macOS *please* can someone help me do this script?

[scottfenner]

hi,
i've asked this question on a couple of other forums and have had no replies whatsover, but i bet this is just so simple to someone who knows how to use scripts and cron jobs.

i've never used applescript before, and as far as i know, this script i'm about to link to is the only way to get growl notification with time machine.

also, there's something below the script that tells you to put the script in "some folder" and register a cronjob. i don't understand that either.

also, further down, in the comments, someone says that the cron job should be a launchagent because the cron is depricated. also no idea!

is all of this as hard as it sounds or is it actually quite simple? it'd be great if someone could maybe talk me through doing this step-by-step.

here's the link, anyway http://tinyurl.com/5qdne5

 

[ChrisA]

also, there's something below the script that tells you to put the script in "some folder" and register a cronjob. i don't understand that either.

"some folder" is easy. Every file has to be in some folder. Put it where ever you like.

To read about "cron", fire up a terminal window and type "man cron" (no quotes) and the manual page for the cron program will appear.. Almost every program has a manual page, even the man program itself. Try "man man".

One neat thing about terminal. When ever you need to type in a filename you can drop in the file's icon and the full path name to the file get pasted into terminal as if you typed it.

 

[scottfenner]

thanks for replying chris, but i still have no idea how to register a cron job. i really do need this dumbing down as much as possible

also, i forgot to mention there is something about a .plist file in an edit of the post that includes the script. how do i get this involved too?

 

[Sayer]

In the Library folder in your Home folder is a folder named LaunchAgents and it functions a lot like cron of old only better (and more mac-like).

So. Copy the AppleScript and paste it into a new text file (text edit or whatever else you have to make text files). Save it to the Public folder in your home folder, name it "tm.scpt" to match the example on the web site.

Copy the plist text and paste it into a new text file, save it as "com.apple.tm-notification.plist" in the LaunchAgents folder in your Library folder in your home folder.

Make sure you change [user] to be your account name on Mac OS X.

You can then open the Terminal.app in the Utilities folder and type:

launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.tm-notification.plist

Or you can log out and log back in or restart to get the LaunchAgent plist file to be loaded and start running.

 

[scottfenner]

thanks for your reply,
i've done everything you said, and when i open terminal and type launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.tm-notification.plist it says 'propertyList is NULL, no plist returned, nothing found to load.'