Question

If no Terminal app is open, the following code opens TWO Terminal windows. Why is it doing this? I only want one window to open.

If only one Terminal window is open, then the following code opens only ONE additional window.

NSAppleScript* terminal = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:
                           [NSString stringWithFormat:
                                @"tell application \"Terminal\"\n"
                                @"    activate\n"
                                @"    do script \"echo %@\"\n"
                                @"    tell the front window\n"
                                @"    set title displays shell path to false\n"
                                @"    set title displays custom title to true\n"
                                @"    set custom title to \"My session! %@\"\n"
                                @"    end tell\n"
                                @"end tell", name, name]];

[terminal executeAndReturnError:nil];

Answer 1

The do script command, as you’ve written it, will always run in a new window. If you’d like it to run in a specific window, use the following format: do script (...) in (window...). Terminal’s in syntax can also handle running scripts in tabs.

For instance, if you’d like to run a script in the frontmost window, you can write do script "echo Hello, world!" in front window.

---

Edit: To follow up, if you’d like to always run the script in a window (create a new one if none are open), you can use the following AppleScript:

tell application "Terminal"
    activate
    if length of (get every window) is 0 then
        tell application "System Events" to tell process "Terminal" to click menu item "New Window" of menu "File" of menu bar 1
    end if
    do script "echo Hello, world!" in front window
end tell

Of course, you’ll need to correctly escape it in an NSArray, but that I’m sure you can do.