H2 start a graphical program from command line?

[James Bond]

I run a fantastic little freeware called "Son of Weather Grok 3.2" from www.stimpsoft.com to monitor weather around the world.

each hour I have a cron job that copies the data/output to a file where I consolidate all the readings for later analysis.

Sometimes the graphical front end crashes (a bug) and then I get no readings until I notice that it has gone and restart it.

What I would like to do is add a cron job to check for the program being there (easy with ps and grep).....but how can I start a grahical program from the command line?

I think of applescript (perhaps) but I know nothing about it!

 

[davidbrit2]

Starting a graphical app from the command line is no problem. As you may know, the applications are actually folders with a .app extension. The actual executable is buried inside of it. The path should usually be:

Appname.app/Contents/MacOS/Appname

You might have to poke around inside the app to look for it if this isn't a totally standard location, but it probably is. Once you isolate the desired file, just run it. You might want to append an ampersand (&) after the command to run it in the background and continue whatever script it's being launched from.

 

[ITz The MaN]

Just type in "open /path/appname.app"

 

[davidbrit2]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. <g>

 

[rharder]

Can you get the process ID with the open command?

-Rob

 

[ITz The MaN]

No... open is only for opening files (as far as I know), but if you want the PID, just use the 'top' command