KM can't find shell commands

Questions & Suggestions
1

mpc pause

is a command I can use to pause music playing through mpd. I installed mpc with homebrew.

I’m trying to make a hotkey execute it.

/var/folders/gq/6w_g87qd7b14pk6bx8mr41xw0000gn/T/Keyboard-Maestro-Script-3D1C27A2-713E-4503-9DA6-8FB277A92673: line 1: mpc: command not found

is the output I get. If I make a .sh file with mpc pause it gives me this:

/Users/Jnny/Desktop/pause.sh: line 3: mpc: command not found

Why?

  • Thanks
1 Like
2

The environment provided by the KM “Execute Shell Script” is quite different from the Terminal app.
See action:Execute a Shell Script [Keyboard Maestro Wiki]

3

As the search paths in your Terminal environment are not automatically exported to the shell environment created for an KM Execute Shell Script action, you need to either:

  • specify the full path to the mpc executable, or
  • export the path to the folder containing the executable – see the last couple of posts in this thread, for example: Path to excutables in shell scripts
4

Another possibility – which is only mentioned very briefly in this Wiki article – is to set the ENV_PATH variable.

You can do this in KM Editor > Preferences > Variables. For example:

Since all KM variables are global, this will affect every shell script action.

Advantages:

  • Reduces clutter in the shell script actions
  • While still being separated from your Terminal environment, it’s easy to keep the paths in sync with it
  • If you add a new preferred path (or change the order), all script actions adopt it automatically
  • You can always override it by specifying a full path in an action

Disadvantages:

  • Less portable when distributing macros (but portability is always limited when command line tools are involved)

--> Concerning the Wiki:

I found it mentioned also in the Troubleshooting article, but the variable name is not spelled correctly there (“ENVPATH” instead of “ENV_PATH”).

4 Likes
5

Excellent points, @Tom. I will update the Wiki later today to add your discussion, and to correct the spelling error.

1 Like
6

works perfect. thanks.