In windows, I perform, Send to > Desktop (create shortcut) on the script file, which lives in /cygwin/usr/local/bin. I then modify the properties of the shortcut to,

Code:

Target: C:\cygwin\bin\sh.exe /usr/local/bin/data_backup.sh
Start in: C:\cygwin\bin
Run: Normal Window

When I want to run the backup, I double-click on the desktop shortcut. I also have an entry for the shortcut in Task Scheduler so that it runs every night. I could schedule with cygwin cron, but the windows scheduler is already running anyway and I didn't see the need to start a second daemon for just one task. This doesn't always work in windows 7 for some reason. The task appears in the schedule as active, but the script never runs. I have a second shortcut that runs a backup to an external device. For that script, I have to enter the drive letter of the external device after it is attached. Both scripts have an option to shutdown the computer after the backup is finished.

The process is similar in MacOS. I create an alias of the script in the script directory. For the alias file, I right click > open with > other. Then I select "All Applications" from the drop down menu (instead of the default "Recommended Applications", and then select "Terminal", "always open with", and then "open". This opens the script via the alias and runs it, which is annoying. I have to comment out most of the script first, or sit through the backup. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to indicate "open with" without actually opening.

Once this is done, I move the alias to the desktop and change the icon to something appropriate. I can then run the script by double clicking on the icon. MacOS doesn't seem to have any kind of launcher like most Linux distros. Launchers had vanished from Linux in some places as well, which is the type of thing I just can't understand. Why remove a useful functionality and force users to launch applications the way some programmer somewhere thinks they should be launched? What possible harm could it do to just leave it for those who want to use it?

How was the window in which the backup script runs on macOS created?[/QUOTE]I'm not really sure about this. I presume that the OS opens the terminal and runs the script in the terminal. In windows, there are some window options in the shortcut properties. There is nothing like this in MacOS. Since MacOS is using an alias, my guess it that Finder opens the terminal window.

I got an email from a friend who uses MacOS much more often than I do and he said that I may be able to adjust the preferences for Terminal so that windows close when the terminal completes whatever process it it running. I will check on that and report back.

LMHmedchem