script

If you ever want to create a Unix shell script that you can give to someone else so they can double-click it and run it through the Mac OS X Finder, all you have to do is (a) name the file with the ".command" extension and (b) make it executable. So, just name your Mac/Unix script like this:

ShowProcesses.command

Then make it executable, like this:

chmod +x ShowProcesses.command

You can also leave out the usual #!/bin/sh part on the first line.

Scala script FAQ: How do I set the CLASSPATH in a Scala shell script?

If you need to set the CLASSPATH when executing a Scala script, the following example code at the top of your script should do the trick for you:

#!/bin/sh
exec scala -classpath "lib/htmlcleaner-2.2.jar:lib/scalaemail_2.9.1-1.0.jar:lib/stockutils_2.9.1-1.0.jar" "$0" "$@"
!#

As you can see from that code, I'm adding three jar files to my classpath at the beginning of my Scala shell script.

Perl getopts FAQ: Can you demonstrate how to use the getopts function? (Also written as, "Can you demonstrate how to read Perl command line arguments?")

Ruby FAQ: How do I read command line arguments in a Ruby script (Ruby command line args)?

To read command line args in a Ruby script, use the special Ruby array ARGV to get the information you need. Here are a few examples.

1) Getting the number of command line args

To get the number of command line arguments passed in to your Ruby script, check ARGV.length, like this:

Linux shell script FAQ: How can I deal with spaces (blank spaces) in my input data when I'm writing a shell script for loop or while loop?

I was just working on a Linux shell script, and ran into the ages-old problem of handling data that has spaces (space characters) in it. I run into this any time I try to read a data file with blank spaces in it, or when I run into files and directories with spaces in their names. Whenever I try to work this data like this in a shell script for loop, the spaces always ruin what I'm trying to accomplish.