Shell Script Arguments

[chris610]

Hi Folks,

I would like to use mdfind to find PDF files with a search text. The search for the text works without problems, but if I then add further arguments (only pdf files) and put them in ' ... ' Keyboard Maerstro does not accept this.

The following instruction is executed successfully in the terminal, not in KeyboardMaerstro:
mdfind 'kMDItemTextContent == $KMVAR_searchTXT" && kMDItemFSName == "*.pdf"'

this on execution successfully in Keyboard Maestro:
mdfind kMDItemTextContent == $KMVAR_searchTXT"

I am very grateful for any suggestions.

[JMichaelTX]

The following instruction is executed successfully in the terminal, not in KeyboardMaerstro:
mdfind 'kMDItemTextContent == $KMVAR_searchTXT" && kMDItemFSName == "*.pdf"'

As both @ccstone and @peternlewis have noted, using quotes in a complex shell script is tricky. Take a look at this macro and see if it will help solve your problem. Sorry I don't have time right now to debug your specific use case.

How To Use KM Variables in Shell Script to Get List of Files in All SubFolders?

Hey JM, Quoting in the shell gets rather complicated especially when you have embedded quotes within quotes. Keep in mind that single quotes are literal, but double-quotes allow shell-expansion to take place. Here's what I had to do to make this little adventure work neatly (see macro below). Note the difference between this read command and the previous one you've seen. It uses a shell function called a here-document. (The text after << is an arbitrary word that makes sense to the user a…

If that does not do it, the look at other posts from this search:
https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/search?q=mdfind

[chris610]

Hi michael,

thank you for the quick feedback. Unfortunately I can't get it to work with the template. I now take a detour and let the commands be inserted and executed in a terminal. Not elegant but it works.

Regards.