[macos] Running a command in a new Mac OS X Terminal window

I've been trying to figure out how to run a bash command in a new Max OS X Terminal.app window. As, an example, here's how I would run my command in a new bash process:

bash -c "my command here"

But this reuses the existing terminal window instead of creating a new one. I want something like:

Terminal.app -c "my command here"

But of course this doesn't work. I am aware of the "open -a Terminal.app" command, but I don't see how to forward arguments to the terminal, or even if I did what arguments to use.

Partial solution:

Put the things you want done in a shell-script, like so

#!/bin/bash
ls
echo "yey!"

And don't forget to 'chmod +x file' to make it executable. Then you can

open -a Terminal.app scriptfile

and it will run in a new window. Add 'bash' at the end of the script to keep the new session from exiting. (Although you might have to figure out how to load the users rc-files and stuff..)

I call this script trun. I suggest putting it in a directory in your executable path. Make sure it is executable like this:

chmod +x ~/bin/trun

Then you can run commands in a new window by just adding trun before them, like this:

trun tail -f /var/log/system.log

Here's the script. It does some fancy things like pass your arguments, change the title bar, clear the screen to remove shell startup clutter, remove its file when its done. By using a unique file for each new window it can be used to create many windows at the same time.

#!/bin/bash
# make this file executable with chmod +x trun
# create a unique file in /tmp
trun_cmd=`mktemp`
# make it cd back to where we are now
echo "cd `pwd`" >$trun_cmd
# make the title bar contain the command being run
echo 'echo -n -e "\033]0;'$*'\007"' >>$trun_cmd
# clear window
echo clear >>$trun_cmd
# the shell command to execute
echo $* >>$trun_cmd
# make the command remove itself
echo rm $trun_cmd >>$trun_cmd
# make the file executable
chmod +x $trun_cmd

# open it in Terminal to run it in a new Terminal window
open -b com.apple.terminal $trun_cmd

You could also invoke the new command feature of Terminal by pressing the Shift + ? + N key combination. The command you put into the box will be run in a new Terminal window.

A colleague asked me how to open A LOT of ssh sessions at once. I used cobbal's answer to write this script:

tmpdir=$( mktemp -d )
trap '$DEBUG rm -rf $tmpdir ' EXIT
index=1

{
cat <<COMMANDS
ssh user1@host1
ssh user2@host2
COMMANDS
} | while read command
do 
  COMMAND_FILE=$tmpdir/$index.command
  index=$(( index + 1 ))
  echo $command > $COMMAND_FILE
  chmod +x  $COMMAND_FILE
  open $COMMAND_FILE
done
sleep 60

By updating the list of commands ( they don't have to be ssh invocations ), you will get an additional open window for every command executed. The sleep 60 at the end is there to keep the .command files around while they are being executed. Otherwise, the shell completes too quickly, executing the trap to delete the temp directory ( created by mktemp ) before the launched sessions have an opportunity to read the files.

I made a function version of Oscar's answer, this one also copies the environment and changes to the appropriate directory

function new_window {
    TMP_FILE=$(mktemp "/tmp/command.XXXXXX")
    echo "#!/usr/bin/env bash" > $TMP_FILE

    # Copy over environment (including functions), but filter out readonly stuff
    set | grep -v "\(BASH_VERSINFO\|EUID\|PPID\|SHELLOPTS\|UID\)" >> $TMP_FILE

    # Copy over exported envrionment
    export -p >> $TMP_FILE

    # Change to directory
    echo "cd $(pwd)" >> $TMP_FILE

    # Copy over target command line
    echo "$@" >> $TMP_FILE

    chmod +x "$TMP_FILE"
    open -b com.apple.terminal "$TMP_FILE"

    sleep .1 # Wait for terminal to start
    rm "$TMP_FILE"
}

You can use it like this:

new_window my command here

or

new_window ssh example.com

In case anyone cares, here's an equivalent for iTerm:

#!/bin/sh
osascript <<END
tell application "iTerm"
 tell the first terminal
  launch session "Default Session"
  tell the last session
   write text "cd \"`pwd`\";$1;exit"
  end tell
 end tell
end tell
END

Here's my awesome script, it creates a new terminal window if needed and switches to the directory Finder is in if Finder is frontmost. It has all the machinery you need to run commands.

on run
    -- Figure out if we want to do the cd (doIt)
    -- Figure out what the path is and quote it (myPath)
    try
        tell application "Finder" to set doIt to frontmost
        set myPath to finder_path()
        if myPath is equal to "" then
            set doIt to false
        else
            set myPath to quote_for_bash(myPath)
        end if
    on error
        set doIt to false
    end try

    -- Figure out if we need to open a window
    -- If Terminal was not running, one will be opened automatically
    tell application "System Events" to set isRunning to (exists process "Terminal")

    tell application "Terminal"
        -- Open a new window
        if isRunning then do script ""
        activate
        -- cd to the path
        if doIt then
            -- We need to delay, terminal ignores the second do script otherwise
            delay 0.3
            do script " cd " & myPath in front window
        end if
    end tell
end run

on finder_path()
    try
        tell application "Finder" to set the source_folder to (folder of the front window) as alias
        set thePath to (POSIX path of the source_folder as string)
    on error -- no open folder windows
        set thePath to ""
    end try

    return thePath
end finder_path

-- This simply quotes all occurrences of ' and puts the whole thing between 's
on quote_for_bash(theString)
    set oldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "'"
    set the parsedList to every text item of theString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "'\\''"
    set theString to the parsedList as string
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelims
    return "'" & theString & "'"
end quote_for_bash

Here's yet another take on it (also using AppleScript):

function newincmd() { 
   declare args 
   # escape single & double quotes 
   args="${@//\'/\'}" 
   args="${args//\"/\\\"}" 
   printf "%s" "${args}" | /usr/bin/pbcopy 
   #printf "%q" "${args}" | /usr/bin/pbcopy 
   /usr/bin/open -a Terminal 
   /usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script with command "/usr/bin/clear; eval \"$(/usr/bin/pbpaste)\""' 
   return 0 
} 

newincmd ls 

newincmd echo "hello \" world" 
newincmd echo $'hello \' world' 

see: codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/1516

I've been trying to do this for a while. Here is a script that changes to the same working directory, runs the command, and closes the terminal window.

#!/bin/sh 
osascript <<END 
tell application "Terminal"
    do script "cd \"`pwd`\";$1;exit"
end tell
END