Shell script to combine PDFs, renaming output

applescriptbashcommand linepdfscript

I am trying to automate some accounting tasks. For this purpose I have employed Noodlesoft Hazel's help to rename and sort documents. However, I am stuck at trying to combine PDFs that really belong together (i.e. invoice from vendor with receipt from payment portal for the same purchase).

More specifically, the names of the documents to be combined have the same first part, say:

2017-02-01 Vendor1 - invoice1234.pdf
2017-02-01 Vendor1 [PayPal] - transactionID.pdf

Is there a way to combine them automatically (i.e. running a shell script in Hazel), possibly using pdfunite? It would be important to retain the name of the second file, but combine the two into one PDF.

I have some basic scripting knowledge and would be up for the challenge!

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A linked question How can I combine PDF files and automatically create a table of contents? offers a program to do this. I don't know the syntax for scripting it with hazel/applescript/automator/ruby what have you though.

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Shell script help

This should work. I don't have time currently to explain the changes/additions, but I'll update. You must run this script as sudo for it to work.

Even easier, sudo chmod +s yourscript - will run as root without requiring password.

#!/bin/bash

#Machines must have cURL installed as a prerequisite to download software from internet or FTP server 

#Change to your working directory. 
cd ~/Downloads

#grab files from www.teamviewer.com or custom FTP server
curl -O http://downloadus3.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewerHost.dmg

#grab TeamViewer from custom FTP server
curl -O https://www.dropbox.com/s/******/com.apple.TeamViewer8.Settings.plist

#Place customized plist file into Library/Preferences
mv ~/Downloads/com.apple.TeamViewer8.Settings.plist /Library/Preferences/

#Mount and Install TeamViewer
hdiutil mount ~/Downloads/TeamViewerHost.dmg
installer -pkg /Volumes/TeamViewerHost/Install\ TeamViewerHost.pkg -target LocalSystem

#Softkill process in order to unmount package
ps aux | grep -i TeamViewer | awk {'print $2'} | xargs kill

#Unmount package
hdiutil unmount /Volumes/TeamViewerHost/

How to Apple Script open a shell script with options in a Terminal window

The following AppleScript works for me:

tell application "Terminal"
    do script "~/testscript" & " -arg1" & " -arg2"
end tell

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Shell script help

How to Apple Script open a shell script with options in a Terminal window

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