How to create an executable for a shell script in Ubuntu?

Question

I have written a simple Shell script named decBright.sh that decreases my screen brightness by a bit every time I run it. However, I do not want to open the terminal and execute bash decBright.sh every single time.

Instead, I want to create some kind of executable file that I can place on my Desktop, which will run my script when it is double-clicked. One answer I found here on the askUbuntu forums did not work for me.

Is there some other way to do it?

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)

also you may be interested bind to the script a hotkey, e.g. with every press will decrease the brightness... read this — clt60
– clt60, Commented Oct 5, 2014 at 15:14
Why did the suggested mechanism from the Ubuntu forums not work? What desktop are you running? — mikea
– mikea, Commented Oct 6, 2014 at 13:53

Cyrus · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-05 14:14:15Z

2

An executable in linux is a file with the executable bit on. Thus you simply modify it with chmod:

chmod +x decBright.sh

Then you can run it with:

./decbright.sh

You can also run it by double-clicking in many graphical linux distributions.

You also better provide a "Shebang": the first line of your script should specify the "interpreter":

#!/bin/bash

Or any other interpreter (at the first line of your file).

edited Oct 5, 2014 at 14:14

Cyrus

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answered Oct 5, 2014 at 14:10

willeM_ Van Onsem

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4 Comments

Akshay Damle Over a year ago

I gave the execute permissions using chmod and also provided the shebang on the first line as you said. Yet, when I double click it, it opens up with gedit :/

Basile Starynkevitch Over a year ago

Please avoid the bad habit of double-clicking (i.e. only using the mouse and the GUI)! The best way to run any script or any executable is thru a command line in a terminal. And the behavior with double-clicking is probably window manager specific.

willeM_ Van Onsem Over a year ago

@AkshayDamle: can you write the output of ls -l on your question.

willeM_ Van Onsem Over a year ago

@BasileStarynkevitch: True, as a programmer,always use the terminal. But from a user's perspective...

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