Scripting 8.2. The sendpraat program

Sendpraat can be a Windows console or Unix (MacOS, Linux) terminal program for sending messages to a running Praat program.

## Command line syntax

`sendpraat [timeOut] program message ...
`

For the meaning of the arguments, see the sendpraat subroutine.

## Example 1: killing a program

`sendpraat 0 praat Quit
`

Causes the program Praat to quit (gracefully), because Quit is a fixed command in one of its menus. On Unix, `sendpraat` returns immediately; on Windows, you leave out the `timeOut` argument.

## Example 2: playing a sound file in reverse

`sendpraat 1000 praat "Read from file... hello.wav" "Play reverse" "Remove"
`

This works because Play reverse is an action command that becomes available in the dynamic menu of the Praat program when a Sound is selected. On Unix, `sendpraat` will allow Praat at most 1000 seconds to perform this.

Each line is a separate argument. Lines that contain spaces should be put inside double quotes.

## Example 3: drawing

`sendpraat als "for i from 1 to 5" "Draw circle: 0.5, 0.5, i" "endfor"
`

This causes the program Als to draw five concentric circles into the Picture window.

Example 4: running a large script

`sendpraat praat "runScript: \"doAll.praat\", 20"
`

This causes the program Praat to execute the script doAll.praat with an argument of "20".

## How to download

You can download the sendpraat program via `https://praat.org/sendpraat.html` or from `https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/sendpraat.html`.

### Links to this page

- Scripting
- Scripting 8. Controlling Praat from another program