Handling permissions to run a bash script

applescriptautomationbashcode-signingterminal

I'm sending a bash script as a .command file to a friend. This person is not very tech savvy which is why I'm sending it in the first place, the goal is for the .command file to run through the shell operations for them. However when the attempt to run the script they get the run.command is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Bin error. I believe this is a new version of the old unsigned developer prompt as apple is blocking out random code from their systems. Anyway I can have this run without too much complexity?

Edit: I'm open to using applescript if this will alleviate the issue.

Best Answer

AppleScript

Wrap the shell script in a do shell script AppleScript command:

do shell script "say \"hello world\""

If your script needs administrator rights, append with administrator privileges to the command:

do shell script "say \"goodbye moon\"" with administrator privileges

Using Script Editor.app in /Applications/Utilities, you can save the AppleScript as a .applescript text file that will launch in Script Editor on the host computer.

The end user will need to select the menu item:

Script (menu) > Run

Alternatively, you can Export as an Application and code sign the resulting application. This assumes you have a code signing certificate available.

Automator

An Automator workflow can also include shell scripts and AppleScripts. Automator can also save as an application, with the Export… menu item also prompting to code sign the result for you.

Related Solutions

How to execute a bash script that requires root privileges

Take the script that you created:

#!/bin/bash

echo "plugin L2TP.ppp">>/etc/ppp/options 
echo "l2tpnoipsec">>/etc/ppp/options

Save it in your home directory, or a 'scripts' directory inside your home directory, as l2tp.sh. Allow it to be executed(write this command in Terminal):

chmod 700 ~/path/to/l2tp.sh

To execute the file using sudo (root privileges):

Method #1. In Terminal type:

$ sudo ~/path/to/l2tp.sh

Method #2. Create a file run_l2tp.command with this contents:

sudo ~/path/to/l2tp.sh

Allow it to be executed:

chmod u+x run_l2tp.command

When you double-click run_l2tp.command and enter the password the l2tp.sh file will be executed with root privileges.

Some notes:

On UNIX like systems, ~ is short for "my home directory".
Chmod 700 will make the file executable only by you. For more information: see this Wikipedia page.
typing 'sudo' before a command will execute the program using root privileges. Be careful when doing this, bad things can happen if you're not sure what you're doing.
Obviously you can omit the /path/to if you saved this script directly in your home directory.

MacOS – Run AppleScript from bash script

The argument for osascript -e can contain newlines:

osascript -e 'set x to "a"
say x'

You can also specify multiple -e arguments:

osascript -e 'set x to "a"' -e 'say x'

Or if you use a heredoc, bash interprets three characters (\, $, and `) between <<END and END but no characters between <<'END' and END.

osascript <<'END'
set x to "a"
say x
END

Edit:

Since osascript can operate with a heredoc (ie take input from /dev/stdin) then one can just write the script as a whole file and prepend with the correct shebang line:

#!/usr/bin/env osascript

set x to "a"
say x

This also allows you to save your apple script as a actual program in ~/Applications/.app using the following procedure (changing for your script's name):

mkdir -p ~/Applications/<APP_NAME>.app/Contents/MacOS
touch ~/Applications/<APP_NAME>.app/Contents/MacOS/<APP_NAME>
open -A TextEdit ~/Applications/<APP_NAME>.app/Contents/MacOS/<APP_NAME>

Ensure that both the script file in .../MacOS/ and the matches