On 08Mar2008 21:48, Bill Hernandez <ms@mac-specialist.com> wrote: [...snip...] | I should have used an existing shell script | | # shell script : bh_open | # ------------------------------------------------ | #!/bin/bash | | if [ -a /Applications/BBEdit.app ]; then | open -a /Applications/BBEdit.app $1 | elif [ -a ~/Applications/BBEdit.app ]; then | open -a ~/Applications/BBEdit.app $1 | else | open -a /Applications/TextEdit.app $1 | fi | # ------------------------------------------------ [...snip...] Surely this does not work? "-a" is "and". Do you mean "-f" or "-x" perhaps? Personally I'd have just looped over the choices. And you should really quote the $1, otherwise a filename with spaces in it will bite you one day: #!/bin/sh for app in /Applications/BBEdit.app \ $HOME/Applications/BBEdit.app \ /Applications/TextEdit.app do [ -x "$app" ] && exec open -a "$app" "$1" done echo "$0: can't find something with which to open $1" >&2 exit 1 Cheers, -- Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ Everybody talks about the weather, but does anybody *do* anything about it? - perry@dsinc.com (Jim Perry)