[HOWTO] - Show Unix path in Finder window or Terminal Window?

[dkearford]

I made this applescript droplet earlier today to do something similar - its abit sloppy and comes with no guarantees, but it should work.

on open (daFile)

-- define variables
set daFile to daFile as string
set daPath to "" as string
set badChar to {space, "'", "\"", "*", "?", "[",} -- etc
set i to 1

-- check each char of daFile
repeat while i <= (the length of daFile)
set j to 1
set daChar to character i of daFile

-- file or directory?
if daChar is ":" then
set daChar to "/" -- directory
else if daChar is "/" then -- file
set daChar to ":"
end if

-- test against list of bad chars
repeat while j <= the number of items in badChar
if daChar is (item j of badChar) then
set daChar to "\\" & (item j of badChar)
end if
set j to j + 1
end repeat

-- update daPath
set daPath to daPath & daChar

-- loop
set i to i + 1
end repeat

-- name of startup vol
tell application "Finder"
set startupvol to the startup disk as string
end tell

-- name of disk of daFile
set thisDisk to the first word of daFile & ":"

-- reconstruct daPath
if thisDisk is startupvol then
set i to 1
repeat while character i of daPath is not "/"
set i to i + 1
end repeat

set daPath to (characters (i) thru (the length of daPath) of daPath) as text
else
set daPath to "/volumes/" & daPath
end if

-- put daPath on clipboard
set the clipboard to daPath
end open

hope this is of some use

[dkearford]

how did you find that out? it would have saved me writing the droplet in my lunch break...

[PowerPC]

Scruffy, but where do your put the script so that you don't have to type "set prompt =" every time you start a terminal session ?

I also couldn't find any "bash_local" file to edit

Thanks.

[michaelsanford]

PowerPC, you put the set prompt = "" command into your ~/.login file, which is read every time you start a shell.
As with most things unix, if you don't have that file, just make one

This is what my (~/.login) looks like:

set prompt = "[helios:%~]%# "
date;uptime;ifconfig ppp0 | grep inet | awk '{print $2}';mysqladmin ping;

Which gives me a nice printout like this

      Welcome to Helios
// AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY //

Thu Feb 20 21:54:33 EST 2003
 9:54PM  up 7 days,  8:54, 3 users, load averages: 0.37, 0.07, 0.03
64.230.12.222
mysqld is alive
[helios:~]%

Incidentally the bit above the date about authorized people only is contained in /etc/motd (Message Of The Day) and is a non-executable text that's displayed to all users who start a shell.

[symphonix]

And here's a tip that many would find painfully obvious, but it is useful nonetheless.

If you drag a file from the finder onto an open terminal window, it enters the file's full path at the prompt.

So, you could type P-I-C-O-Space and drag a config file onto the window, and the command line would read:

pico /path/to/configfile

[PowerPC]

Thanks, Michael!

Actually I put it into /etc/csh.cshrc and it works! But I forget to mention it on macosx.com. Hope it's not too late ) Thanks, again