macOS need programming help: Cocoa and NSTask

[Oats]

I am trying to write a simple Cocoa / Objective-C app which allows the user to specify a Folder and a search term, and then searches in all files in the folder for the search term. Essentially, I am trying to make a GUI interface for the "grep" UNIX command and it's results.

I am trying to use NSTask to create the shell command and return the results, but this is not working for whatever reason. I am able to get my search terms and directory strings just fine, but I get this message in my Run Log:

grep: /Users/oats/Desktop/wordpress_22/*: No such file or directory

This is the NSTask setup:

	NSTask *task;
    task = [[NSTask alloc] init];
    [task setLaunchPath: @"/usr/bin/grep"];

    NSArray *arguments;
    arguments = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"-l", @"-r", searchText, filepathstr, nil];
    [task setArguments: arguments];

Then I launch the task and try to read the results:

	NSPipe *pipe;
    pipe = [NSPipe pipe];
    [task setStandardOutput: pipe];

    NSFileHandle *file;
    file = [pipe fileHandleForReading];

    [task launch];

    NSData *data;
    data = [file readDataToEndOfFile];

This command works fine in the terminal, so why doesn't NSTask return anything? I've been a programmer for a long time (C++, Java), but Objective-C and Cocoa are rather new to me. Thanks!

 

[whooleytoo]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried using system() using the same parameters (in a C string), to see if that works?

 

[fimac]

use system()

grep: /Users/oats/Desktop/wordpress_22/*: No such file or directory

The shell (e.g. bash) is responsible for expanding wildcards, therefore grep is correctly reporting that the file "/Users/oats/Desktop/wordpress_22/*" does not exist.

Using the system() call will work, since the string argument is passed to the shell for processing:

#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
  (void)system("grep unsigned *.c");
  return 0;
}

 

[semaja2]

The shell (e.g. bash) is responsible for expanding wildcards, therefore grep is correctly reporting that the file "/Users/oats/Desktop/wordpress_22/*" does not exist.

Using the system() call will work, since the string argument is passed to the shell for processing:

#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
  (void)system("grep unsigned *.c");
  return 0;
}

or you can use the /bin/sh etc as your command and just tell it to run grep or whatever, thats how i do my NSTasks

 

[Oats]

The shell (e.g. bash) is responsible for expanding wildcards, therefore grep is correctly reporting that the file "/Users/oats/Desktop/wordpress_22/*" does not exist.

or you can use the /bin/sh etc as your command and just tell it to run grep or whatever, thats how i do my NSTasks

thank you all! i decided to go the route of using /bin/sh to execute my task, and that works great! much thanks!

now i just have to figure out array controllers so i can display the results

 

[AzMacNoob]

^^

EDIT - *removed* it was already said.