wrapper around 'softwareupdate -l' to silence it when no updates exist

checksoftwareupdate

#!/bin/sh
# 
# wrapper around 'softwareupdate -l' to silence it when no updates exist
# -- Mark Norman Francis <[email protected]>

OUTPUT=`mktemp /tmp/checksoftup.XXXXX`
ERRORS=`mktemp /tmp/checksoftup.XXXXX`

# capture output to separate files
softwareupdate -l  >$OUTPUT  2>$ERRORS

# "No new software" counts as an _error_ to Apple...
no_new_software=`grep 'No new software' $ERRORS`
 appear_offline=`grep 'offline' $ERRORS`

if [ -z "$no_new_software" -a -z "$appear_offline" ]; then
    type growlnotify &>/dev/null
    
    # 'tail +4' skips the pointless copyright notice
    if [ 0 = $? ]; then
        tail +4 $OUTPUT \
            | growlnotify -s -a 'Software Update' -t 'Software Update' \
              2>/dev/null
    else
        tail +4 $OUTPUT
    fi
fi

rm -f $OUTPUT $ERRORS
exit 0