CODEWITHSUNDEEP
swiftmacosshell
Tom
Tom

Reputation: 169

Run shell commands from a menu bar item

I followed a very helpful guide to create a simple Menu Bar app which has two actions. However, I would like 2 shell commands to be carried out when one of these actions is selected.

The current function in Xcode is:

func constructMenu() {
let menu = NSMenu()

menu.addItem(NSMenuItem(title: "ON", action: #selector(AppDelegate.printQuote(_:)), keyEquivalent: "S"))
menu.addItem(NSMenuItem(title: "OFF", action: #selector(AppDelegate.printQuote(_:)), keyEquivalent: "R"))
menu.addItem(NSMenuItem.separator())
menu.addItem(NSMenuItem(title: "Quit SMAC", action: #selector(NSApplication.terminate(_:)), keyEquivalent: "q"))

statusItem.menu = menu

This shows three options as predicted when I click the menu bar:

Screenshot of the menu bar options

However, this is where my Cocoa knowledge proves insufficient. I would like the following shell scripts to be carried out when I click the ON action:

chmod u+x ~/Desktop/Mask.sh
~/Desktop/Mask.sh

And finally to carry out the following two bash scripts when the OFF button is pressed:

chmod u+x ~/Desktop/Unmask.sh
~/Desktop/Unmask.sh

Upvotes: 2

Views: 897

Answers (1)

l'L'l
l'L'l

Reputation: 47169

The following two classes should be relevant: Process and NSUserUnixTask.

Process
An object representing a subprocess of the current process.
Using the Process class, your program can run another program as a subprocess and can monitor that program’s execution. A Process object creates a separate executable entity; it differs from Thread in that it does not share memory space with the process that creates it.

This would be what you would use to chmod your script for example.

↳ Foundation | Streams, Sockets, and Ports | Process

NSUserUnixTask
An object that executes unix applications.
The NSUserUnixTask class is intended to run unix applications, typically a shell script, from your application. It is intended to execute user-supplied scripts, and will execute them outside of the application's sandbox, if any.

This is what could be used to execute your shell script.

↳ Foundation | Processes and Threads | NSUserUnixTask

Upvotes: 1

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