Launching Audacity by opening a file doesn't import the file

Post by **kozikowski** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:10 am

We would occasionally have problems like this at the university television department where I did part time work. There's nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't work. Sometimes I found it valuable to stop intently gazing at the problem and look elsewhere.

Have you ever done Disk Verify and Repair Permissions?

Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Select Your System Drive > Verify Disk & Repair Permissions.

Koz

Todd Merrell · Post by **Todd Merrell** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:17 am

Gale and Koz:

That's the dilemma I've been having with the command line. When I use both bash and zsh and try the Audacity-supported (actually, really standard) syntax of "application filename.mp3", I end up with "audacity: command not found". That's why I tried the open command, which did work. The -a argument selects the application without regard to which directory I'm in, so I don't have to make the pathname to the application (with the extension) explicit.

I've been looking at some output from Instruments (the dtrace utility in my Developer folder), and getting some interesting, if confounding results. I was about to do it again to show you explicitly what's going on, but now I'm getting a prompt to enter my password to allow Instruments to make changes, which I wasn't getting before, and I've made no changes to any permissions, nor to Instruments. Arrrgh! I'll get back to you on that.

Post by **kozikowski** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 5:41 am

Audacity 1.3.12
Intel MacBook Pro
OS-X 10.5.8

Code: Select all

frances-2:Desktop koz$ 
frances-2:Desktop koz$ pwd
/Users/koz/Desktop
frances-2:Desktop koz$ ls -l
total 79080
-rw-r--r--   1 koz  staff  40488541 Sep  7 15:04 20110907dailiesCompressed.mp3
drwxr-xr-x   5 koz  staff       170 Jul 11 14:12 Accounts
drwxr-xr-x  21 koz  staff       714 Jul 21 16:16 Notes-Sounds-Pix
drwxr-xr-x  14 koz  staff       476 Jul 15 21:25 Purchases
drwxr-xr-x   9 koz  staff       306 May 12 10:14 VC
drwxr-xr-x  34 koz  staff      1156 Aug 25 17:26 desktops
drwxr-xr-x  10 koz  staff       340 Sep 10 18:35 soundtests
frances-2:Desktop koz$ 
frances-2:Desktop koz$ Audacity.app 20110907dailiesCompressed.mp3 
-bash: Audacity.app: command not found
frances-2:Desktop koz$ open -a Audacity 20110907dailiesCompressed.mp3 
frances-2:Desktop koz$ open -a Audacity.app 20110907dailiesCompressed.mp3 
frances-2:Desktop koz$

The first one fails, but the last two succeed.
Koz

Post by **kozikowski** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:10 am

Audacity 1.3.13
Intel MacMini
OS-X 10.6.8

Code: Select all

jimmy:Desktop koz$ pwd
/Users/koz/Desktop
jimmy:Desktop koz$ ls -l
total 5624
drwxr-xr-x  19 koz  staff      646 Jun 16 22:13 Accounts
drwxr-xr-x   5 koz  staff      170 Sep  6 20:00 Desktops
drwxr-xr-x  16 koz  staff      544 Aug 14 21:02 FCCLicenses
-rw-r--r--   1 koz  staff  1627634 Sep  8 23:38 SMPTE_WIPE_QT.mov
[email protected]  1 koz  staff    32375 Sep  8 19:47 Screen shot 2011-09-08 at 7.46.57 PM.png
[email protected]  1 koz  staff     2122 Sep  7 18:36 audacityTest.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 koz  staff  1210892 Mar 20 11:41 piano2.wav
drwxr-xr-x  15 koz  staff      510 Sep 10 22:27 pix-clips
drwxr-xr-x  38 koz  staff     1292 Sep  6 20:55 purchases

jimmy:Desktop koz$ Audacity piano2.wav
-bash: Audacity: command not found
jimmy:Desktop koz$ Audacity.app piano2.wav
-bash: Audacity.app: command not found

jimmy:Desktop koz$ open -a Audacity piano2.wav
jimmy:Desktop koz$ open -a Audacity.app piano2.wav
jimmy:Desktop koz$

The first two fail, the last two succeed.

I do have another oddity. This machine has two QuickTime Players. The New and Improved and almost entirely useless QuickTime Player X installed as a normal application and the Secret Aural Teachings method of installing the older "real" QuickTime Player 7 as a Utility, not an application to allow them to coexist.

If I click on the sound file and it tries to open in QuickTime 7, the application launches and immediately crashes. If I use Open With and QuickTime X, the work opens correctly.

I can drag the sound file to the QuickTime 7 application icon in the Dock and the work will open and play.
I can drag the sound file to the Audacity 1.3.13 icon in the Dock and it will open and play.

@Todd
Do you get the Compressed File warning just after Audacity opens? Do you get the warning when it fails?
"When importing uncompressed audio files....."

Post by **kozikowski** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:17 am

now I'm getting a prompt to enter my password

There are conditions where OS-X will "know" who you are unless you wait too long to respond. Then OS-X will require you to reauthorize yourself. The 'sudo periodic' commands work like this. If you run them but wait too long between actions, it intentionally forgets who you are.

Koz

Post by **kozikowski** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:23 am

@Todd
Do you get the Compressed File warning just after Audacity opens? Do you get the warning when it fails?
"When importing uncompressed audio files....."

If I Close the import message without authorizing it, I get the same conditions you do. Audacity launches without the work.
Koz

Gale Andrews · Post by **Gale Andrews** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:05 am

kozikowski wrote:
@Todd
Do you get the Compressed File warning just after Audacity opens? Do you get the warning when it fails?
"When importing uncompressed audio files....."
If I Close the import message without authorizing it, I get the same conditions you do. Audacity launches without the work.

Yes and same would happen if you pressed "Cancel"; but that would also happen if you imported the file after Audacity was open and then cancelled the Uncompressed File warning. If that warning appears, Help > Show Log should already show that the file open "succeeded", but Todd's log does not show that.

So the one repeatable thing we found so far is that Audacity's command-line file open doesn't work on Mac. Does the standard "application <filename>" syntax work for other apps on Mac such as VLC or iTunes? Does it work even if you are not in the app's directory?

If an app is installed on Ubuntu then the call to the app works whatever the current directory of the command prompt.

Post by **kozikowski** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 5:29 am

I can't get either QuickTime or iTunes to work "straight" from the command line. I didn't check the open -a thing.

This may just not be high on the list of desired talents. OS-X was the first Mac operating system that had a terminal -- and, coincidentally, one of the main reasons many of our engineers have Macs now. So there was never a powerful history of doing useful work from the command line. OS-X is not grown-up DOS.

Koz

Gale Andrews · Post by **Gale Andrews** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:40 pm

OK, so "application <filename>" not finding the app is assumed to be a Mac issue.

@Koz, when you do

Code: Select all

open -a Audacity 20110907dailiesCompressed.mp3

is that always when Audacity is quit - in other words for you, that always brings the file in as well as launching Audacity? And that always works whatever directory you are in, or only if Audacity is in your working directory?

Gale

Post by **kozikowski** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:30 pm

I need to test all that.
Koz

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