What is an alternative to a BAT file on Mac?

Solution 1:

Being pretty unfamiliar with batch files, I'm not sure of the functionality available, but there are two main scripting methods on OS X which are similar:

• AppleScript

  AppleScript is a scripting language which lets you control OS X and many applications.

  AppleScripts are generally easy to understand and write whilst providing a lot of advanced functionality. Here is an AppleScript which counts the files in the Applications folder:

  tell application "Finder"
      if folder "Applications" of startup disk exists then
          return count files in folder "Applications" of startup disk
      else
          return 0
      end if
  end tell
  

  For more information about AppleScript, see:

  • https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/applescript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/AppleScriptX.html

• Shell script

  A shell script is a script for a Unix shell.

  The equivalent shell script to the above AppleScript is the following:

  if [ -d "/Applications/" ]; then
      ls -1 "/Applications/" | wc -l
  fi
  

  As you're probably going to use bash, this is a good guide to get you started:

  • http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/