Shell commands work in Terminal but not in Automator service

automatorcommand line

I try to implement these two very simple commands in an Automator service to be run by a keyboard short (takes a screenshot and OCRs it):

screencapture -i /tmp/tesseract.png
tesseract /tmp/tesseract.png stdout|tr -d \\f|pbcopy

This works great when I execute these commands in the Terminal, but not when I make it an Automator service (sorry this is in German).

I don't understand: Why does it work in the one case and not in the other? Does it have anything to do with tesseract?

Best Answer

Any executable that is not within the PATH passed to the Run Shell Script action, which is /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin, you must use the fully qualified pathname of the executable.

In this case, e.g. /path/to/tesseract

You should be able to get its path in Terminal using:

which tesseract

As tesseract is not a default of macOS, it may be in /usr/local/bin/, however which tesseract should report its fully qualified pathname.

Instead of using the fully qualified pathname, or in conjunction with, you can also add a PATH statement to the top of the Run Shell Script action, e.g. for a bash shell:

PATH="${PATH}:/usr/local/bin/"

You could also just substitute everything to the right of the = sign for what the output in Terminal, e.g. echo $PATH is. Then the Run Shell Script action has the same PATH as Terminal.

Related Solutions

Why does the Automator service work in Automator but not when called from the OS

What is ⌃F9 meant to do? This worked for me when I wrapped it in a service:

tell application "System Events"
    key code 100 using control down -- ^F8
    delay 0.1
    key code 125 -- down
    key code 125
    keystroke return
end tell

You could try running the workflow with automator -v:

$ automator -v ~/Library/Services/lock.workflow/
Starting Automator…
Run AppleScript is running

Run AppleScript is finished

The Automator workflow has completed.

There are several issues with using Automator services to assign shortcuts to scripts though. See this question. If you run the service with a shortcut that has modifier keys, there might not be enough time to release them before the key code commands.

You could also use a script like this:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
    tell (menu bar item 1 where description is "Keychain menu extra") of menu bar 1
        click
        click menu item 1 of menu 1
    end tell
end tell

Create a service in Automator that will run without having a file selected

Yes, at the bottom of the Service receives drop down you’ll find a no input option. You should be able to activate it from the services menu (under the application menu, i.e. Finder → Services).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Why does the Automator service work in Automator but not when called from the OS

Create a service in Automator that will run without having a file selected

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