VBA Shell function in Office 2011 for Mac

The Shell() VBA function on Mac appears to require the full path as an HFS-style path (with colons instead of slashes). It also doesn't appear to accept arguments as it does on Windows (reporting a 'Path not found' error if any arguments are added).

The MacScript() VBA function can also be used: MacScript("do shell script ""command"""). This is likely to be the simplest option and what I would suggest doing. The downside is that it has quite a lot of overhead (100-200ms per call).

Another alternative is the system() function from the standard C library:

Private Declare Function system Lib "libc.dylib" (ByVal command As String) As LongSub RunSafari()    Dim result As Long    result = system("open -a Safari --args http://www.google.com")    Debug.Print Str(result)End Sub

See http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009604499/functions/system.html for documentation.

system() only returns the exit code. If you want to get the output from the command, you could use popen().

Private Declare Function popen Lib "libc.dylib" (ByVal command As String, ByVal mode As String) As LongPrivate Declare Function pclose Lib "libc.dylib" (ByVal file As Long) As LongPrivate Declare Function fread Lib "libc.dylib" (ByVal outStr As String, ByVal size As Long, ByVal items As Long, ByVal stream As Long) As LongPrivate Declare Function feof Lib "libc.dylib" (ByVal file As Long) As LongFunction execShell(command As String, Optional ByRef exitCode As Long) As String    Dim file As Long    file = popen(command, "r")    If file = 0 Then        Exit Function    End If    While feof(file) = 0        Dim chunk As String        Dim read As Long        chunk = Space(50)        read = fread(chunk, 1, Len(chunk) - 1, file)        If read > 0 Then            chunk = Left$(chunk, read)            execShell = execShell & chunk        End If    Wend    exitCode = pclose(file)End FunctionSub RunTest()    Dim result As String    Dim exitCode As Long    result = execShell("echo Hello World", exitCode)    Debug.Print "Result: """ & result & """"    Debug.Print "Exit Code: " & str(exitCode)End Sub

Note that several of the Long arguments in the above example are pointers, so will have to be changed if a 64bit version of Mac Word is ever released.

Hopefully you've found the answer by now but you just need the full path:

RetVal = Shell("Macintosh HD:Applications:Calculator.app:" & _              "Contents:MacOS:Calculator", vbNormalFocus)

Another example is something like:

RetVal = Shell("Macintosh HD:Users:brownj:Documents:" & _              "rnaseq:IGV_2.0.14:igv.sh", vbNormalFocus)

Another problem presents exactly like this: permissions cause your script to fail due to differences between the AppleScript environment and your user's bash environment. This Q&A helped me figure this out. To get my script to work, I had to resolve some path and permissions issues (not the script itself, but things touched by the script).

Here is my recommendation, which hopefully gives better insight during your troubleshooting than the meaningless Excel errors I was seeing before I used AppleScript Editor:

1. Use AppleScript Editor to confirm that the script actually works as whatever user and with whatever environment variable happens to be used:

   1. In Spotlight, start typing "applescript editor" until it shows up and then click on it
   2. Create a new AppleScript Editor file

   3. Type your simple script into the new file without doubling the double quotes - mine reads

      do shell script "parseCsvAndOpen.sh"

   4. Hit the "Run" button for your script
   5. Track down any issues, make changes, and repeat hitting the "Run" button until you get it to execute from within AppleScript Editor
      • The good news here is that you have a narrower search if you need to go back to StackOverflow or Google for help ;-)

2. now copy your simple script from AppleScript Editor to your vba and confirm it still works

   1. I was able to just double my double quotes and put it in double quotes after the MacScript code:

      MacScript "do shell script ""parseCsvAndOpen.sh"""

      That is indeed one, two, and then three double-quote characters! (presumably escaping the double quotes)