Automator is absolutely driving me insane

[Gary King]

I'm trying to make Automator run a simple Terminal command.

In Automator, my first action is to run Terminal. Easy enough.
The second action is to run the following commands

cd /Applications/synergy/

Then:

./synergys --config synergy.conf

The last command does not work. What is the problem here?

ALSO, these commands work for me if I run them in Terminal, so that shouldn't be the problem.

Thanks in advance! I'm new to Automator and the Mac!

 

[DXoverDY]

first off your idea of how automator works is all wrong.

So you run terminal.. that would be... Launch Application in the Finder Library.

Now... Once you have Terminal running. you can't do a thing to it.

Why? Because terminal has no automator actions. period. none exist in your default install. so executing that command will not execute inside the terminal you just opened.

EDIT:

i'm pretty sure i told you how you could do this with a bash profile in another thread you asked about this same thing. i suggest going back and reading it.

 

[DXoverDY]

Looking in automator a bit more. you could execute this command ... however it won't open in a terminal window.

Automator Library -> Run Shell Script

then type in the Command window: "exec /location/filename --config synergy.conf"

you'll have to open terminal, do a "ps ux" find your process, then "kill -9 pid" to stop it however.

 

[Gary King]

This is what I have:

exec /Applications/synergy/synergys --config synergy.conf

But it does not work. When running it in Terminal, I get the following error:

synergys: no configuration available

I even tried

exec /Applications/synergy/synergys --config /Applications/synergy/synergy.conf

which works in Terminal, but not in Automator.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the help!

Oh, and by the way, I don't think you posted in another one of my threads regarding bash. I didn't make another thread about Automator

 

[DXoverDY]

This is what I have:

exec /Applications/synergy/synergys --config synergy.conf

But it does not work. When running it in Terminal, I get the following error:

synergys: no configuration available

I even tried

exec /Applications/synergy/synergys --config /Applications/synergy/synergy.conf

which works in Terminal, but not in Automator.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the help!

Oh, and by the way, I don't think you posted in another one of my threads regarding bash. I didn't make another thread about Automator

my bad musta been someone else lol.. i can't keep track of all these odd synergy questions.

ok. this is the way i do the synergy thing.

create a file called ~/.bash_profile

next

alias synergy='exec synergys --config synergy.conf'

alias is just that.. an alias for a command. the synergy= part is the alias name, and what's inside the ' ' is the command to execute.

so you'd type "synergy" into the terminal and it would then execute the command you entered.

i'd include the paths in that... so /path/to/synergys --config /path/to/synergyconfig

it should work. you'd just have to open a terminal, and type "synergy" or whatever youchoose to be the alias and it'll run in that terminal window. that's how i have it setup over here. i use my powerbook as a client however, and not a server.

 

[Gary King]

my bad musta been someone else lol.. i can't keep track of all these odd synergy questions.

ok. this is the way i do the synergy thing.

create a file called ~/.bash_profile

next

alias synergy='exec synergys --config synergy.conf'

alias is just that.. an alias for a command. the synergy= part is the alias name, and what's inside the ' ' is the command to execute.

so you'd type "synergy" into the terminal and it would then execute the command you entered.

i'd include the paths in that... so /path/to/synergys --config /path/to/synergyconfig

it should work. you'd just have to open a terminal, and type "synergy" or whatever youchoose to be the alias and it'll run in that terminal window. that's how i have it setup over here. i use my powerbook as a client however, and not a server.

Okay, sounds good so far. But how can I have it execute automatically on system startup?

 

[Gary King]

This workflow apparently executes Terminal scripts via Automator. Maybe someone could analyse it? I'm not experienced enough to do so

http://www.automatorworld.com/2005/06/09/maintenance-21/

 

[Gary King]

I <3 Automator now. I got Synergy server to start up on system startup.