simple "run command" from finder

[Fragger]

Although I hate to use an analogy to windows... the start menu key + R presents a very nice dialogue through which you can run any DOS command. (perhaps the only convenient feature i've found yet.) Yes you can run a command from within terminal, but it's not very convenient to be in that application. (Also it builds up windows like no other.)

In short, is there any built in way to run a shell command from any application, and possibly have it not trigger a new window to open in terminal. (Or at least close it when the command finishes.) I suppose you could maybe have an apple script with a dialogue linked to a key command, but I'm not really proficient with apple script...

thanks,
graham

[michaelsanford]

Let's get more specific: what exactly do you want to do? But that I mean, why do you want to run commands from any application, what kinds of commands do you want to run? They must be non-interactive commands if you don't want any windows open, right ?

The Terminal is the place to run commands, and it only opens one window.

As for AppleScript, running any shell script is simple:

try
   do shell script "ps -auwx"
end try

[Zammy-Sam]

Hey Graham

You have to get launchbar!

[scruffy]

In the terminal app, there's (cmd)(shift)(n) to run a command without opening a whole shell. You can also right click (or control click) on terminal's dock icon and that option is available. Of course, terminal.app already needs to be running...

[Fragger]

thanks guys, all three methods will accomplish basically anything I would want to do... what I would really want to do is have a keystroke call terminal's run command dialogue, but it doesn't seem to be in the apple script dictionary. Maybe I'll see if I can record it anyways later... but for now, off to class.

thanks again,
graham

[Browni]

if your on 10.3 then you will be able to assign a system wide key stroke in the keyboard pref plane.

[Fragger]

it turns out that launch bar does basically everything I could possibly need (and quite a bit I'd never actually use.) It's really a great little piece of software.

Thanks everyone,
graham