Here is the output,

Code:

My-iMac:rsync_backup my_user$ ls -l
total 392
-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 my_user  staff   88056 Mar  5 20:22 data_backup_icon.png
-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 my_user  staff  102078 Mar  5 20:24 external_backup_icon.png
-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 my_user  staff    1314 Mar  6 22:26 rsync_data_backup.sh
-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 my_user  staff    1794 Mar  5 23:11 rsync_external_backup.sh

Code:

My-iMac:rsync_backup my_user$ head rsync_data_backup.sh 
#!/bin/bash

I also did which just to make sure that bash was were it was expected.

Code:

My-iMac:rsync_backup my_user$ which bash
/bin/bash

How would MacOS know to read the first line and use that to know that the file is a script that should be run in bash. Is that the default behavior for any file with a .sh extension or does Finder read the first line of every file it opens to look for #!? I believe that you can set the "open with" preference in the file Get Info window as well as in finder.

As far as I can tell with what you are saying, my script file should run in Terminal by double clicking without having to do anything special. I think the problem may be that the first application I opened the file with was the Atom editor and possibly that application did something to set the OS to open .sh files in the editor. My guess is it must be something like that. It runs now as it should.

I was told that I can get the terminal window to close when the script finished by setting a preference in Terminal preferences. It would make sense that this is a MacOS Terminal configuration issue and not an issue with the script or the way the script and window are created.

The backup is running now and I will check on the preferences when the backup is finished.

LMHmedchem