I created routine maintenance Applescript out of curiosity and the need for a free solution that I could setup to run my daily/weekly and monthly.
Preparation--
I have mine setup to run from Entourage X, but i believe you can use iCal to run them on a timed schedule, or simply run them as applications when you see fit or from within Script Editor, where you can use the Result window to show the script processing *More on this later.
Setting up a new Key in Keychain------
The Settings I used are as follows:
Name: applescriptAllow
Kind: application password
Account: *Your User account
Where: applescriptallow
Password: Your user account password/ *Administrator password
The Script------
property theAppName : "weekly run script"
property myKeyName : "applescriptAllow" --Name of the key in Keychain Access
-------------------------Other global properties-----------------------------
property fromRun : false --whether we have entered the main run loop yet (true) or not (false)
on theCommands(thePassword)
--This runs the actual script using your Administrator password
--Substitute "weekly" for "daily" or monthly" to run those scripts
do shell script "sudo /etc/weekly" password thePassword with administrator privileges
do shell script "sudo -k" --timeout our sudo ability for security
end theCommands
(*
* Main handler.
*)
on run
set {thekey} to getKey()
tell application "Keychain Scripting" to set thePassword to password of thekey
theCommands(thePassword)
--reinitialize fromRun for the next time the script is run.
end run
on getKey()
set validKey to false
set changedPassword to false
tell application "Keychain Scripting"
set theKeychain to current keychain
tell theKeychain
set thekey to every generic key of theKeychain whose name is myKeyName
if thekey = {} then
set thekey to my makeKey()
set firstTime to true
set validKey to true
else
set thekey to item 1 of thekey
set firstTime to false
end if
end tell --end tell theKeychain
end tell --end tell application Keychain Scripting
repeat while not validKey
tell application "Keychain Scripting" to set thePassword to the password of thekey
try
do shell script "sudo -k" --timeout our sudo ability so the following test is valid
do shell script "ls /private/var/root/" password thePassword with administrator privileges
do shell script "sudo -k" --timeout our sudo ability for security
set validKey to true
on error
set thePassword to text returned of ¬
(display dialog "The Administrator password stored by “" & theAppName & "” is no longer valid. Please enter your valid Administrator password.
NOTE: the password will be displayed in plain text, but will be securly stored in your keychain." default answer "" with icon caution)
set changedPassword to true
set validKey to false
end try
end repeat
if changedPassword then tell application "Keychain Scripting" to ¬
set the password of thekey to thePassword
return {thekey}
end getKey
The Script End------
How to setup this script with Entourage X coming soon.
Initial script post 12-17-03
December 17th, 2003, 08:53 PM
