Applescript–execute multi line code

Question

I have some apple script code:

tell application "System Events"
    key code 97
end tell

How do i write the code as a osascript -e command in Terminal? Everytime I try using \n or the such, I get errors. Sorry if I'm not being specific enough.

Answer 1

You have a couple of options:

1. Pass each line of the AppleScript code as a separate -e option:

   osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'key code 97' -e 'end tell'
   

2. Pipe the AppleScript code to osascript's STDIN:

   osascript <<END
     tell application "System Events"
       key code 97
     end tell
   END
   

Oh, and you can also save AppleScript code as an executable shell script. Just add #!/usr/bin/osascript at the top of the code and save it as a plain text file:

#!/usr/bin/osascript

tell application "System Events"
  key code 97
end tell