tell application process  Terminal          set frontmost to true         key code  2  0  17  14          keystroke return     end tell end tell   The above example will send the characters  d  a  t  e  to Terminal and then keystroke return will enter and run the command  Use the above example with whatever key codes you need and you ll be able to do what you re trying to do

User · Answer

The last example get errors under 10 6 8  Build 10K549  caused by the keyword  pause    Replacing it by the word  wait  makes it work   tell application  Terminal      activate     my execCmd  ssh me localhost   1      my execCmd  myPassw0rd   0      my execCmd  ls   2      my execCmd  exit   0  end tell  on execCmd cmd  wait      tell application  System Events         tell application process  Terminal            set frontmost to true           keystroke cmd           keystroke return        end tell     end tell      delay wait end execCmd

User · Answer

Kinda related  you might want to look at Shuttle  http   fitztrev github io shuttle    it s a SSH shortcut menu for OSX

User · Answer

set up passwordless ssh  ssh-keygen  then add the key to    ssh authorized keys on the server    Make an entry in    ssh config  on your desktop   so that when you run ssh mysqlserver  it goes to user hostname      Or make a shell alias  like gotosql  that expands to ssh user host -t  mysql client       to start the mysql client interactively on the server   Then you probably do need someone else s answer to script the process after that  since I don t know how to set startup commands for mysql   At least that keeps your ssh password out of the script

User · Answer

First connect to the server and wait for 6 seconds  you can change that  and then execute whatever you need on the remote server using the same tab  tell application  Terminal     set currentTab to do script   ssh user server       delay 6    do script   do something remote   in currentTab end tell

User · Answer

Why don t use expect   tell application  Terminal      activate     set currentTab to do script   expect -c  spawn ssh user IP  expect     assword      send   MySecretPass     interact    end tell

User · Answer

As neat solution  try-    open -a  Applications Utilities Terminal app    py   or    open -b com apple terminal   py   For the shell launched  you can go to Preferences   Shell   set it to exit if no error   That s it

User · Answer

You don t need to  tell  Terminal to do anything  AppleScript can do shell scripts directly   set theDir to    Desktop   do shell script  touch    amp  theDir  amp  SomeFile txt    or whatever

User · Answer

I could be mistaken  but I think Applescript Terminal integration is a one-shot deal   That is  each do script call is like opening a different terminal window  so I don t think you can interact with it at all   You could copy over the SSH public keys to prevent the password prompt  then execute all the commands joined together  warning  the following is totally untested    tell application  Terminal      activate     do script  ssh jdoe example com   home jdoe dosomestuff sh  amp  amp   home jdoe dosomemorestuff sh   end tell   Alternatively  you could wrap the ssh and subsequent commands in a shell script using Expect  and then call said shell script from your Applescript

User · Answer

what about something like this    tell application  Terminal       activate     do shell script  sudo dscl localhost -create  Local Default Hosts cc josmoe com IPAddress 127 0 0 1      do shell script  sudo dscl localhost -create  Local Default Hosts cc josmos2 com IPAddress 127 0 0 1   end tell

User · Answer

Here s another way  but with the advantage that it launches Terminal  brings it to the front  and creates only one window   I like this when I want to be neatly presented with the results of my script   tell application  Terminal      activate     set shell to do script  echo 1  in window 1     do script  echo 2  in shell     do script  echo 3  in shell end tell

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