Option to automatically close terminal after running command from Alfred

[Hattrick]

Most of the time I use the `> code` keyword, I'm using it to run a one-shot terminal command that doesn't need the terminal window open afterwards. It's a little annoying to have to close the window manually each time.

[vitor]

You can do it by changing Application to Custom in Alfred Preferences → Features → Terminal and setting the code to something like

on alfred_script(q)
  tell application "Terminal"
    activate
    do script q
    quit
  end tell
end alfred_script

That’s a start but isn’t it, as that will try to close it too soon.

 

For running one-offs, I recommend RunCommand instead (disclaimer: I’m the author). It will run the commands without opening a Terminal.

Edited May 25, 2020 by vitor

[deanishe]

It might be better to automatically append ; exit to the command if you just want to close the tab/window instead of quitting Terminal.app.

[vitor]

14 hours ago, deanishe said:

It might be better to automatically append ; exit to the command if you just want to close the tab/window instead of quitting Terminal.app.

 

We should also be able to tell AppleScript to close the tab (I think Terminal’s AppleScript Dictionary supports that). exit requires changing the terminal profile configuration, since by default it doesn’t close the tab on Apple’s Terminal app.

[deanishe]

24 minutes ago, vitor said:

exit requires changing the terminal profile configuration, since by default it doesn’t close the tab on Apple’s Terminal app.

 

Oh yeah. I forgot about that particular stupidity of Terminal.app (I use iTerm). I'm not sure how simple it is to figure out when the command has finished running via AppleScript, though.

Edited December 29, 2019 by deanishe

[vitor]

11 minutes ago, deanishe said:

I'm not sure how simple it is to figure out when the command has finished running via AppleScript, though.

 

Me neither. Maybe we could combine both solutions and append ; osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to quit' to the command.

[deanishe]

Mmm. I think it's a bad idea to quit the application. There might be other stuff running in other tabs/windows.

 

Is configuring Terminal.app to close the tab when the last program exits not the correct thing to do in any case? It's default behaviour is so annoying and weird.

[vitor]

34 minutes ago, deanishe said:

I think it's a bad idea to quit the application. There might be other stuff running in other tabs/windows.

 

Agreed. I thought @Hattrick wanted the app closed, but I stand corrected; the request was to close the window.

 

38 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Is configuring Terminal.app to close the tab when the last program exits not the correct thing to do in any case? It's default behaviour is so annoying and weird.

 

I’d say so. I was also never able to understand why they chose for it to behave like that.

[tosbsas]

how do you configure terminal to close the tab? I mean like daenishe is saying

Edited May 25, 2020 by tosbsas

[vitor]

1 minute ago, tosbsas said:

how do you configure terminal to close the tab?

 

Preferences → Profiles → (pick whichever is yours) → Shell → When the shell exits: (change this).

[tosbsas]

thanks

[Ilia]

Besides, would that be possible not to raise Terminal window at all and run terminal command in the background?

[deanishe]

2 hours ago, Ilia said:

Besides, would that be possible not to raise Terminal window at all and run terminal command in the background?

 

Probably, but that would be mostly pointless: if you don't need to interact with the command or see its output, why run it in a terminal? Use a Run Script instead.

[Ilia]

15 hours ago, deanishe said:

why run it in a terminal? Use a Run Script instead.

 

Well, my script produces no result if run using Run Script instead.

 

Could that be because the commands on the script are run as:

 

 

/usr/bin/nohup /usr/local/bin/sshfs ... 2>/dev/null &

 

 

❓

Edited November 17, 2020 by Ilia

[deanishe]

17 hours ago, Ilia said:

Could that be because the commands on the script are run as

 

It's more likely that whatever it is you're doing requires something from your shell environment.

 

Why don't you try running the command normally, instead of discarding its output, so you can see what's going on?

[Ilia]

34 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Why don't you try running the command normally, instead of discarding its output, so you can see what's going on?

 

It seems that you are right. When running in terminal, .bashrc is run, which sets PATH with GNU utils, rather than BSD, but in Run Script mode, it's not set and my script is using default BSD sed which fails. I know I can run  .bashrc from inside the script to address this issue, however it would be preferable to workaround this issue somehow from inside Alfred? Is this possible? 

[deanishe]

The best way is generally to use the full path to a command, e.g. /usr/local/bin/sed. If that doesn’t work, put export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH (or whatever you need) at the top of your script to set up the environment.

[Ilia]

Well, I could surely do it but the problem is that the script is universally written to be used on both, Linux and MacOS.

 

Would that be possible to add a tick to Run Scripts mode, to include .bashrc? 

[vitor]

23 minutes ago, Ilia said:

Would that be possible to add a tick to Run Scripts mode, to include .bashrc? 

You’d need a checkbox for every startup file of every shell, and there are a bunch of those.
 

1 hour ago, Ilia said:

I know I can run  .bashrc from inside the script to address this issue, however it would be preferable to workaround this issue somehow from inside Alfred? Is this possible?

Source the .bashrc inside the Run Script, then.

[Ilia]

Thanks for your tips.

 

Indeed sourcing .bashrc makes it work as expected.

 

Example (for future readers):

 

source /Users/user/.bashrc
/Users/user/.local/bin/my-script-1.sh

 

Alfred is a masterpiece! ❤️

 

[vitor]

Just now, Ilia said:

/Users/user

 

Use ${HOME}.

[Ilia]

Just now, vitor said:

Use ${HOME}.

 

Great, will do! Are there other env vars available?

[vitor]

2 minutes ago, Ilia said:

Are there other env vars available?

 

Run env by itself in a Run Script (connected to a Copy to Clipboard Output or a Large Type Output or something) and see.

[Stooovie]

Hi, I can't get the terminal tabs to close, neither Terminal.app nor iTerm2. I have set the Shell in both to close after finishing. I have also tried to add the  ; exit  command to my script, but the tabs still keep open after finishing. Any other tips? I'm on Big Sur. 

 

I do want to see the terminal while running (transcoding video), so Run Script isn't an option for me. I just want it to close after completion. Thanks!

[deanishe]

7 hours ago, Stooovie said:

I have also tried to add the  ; exit  command to my script

 

That does the trick. Are you sure you've formatted your command correctly?