I'm new to Keyboard Maestro, I'm been used to windows and AutoHotKeys.
I know I'm probally missing something stupid but can someone help me. It's a simple shell script that uses the printer I want with all the settings I want but I can't get the file variable to work in the script.
Only thing I can get to work is the script will print the file path plain text but doesn't print the file if I run the script in terminal with file path it works fine so I know it has to be something I'm doing wrong with passing the file path using the variable.
Thank you for trying to help like I said I'm new to this system didn't know about the help log there isn't any good tutorials I have found on YouTube to learn this system.
Error log is showing
2024-03-28 20:21:29 Action 13599616 failed: Execute a Shell Script failed with script error: lp: Error - unable to access “” - No such file or directory
2024-03-28 20:21:29 Execute a Shell Script failed with script error: lp: Error - unable to access “” - No such file or directory. Macro “Printer” cancelled (while executing Execute Shell Script).
Okay so I'm at home now so having to use a different printer than what I use at work and its now passing the file path but still giving a error
2024-03-28 20:29:28 Execute macro “Printer” from trigger Anything is added to folder “~/Desktop/For Printing” (ignoring partial files)
2024-03-28 20:29:28 Action 13599616 failed: Execute a Shell Script failed with script error: lp: Error - unable to access “/Users/nathanclark/Downloads/1569154-2.pdf” - No such file or directory
2024-03-28 20:29:28 Execute a Shell Script failed with script error: lp: Error - unable to access “/Users/nathanclark/Downloads/1569154-2.pdf” - No such file or directory. Macro “Printer” cancelled (while executing Execute Shell Script).
One debugging approach you might try is to use the Display Text action to show you the command line you're constructing and compare that to the two that work.
I can't imagine that Keyboard Maestro doesn't have permission to access folders on your Desktop but you might want to ensure it has Files and Folders access in System Settings > Privacy & Security (or some such, depending on your version of macOS).
Probelm I have now is it only works for 1 file. Example if I choose 3 files it will print 3 copies of only one of the documents so that tells me it knows I dropped 3 files so how would I pass the 1 variable at a time to the script?
You have been super helpful I've been working on this for days and with your help it at least it is working now
$1 is the shell's built-in for "the first argument passed to this script" ($2 is the second argument, etc). For example:
iMac:Desktop nigel$ echo Hello World
Hello World
iMac:Desktop nigel$
iMac:Desktop nigel$ cat 2words2lines.sh
#!/bin/bash
# Prints each of two arguments on its own line
echo $1
echo $2
iMac:Desktop nigel$
iMac:Desktop nigel$ ./2words2lines.sh Hello World
Hello
World
iMac:Desktop nigel$
That's why it worked later, when you directly replaced $1 with $KMVAR_FileName.
That's a combination of a) timing and b) you using a Global variable for Filename. The triggers happen for each file individually, but very quickly, firing up an instance of your macro for each file dropped:
Instance 1 sets FileName to the first file's path
Instance 2 sets FileName to the second file's path
Instance 3 set FileName to the third file's path
But it takes longer than that for the Instance 1's shell script action to instantiate and run -- by the time it is ready, Instance 3 has set FileName to its own file's path -- so that's what Instance 1 uses.
"Broken demo" showing the values. Re-point the "Folder" trigger to a folder of your choosing then drop three files into the folder and compare the resulting dialogs.
You can read more about variables and "scope" in this part of the KM manual. But the short version is "use Local variables wherever possible, saving the other types for when you want to share data between instances/macros or require that their value persists beyond the life of the instance".
