Shell Scripts -Questions

[jtk]

Originally Posted by Gorisan

What extension is used for Shell scripts, as in the ones SuperDuper can use?

There is no specific extension for shell scripts, so none is required. However, ".sh" is pretty common and will be recognized.

How does one test scripts from the "file" format.

Not quite sure what you mean by "scripts from the 'file' format," but if you're talking about shell scripts, open the Terminal app (located in Applications->Utilities), make sure the script you want to test is executable (use chmod u+x my-script-name), then execute it from the command line (./my-script-name, assuming it's in your current working directory).

If you're talking about the .dset files, then they're XML files, so they can't be executed directly. Perhaps others can help you determine better how to test them.

Is there a 101, for dummies, Introduction for complete Windoze morons for said scripts? ;o)

Yes, many. Any Linux site will most likely have tutorials on shell scripting. Google is your friend. By default, current versions of Mac OS X use the Bourne-Again Shell (bash), so that would be a good place to start. An information-dense but less user-friendly source is the man page (type man bash or man sh in the Terminal app).

Applescript is completely different right!?!

Yes, absolutely correct.

I am trying to setup something similar to [...]

Hmm... May I ask why? Are you trying to set up unattended backups? If so, there is a way to tell the system not to unmount volumes when you log out.

Otherwise, the examples on the page you linked to are pretty straight-forward. You'll just need to copy the text (without the line numbers) of the final version into a file and change the "Backup" (in the awk command -- and be sure to note the two points at the end of that page) to reflect whatever you've named your target volume, then make it executable and test it. It might be a good idea, however, to log the errors instead of pitching them into /dev/null, at least until it's debugged.