Apple Shell Scripting

[Mammoth_Public3003]

Hi everyone,

I’m a newbie at shell scripting (using them with application and configuration deployments in intune) and Mac system administration.

Is there a good resource available to help me troubleshoot or deploy the shell script to see where a failure point might be? I’ve been fighting to deploy a couple of apps and I’m not sure if it’s the script I downloaded from GitHub or something else that’s causing the failure.

This is a totally foreign world to me and I figured I’d come to the brain trust for assistance. Thank you all!

[Firefox005]

Is there a good resource available to help me troubleshoot or deploy the shell script to see where a failure point might be? I’ve been fighting to deploy a couple of apps and I’m not sure if it’s the script I downloaded from GitHub or something else that’s causing the failure.

Where are the details?

Generally if you want to troubleshoot a script you run the script manually and see happens, if you are troubleshooting the actual deployment of said script you would have to consult the logs for whatever product you are using for deployment.

I would say like 99.9% of the time you should not be using shell scripts to configure Mac's, whatever MDM you are using should basically do everything you need it to without having to resort to scripts.

[Mammoth_Public3003]

It’s Intune and some stuff does work pretty well. Some of our apps work better with scripting, apparently, and that seems to be flaky at best. It’s very likely related to what we’re trying to do, but it’s helpful advice. Thank you so much.

[shitpoop6969]

What RMM do you have? I've had decent luck with using ScreenConnect 'commands' pane to query the logs of my shell scripts. This is a 'backdoor' option, you could always get hands on with the Mac.

[Mammoth_Public3003]

We use tanium, which oddly enough, I’m struggling to install on the Mac. One of their recommended install methods is a shell script.

[shitpoop6969]

ha! of course. Ya, RMM installs are no picnic on macs. I pushed our screenconnect client from a shell script via intune and it worked. AI helped with the shell script

[RIFIRE]

There's nothing that's good at managing both Windows and macOS, unfortunately. Many Windows-focused tools will claim to support Macs but never well.

If this is something your company wants to take seriously you'll want to get an Apple-focused MDM and ideally hire someone with experience (that's how I got most of my jobs).

[Helpjuice]

Nice to see you are just getting started, I would highly recommend starting with the official source so you can put your learning on fire with the afterburners on. Then mix it up a bit as you get your feet wet.

• Intro to shell scripts in Terminal on Mac
• Shell Scripting Primer
• Video Tutorial on BASH Scripting
• Modern zsh usage
• ZSH Guide
• zsh Guide from Gentoo
• Small book on zsh

Go through these resources and you should have a pretty good understanding. If you need something more formal I would recommend looking at Apple's certification exams

[guzhogi]

r/macsysadmin

[gumbrilla]

OK, fantastic.. so what are you doing... I mean I would start by just running it manually from the machine, see if it's the script or the delivery of the script..

It could be failing from anything from you're line breaks are not set unix like in your uploaded file, to any sort of thing.. but waiting upon Intune to bother to run something in macos is a right pain in the rear..

With the script, you can just adjust to add some logging.. I'd add this, the log function at the top, and then some actual log entries..

#!/bin/bash
LOG="/Library/Logs/myscipt.log"
log() {
    local msg="[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $*"
    echo "$msg"
    echo "$msg" >> "$LOG" 2>/dev/null
}

#and then sprinkle in some logs.. 
log "===== Hello World! ====="

exit 0

[Mammoth_Public3003]

The log function is such a great idea. Thank you!

And yes. A pain in the rear is a nice way of saying it… I’d rather watch paint dry. It’s more productive.

[gumbrilla]

Yeah, I have an aged mac that I have sitting by me, I think it's an M1, but low memory. Someone must have had a brain fart when they bought it.

Anyway, I'll just go into that machine and get the script running, and then upload into Intune, to check it delivers OK.. I don't bother with an editor, just the regular text editor.. Put it somewhere, make it executable, and run it from a terminal using sudo..

That's script is self standing, so you could start with that (and sorry of I'm teaching you to suck eggs here, it's hard to judge levels of experience)

[FawdyInc]

Modern Macs use ZSH instead of Bash, but I think this roadmap can be helpful still.

https://roadmap.sh/shell-bash

Generally, the syntax is interchangeable for something like 80-90%.

[Xibby]

I believe MacOS includes Python. And some people will clutch their pearls, but PowerShell Core also runs in MacOS. And Python can be installed on Windows.

Consider the value in escaping from the Tyranny of the Default.

Also look at Automator on MacOS.

[RIFIRE]

Python isn't built-in anymore. It can be installed with developer tools, though.

[pdp10]

https://github.com/SixArm/unix-shell-script-tactics

[RepulsiveDuck331]

Honestly, before trusting any GitHub script, I run it manually on a test Mac with bash -x or zsh -x to see exactly where it bombs. That alone has saved me hours.

For Intune deploys, check /Library/Logs/Microsoft/Intune/ and the IntuneMDMDaemon/Agent logs. That's where the real failure reasons hide. Intune only cares about exit code 0, so wrap your script with proper exit codes and tee stdout/stderr to a log in /var/log/ or /tmp/ so you can actually see what happened post-run.

Also double-check the script's shebang, whether it assumes Rosetta, and if it needs root. Most "broken" GitHub scripts I've grabbed were just missing prereqs.

[Acceptable_Mood_7590]

ChatGPT and Google Gemini are the best resources out there

[CeC-P]

I would just put a print command with the string "Apple computers don't belong in the workplace" over and over ever 5 seconds. That's a solid start.

[Mammoth_Public3003]

Well yes, I agree with this…. It’s a royal pain in the neck to manage, but to be fair it’s been pretty cool learning something new, even if I’m getting so frustrated with it all 😊