is it possible to make a running script see if it has been changed/updated WITHOUT using a subshell command?
and if it has been updated, start the new script and kill the old one.
previously I used a separate file for it, so when I created the file, the script detected it. But if you're running multiply instances of the script this can be pretty messy
if [[ -f /mnt/g/update.tt ]]; then script.sh 2 && kill $$ ;fi
This function would be placed inside a loop that's taking about .8 second, that's why no subshell is important.
The best and easiest way to auto-update scripts is to compare the scripts modification stamp against an temporary file, which you create in the beginning of the script.
scriptupdate=$(mktemp)
Just make sure you only run the mktemp once, and outside any loops, otherwise the script will update the control-file over and over again, making it newer than the script..
Then you just need to compare the script file with the temporary file to see if the script is never, then restart the script
if [[ $0 -nt $scriptupdate ]]; then
exec $0 $#
fi
Exec replaces the running script with the new one
$0 is the full path and name of the current script
$# passes along the arguments to the new run.
Perhaps:
age_of_script=$(( $(date +%s) - $(stat -c %Y "$0") ))
running_time=$SECONDS
if (( running_time > age_of_script )); then
# script has been updated since I started running
exec "$0" 2
fi
As that other guy commented, use exec to replace the current process.
With bash 4.3+, you may be able to use:
bash_root=${BASH%/bin/bash}
if [[ -d "$bash_root/lib/bash" ]]; then
enable -f "$bash_root/lib/bash/finfo" finfo
file_age() { echo $(( $(printf '%(%s)T' -1) - $(finfo -m "$1") )); }
else
file_age() { echo $(( $(printf '%(%s)T' -1) - $(stat -c %Y "$1") )); }
fi
age_of_script=$(file_age "$0")
Still uses subshells for the command substitutions, but if your bash build has the loadable modules you may not need to use any external tools
For posterity, a quick benchmark for stat vs loadable finfo
$ file_age() { echo $(( $(printf '%(%s)T' -1) - $(stat -c %Y "$1") )); }
$ time for ((i=0; i<1000; i++)); do x=$(file_age /etc/hosts); done
real 0m14.750s
user 0m2.288s
sys 0m4.139s
$ file_age() { echo $(( $(printf '%(%s)T' -1) - $(finfo -m "$1") )); }
$ time for ((i=0; i<1000; i++)); do x=$(file_age /etc/hosts); done
real 0m7.162s
user 0m1.148s
sys 0m2.085s
You can create a reference file, then keep checking if the current script is newer than that reference:
#!/bin/bash
reference=$(mktemp)
thisscript="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
trap 'rm "$reference"' EXIT
printf '\nStarting\n'
while true
do
if [[ "$thisscript" -nt "$reference" ]]
then
rm "$reference"
exec "$thisscript"
fi
printf "beep boop "
read -t 0.8
done
Related
I want to run a shell script when a specific file or directory changes.
How can I easily do that?
You may try entr tool to run arbitrary commands when files change. Example for files:
$ ls -d * | entr sh -c 'make && make test'
or:
$ ls *.css *.html | entr reload-browser Firefox
or print Changed! when file file.txt is saved:
$ echo file.txt | entr echo Changed!
For directories use -d, but you've to use it in the loop, e.g.:
while true; do find path/ | entr -d echo Changed; done
or:
while true; do ls path/* | entr -pd echo Changed; done
I use this script to run a build script on changes in a directory tree:
#!/bin/bash -eu
DIRECTORY_TO_OBSERVE="js" # might want to change this
function block_for_change {
inotifywait --recursive \
--event modify,move,create,delete \
$DIRECTORY_TO_OBSERVE
}
BUILD_SCRIPT=build.sh # might want to change this too
function build {
bash $BUILD_SCRIPT
}
build
while block_for_change; do
build
done
Uses inotify-tools. Check inotifywait man page for how to customize what triggers the build.
Use inotify-tools.
The linked Github page has a number of examples; here is one of them.
#!/bin/sh
cwd=$(pwd)
inotifywait -mr \
--timefmt '%d/%m/%y %H:%M' --format '%T %w %f' \
-e close_write /tmp/test |
while read -r date time dir file; do
changed_abs=${dir}${file}
changed_rel=${changed_abs#"$cwd"/}
rsync --progress --relative -vrae 'ssh -p 22' "$changed_rel" \
usernam#example.com:/backup/root/dir && \
echo "At ${time} on ${date}, file $changed_abs was backed up via rsync" >&2
done
How about this script? Uses the 'stat' command to get the access time of a file and runs a command whenever there is a change in the access time (whenever file is accessed).
#!/bin/bash
while true
do
ATIME=`stat -c %Z /path/to/the/file.txt`
if [[ "$ATIME" != "$LTIME" ]]
then
echo "RUN COMMNAD"
LTIME=$ATIME
fi
sleep 5
done
Check out the kernel filesystem monitor daemon
http://freshmeat.net/projects/kfsmd/
Here's a how-to:
http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/124903
As mentioned, inotify-tools is probably the best idea. However, if you're programming for fun, you can try and earn hacker XPs by judicious application of tail -f .
Just for debugging purposes, when I write a shell script and want it to run on save, I use this:
#!/bin/bash
file="$1" # Name of file
command="${*:2}" # Command to run on change (takes rest of line)
t1="$(ls --full-time $file | awk '{ print $7 }')" # Get latest save time
while true
do
t2="$(ls --full-time $file | awk '{ print $7 }')" # Compare to new save time
if [ "$t1" != "$t2" ];then t1="$t2"; $command; fi # If different, run command
sleep 0.5
done
Run it as
run_on_save.sh myfile.sh ./myfile.sh arg1 arg2 arg3
Edit: Above tested on Ubuntu 12.04, for Mac OS, change the ls lines to:
"$(ls -lT $file | awk '{ print $8 }')"
Add the following to ~/.bashrc:
function react() {
if [ -z "$1" -o -z "$2" ]; then
echo "Usage: react <[./]file-to-watch> <[./]action> <to> <take>"
elif ! [ -r "$1" ]; then
echo "Can't react to $1, permission denied"
else
TARGET="$1"; shift
ACTION="$#"
while sleep 1; do
ATIME=$(stat -c %Z "$TARGET")
if [[ "$ATIME" != "${LTIME:-}" ]]; then
LTIME=$ATIME
$ACTION
fi
done
fi
}
Quick solution for fish shell users who wanna track a single file:
while true
set old_hash $hash
set hash (md5sum file_to_watch)
if [ $hash != $old_hash ]
command_to_execute
end
sleep 1
end
replace md5sum with md5 if on macos.
Here's another option: http://fileschanged.sourceforge.net/
See especially "example 4", which "monitors a directory and archives any new or changed files".
inotifywait can satisfy you.
Here is a common sample for it:
inotifywait -m /path -e create -e moved_to -e close_write | # -m is --monitor, -e is --event
while read path action file; do
if [[ "$file" =~ .*rst$ ]]; then # if suffix is '.rst'
echo ${path}${file} ': '${action} # execute your command
echo 'make html'
make html
fi
done
Suppose you want to run rake test every time you modify any ruby file ("*.rb") in app/ and test/ directories.
Just get the most recent modified time of the watched files and check every second if that time has changed.
Script code
t_ref=0; while true; do t_curr=$(find app/ test/ -type f -name "*.rb" -printf "%T+\n" | sort -r | head -n1); if [ $t_ref != $t_curr ]; then t_ref=$t_curr; rake test; fi; sleep 1; done
Benefits
You can run any command or script when the file changes.
It works between any filesystem and virtual machines (shared folders on VirtualBox using Vagrant); so you can use a text editor on your Macbook and run the tests on Ubuntu (virtual box), for example.
Warning
The -printf option works well on Ubuntu, but do not work in MacOS.
I want to run a shell script when a specific file or directory changes.
How can I easily do that?
You may try entr tool to run arbitrary commands when files change. Example for files:
$ ls -d * | entr sh -c 'make && make test'
or:
$ ls *.css *.html | entr reload-browser Firefox
or print Changed! when file file.txt is saved:
$ echo file.txt | entr echo Changed!
For directories use -d, but you've to use it in the loop, e.g.:
while true; do find path/ | entr -d echo Changed; done
or:
while true; do ls path/* | entr -pd echo Changed; done
I use this script to run a build script on changes in a directory tree:
#!/bin/bash -eu
DIRECTORY_TO_OBSERVE="js" # might want to change this
function block_for_change {
inotifywait --recursive \
--event modify,move,create,delete \
$DIRECTORY_TO_OBSERVE
}
BUILD_SCRIPT=build.sh # might want to change this too
function build {
bash $BUILD_SCRIPT
}
build
while block_for_change; do
build
done
Uses inotify-tools. Check inotifywait man page for how to customize what triggers the build.
Use inotify-tools.
The linked Github page has a number of examples; here is one of them.
#!/bin/sh
cwd=$(pwd)
inotifywait -mr \
--timefmt '%d/%m/%y %H:%M' --format '%T %w %f' \
-e close_write /tmp/test |
while read -r date time dir file; do
changed_abs=${dir}${file}
changed_rel=${changed_abs#"$cwd"/}
rsync --progress --relative -vrae 'ssh -p 22' "$changed_rel" \
usernam#example.com:/backup/root/dir && \
echo "At ${time} on ${date}, file $changed_abs was backed up via rsync" >&2
done
How about this script? Uses the 'stat' command to get the access time of a file and runs a command whenever there is a change in the access time (whenever file is accessed).
#!/bin/bash
while true
do
ATIME=`stat -c %Z /path/to/the/file.txt`
if [[ "$ATIME" != "$LTIME" ]]
then
echo "RUN COMMNAD"
LTIME=$ATIME
fi
sleep 5
done
Check out the kernel filesystem monitor daemon
http://freshmeat.net/projects/kfsmd/
Here's a how-to:
http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/124903
As mentioned, inotify-tools is probably the best idea. However, if you're programming for fun, you can try and earn hacker XPs by judicious application of tail -f .
Just for debugging purposes, when I write a shell script and want it to run on save, I use this:
#!/bin/bash
file="$1" # Name of file
command="${*:2}" # Command to run on change (takes rest of line)
t1="$(ls --full-time $file | awk '{ print $7 }')" # Get latest save time
while true
do
t2="$(ls --full-time $file | awk '{ print $7 }')" # Compare to new save time
if [ "$t1" != "$t2" ];then t1="$t2"; $command; fi # If different, run command
sleep 0.5
done
Run it as
run_on_save.sh myfile.sh ./myfile.sh arg1 arg2 arg3
Edit: Above tested on Ubuntu 12.04, for Mac OS, change the ls lines to:
"$(ls -lT $file | awk '{ print $8 }')"
Add the following to ~/.bashrc:
function react() {
if [ -z "$1" -o -z "$2" ]; then
echo "Usage: react <[./]file-to-watch> <[./]action> <to> <take>"
elif ! [ -r "$1" ]; then
echo "Can't react to $1, permission denied"
else
TARGET="$1"; shift
ACTION="$#"
while sleep 1; do
ATIME=$(stat -c %Z "$TARGET")
if [[ "$ATIME" != "${LTIME:-}" ]]; then
LTIME=$ATIME
$ACTION
fi
done
fi
}
Quick solution for fish shell users who wanna track a single file:
while true
set old_hash $hash
set hash (md5sum file_to_watch)
if [ $hash != $old_hash ]
command_to_execute
end
sleep 1
end
replace md5sum with md5 if on macos.
Here's another option: http://fileschanged.sourceforge.net/
See especially "example 4", which "monitors a directory and archives any new or changed files".
inotifywait can satisfy you.
Here is a common sample for it:
inotifywait -m /path -e create -e moved_to -e close_write | # -m is --monitor, -e is --event
while read path action file; do
if [[ "$file" =~ .*rst$ ]]; then # if suffix is '.rst'
echo ${path}${file} ': '${action} # execute your command
echo 'make html'
make html
fi
done
Suppose you want to run rake test every time you modify any ruby file ("*.rb") in app/ and test/ directories.
Just get the most recent modified time of the watched files and check every second if that time has changed.
Script code
t_ref=0; while true; do t_curr=$(find app/ test/ -type f -name "*.rb" -printf "%T+\n" | sort -r | head -n1); if [ $t_ref != $t_curr ]; then t_ref=$t_curr; rake test; fi; sleep 1; done
Benefits
You can run any command or script when the file changes.
It works between any filesystem and virtual machines (shared folders on VirtualBox using Vagrant); so you can use a text editor on your Macbook and run the tests on Ubuntu (virtual box), for example.
Warning
The -printf option works well on Ubuntu, but do not work in MacOS.
I am using:
inotifywait -m -q -e close_write --format %f . | while IFS= read -r file; do
cp -p "$file" /path/to/other/directory
done
to monitor a folder for file completion, then moving it to another folder.
Files are made in pairs but at separate times, ie File1_001.txt is made at 3pm, File1_002.txt is made at 9pm. I want to monitor for the completion of BOTH files, then launch a script.
script.sh File1_001.txt File1_002.txt
So I need to have another inotifywait command or a different utility, that can also identify that both files are present and completed, then start the script.
Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
I found a Linux box with inotifywait installed on it, so now I understand what it does and how it works. :)
Is this what you need?
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" = "-v" ]; then
Verbose=true
shift
else
Verbose=false
fi
file1="$1"
file2="$2"
$Verbose && printf 'Waiting for %s and %s.\n' "$file1" "$file2"
got1=false
got2=false
while read thisfile; do
$Verbose && printf ">> $thisfile"
case "$thisfile" in
$file1) got1=true; $Verbose && printf "... it's a match!" ;;
$file2) got2=true; $Verbose && printf "... it's a match!" ;;
esac
$Verbose && printf '\n'
if $got1 && $got2; then
$Verbose && printf 'Saw both files.\n'
break
fi
done < <(inotifywait -m -q -e close_write --format %f .)
This runs a single inotifywait but parses its output in a loop that exits when both files on the command line ($1 and $2) are seen to have been updated.
Note that if one file is closed and then later is reopened while the second file is closed, this script obviously will not detect the open file. But that may not be a concern in your use case.
Note that there are many ways of building a solution -- I've shown you only one.
As arguments to my script there are some file paths. Those can, of course, be relative (or contain ~). But for the functions I've written I need paths that are absolute, but do not have their symlinks resolved.
Is there any function for this?
MY_PATH=$(readlink -f $YOUR_ARG) will resolve relative paths like "./" and "../"
Consider this as well (source):
#!/bin/bash
dir_resolve()
{
cd "$1" 2>/dev/null || return $? # cd to desired directory; if fail, quell any error messages but return exit status
echo "`pwd -P`" # output full, link-resolved path
}
# sample usage
if abs_path="`dir_resolve \"$1\"`"
then
echo "$1 resolves to $abs_path"
echo pwd: `pwd` # function forks subshell, so working directory outside function is not affected
else
echo "Could not reach $1"
fi
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/programming-9/bash-script-return-full-path-and-filename-680368/page3.html has the following
function abspath {
if [[ -d "$1" ]]
then
pushd "$1" >/dev/null
pwd
popd >/dev/null
elif [[ -e "$1" ]]
then
pushd "$(dirname "$1")" >/dev/null
echo "$(pwd)/$(basename "$1")"
popd >/dev/null
else
echo "$1" does not exist! >&2
return 127
fi
}
which uses pushd/popd to get into a state where pwd is useful.
Simple one-liner:
function abs_path {
(cd "$(dirname '$1')" &>/dev/null && printf "%s/%s" "$PWD" "${1##*/}")
}
Usage:
function do_something {
local file=$(abs_path $1)
printf "Absolute path to %s: %s\n" "$1" "$file"
}
do_something $HOME/path/to/some\ where
I am still trying to figure out how I can get it to be completely oblivious to whether the path exists or not (so it can be used when creating files as well).
This does the trick for me on OS X: $(cd SOME_DIRECTORY 2> /dev/null && pwd -P)
It should work anywhere. The other solutions seemed too complicated.
If your OS supports it, use:
realpath -s "./some/dir"
And using it in a variable:
some_path="$(realpath -s "./some/dir")"
Which will expand your path. Tested on Ubuntu and CentOS, might not be available on yours. Some recommend readlink, but documentation for readlink says:
Note realpath(1) is the preferred command to use for canonicalization functionality.
In case people wonder why I quote my variables, it's to preserve spaces in paths. Like doing realpath some path will give you two different path results. But realpath "some path" will return one. Quoted parameters ftw :)
Thanks to NyanPasu64 for the heads up. You'll want to add -s if you don't want it to follow the symlinks.
Use readlink -f <relative-path>, e.g.
export FULLPATH=`readlink -f ./`
Maybe this is more readable and does not use a subshell and does not change the current dir:
dir_resolve() {
local dir=`dirname "$1"`
local file=`basename "$1"`
pushd "$dir" &>/dev/null || return $? # On error, return error code
echo "`pwd -P`/$file" # output full, link-resolved path with filename
popd &> /dev/null
}
on OS X you can use
stat -f "%N" YOUR_PATH
on linux you might have realpath executable. if not, the following might work (not only for links):
readlink -c YOUR_PATH
There's another method. You can use python embedding in bash script to resolve a relative path.
abs_path=$(python3 - <<END
from pathlib import Path
path = str(Path("$1").expanduser().resolve())
print(path)
END
)
self edit, I just noticed the OP said he's not looking for symlinks resolved:
"But for the functions I've written I need paths that are absolute, but do not have their symlinks resolved."
So guess this isn't so apropos to his question after all. :)
Since I've run into this many times over the years, and this time around I needed a pure bash portable version that I could use on OSX and linux, I went ahead and wrote one:
The living version lives here:
https://github.com/keen99/shell-functions/tree/master/resolve_path
but for the sake of SO, here's the current version (I feel it's well tested..but I'm open to feedback!)
Might not be difficult to make it work for plain bourne shell (sh), but I didn't try...I like $FUNCNAME too much. :)
#!/bin/bash
resolve_path() {
#I'm bash only, please!
# usage: resolve_path <a file or directory>
# follows symlinks and relative paths, returns a full real path
#
local owd="$PWD"
#echo "$FUNCNAME for $1" >&2
local opath="$1"
local npath=""
local obase=$(basename "$opath")
local odir=$(dirname "$opath")
if [[ -L "$opath" ]]
then
#it's a link.
#file or directory, we want to cd into it's dir
cd $odir
#then extract where the link points.
npath=$(readlink "$obase")
#have to -L BEFORE we -f, because -f includes -L :(
if [[ -L $npath ]]
then
#the link points to another symlink, so go follow that.
resolve_path "$npath"
#and finish out early, we're done.
return $?
#done
elif [[ -f $npath ]]
#the link points to a file.
then
#get the dir for the new file
nbase=$(basename $npath)
npath=$(dirname $npath)
cd "$npath"
ndir=$(pwd -P)
retval=0
#done
elif [[ -d $npath ]]
then
#the link points to a directory.
cd "$npath"
ndir=$(pwd -P)
retval=0
#done
else
echo "$FUNCNAME: ERROR: unknown condition inside link!!" >&2
echo "opath [[ $opath ]]" >&2
echo "npath [[ $npath ]]" >&2
return 1
fi
else
if ! [[ -e "$opath" ]]
then
echo "$FUNCNAME: $opath: No such file or directory" >&2
return 1
#and break early
elif [[ -d "$opath" ]]
then
cd "$opath"
ndir=$(pwd -P)
retval=0
#done
elif [[ -f "$opath" ]]
then
cd $odir
ndir=$(pwd -P)
nbase=$(basename "$opath")
retval=0
#done
else
echo "$FUNCNAME: ERROR: unknown condition outside link!!" >&2
echo "opath [[ $opath ]]" >&2
return 1
fi
fi
#now assemble our output
echo -n "$ndir"
if [[ "x${nbase:=}" != "x" ]]
then
echo "/$nbase"
else
echo
fi
#now return to where we were
cd "$owd"
return $retval
}
here's a classic example, thanks to brew:
%% ls -l `which mvn`
lrwxr-xr-x 1 draistrick 502 29 Dec 17 10:50 /usr/local/bin/mvn# -> ../Cellar/maven/3.2.3/bin/mvn
use this function and it will return the -real- path:
%% cat test.sh
#!/bin/bash
. resolve_path.inc
echo
echo "relative symlinked path:"
which mvn
echo
echo "and the real path:"
resolve_path `which mvn`
%% test.sh
relative symlinked path:
/usr/local/bin/mvn
and the real path:
/usr/local/Cellar/maven/3.2.3/libexec/bin/mvn
Do you have to use bash exclusively? I needed to do this and got fed up with differences between Linux and OS X. So I used PHP for a quick and dirty solution.
#!/usr/bin/php <-- or wherever
<?php
{
if($argc!=2)
exit();
$fname=$argv[1];
if(!file_exists($fname))
exit();
echo realpath($fname)."\n";
}
?>
I know it's not a very elegant solution but it does work.
On my terminal in Ubuntu, I often run programs which keep running for a long time. And since there are a lot of these programs, I keep forgetting which terminal is for which program, unless I tab through all of those. So I wanted to find a way to update my terminal title to the program name, whenever I run a command. I don't want to do it manually.
I use gnome-terminal, but answer shouldn't really depend on that. Basically, If I'm able to run a second command, then I can simply use gconftool command to update the title. So I was hoping to find a way to capture the command in bash and update the title after every command. How do I do that?
I have some answers for you :) You're right that it shouldn't matter that you're using gnome-terminal, but it does matter what command shell you're using. This is a lot easier in zsh, but in what follows I'm going to assume you're using bash, and that it's a fairly recent version (> 3.1).
First of all:
Which environment variable would
contain the current 'command'?
There is an environment variable which has more-or-less what you want - $BASH_COMMAND. There's only one small hitch, which is that it will only show you the last command in a pipe. I'm not 100% sure what it will do with combinations of subshells, either :)
So I was hoping to find a way to
capture the command in bash and update
the title after every command.
I've been thinking about this, and now that I understand what you want to do, I realized the real problem is that you need to update the title before every command. This means that the $PROMPT_COMMAND and $PS1 environment variables are out as possible solutions, since they're only executed after the command returns.
In bash, the only way I can think of to achieve what you want is to (ab)use the DEBUG SIGNAL. So here's a solution -- stick this at the end of your .bashrc:
trap 'printf "\033]0;%s\007" "${BASH_COMMAND//[^[:print:]]/}"' DEBUG
To get around the problem with pipes, I've been messing around with this:
function settitle () {
export PREV_COMMAND=${PREV_COMMAND}${#}
printf "\033]0;%s\007" "${BASH_COMMAND//[^[:print:]]/}"
export PREV_COMMAND=${PREV_COMMAND}' | '
}
export PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND}';export PREV_COMMAND=""'
trap 'settitle "$BASH_COMMAND"' DEBUG
but I don't promise it's perfect!
Try this:
trap 'echo -ne "\033]2;$(history 1 | sed "s/^[ ]*[0-9]*[ ]*//g")\007"' DEBUG
Thanks to the history 1 it works even with complicated expressions like:
true && (false); echo $? | cat
For which approaches relying on $BASH_COMMAND or $# fail. For example simon's displays:
true | echo $? | cat
Thanks to Gilles and simon for providing inspiration.
I see what stoutie is trying to do, except it's a lot more work than needed. And doesn't cause all sorts of other potentially bad things that can occur as a result of redefining 'cd' and putting in all of that testing just to change directories. Bash has built in support for most of this.
You can put this in your .bashrc anywhere after you set your current PS1 prompt (this way it just prepends it)
# If this is an xterm set the titlebar to user#host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
PS1="\[\e]0;\u#\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
;;
*)
;;
esac
The OP asked for bash, but others might be interested to learn that (as mentioned above) this is indeed a lot easier using the zsh shell. Example:
# Set window title to command just before running it.
preexec() { printf "\x1b]0;%s\x07" "$1"; }
# Set window title to current working directory after returning from a command.
precmd() { printf "\x1b]0;%s\x07" "$PWD" }
In preexec, $1 contains the command as typed (requires shell history to be enabled, which seems to be a fair assumption), $2 the expanded command (shell aliases etc.) and $3 the "very expanded" command (shell function bodies). (more)
I'm doing something like this, to show my pwd in the title, which could be modified to do whatever you want to do with the title:
function title { echo -en "\033]2;$1\007"; }
function cd { dir=$1; if [ -z "$dir" ]; then dir=~; fi; builtin cd "$dir" && title `pwd`; }
I just threw this in my ~/.bash_aliases.
Update
I ran into strange bugs with my original answer. I ended up picking apart the default Ubuntu PS1 and breaking it into parts only to realize one of the parts was the title:
# simple prompt
COLOR_YELLOW_BOLD="\[\033[1;33m\]"
COLOR_DEFAULT="\[\033[0m\]"
TITLE="\[\e]0;\u#\h:\w\a\]"
PROMPT="\w\n$ "
HUH="${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}"
PS1="${COLOR_YELLOW_BOLD}${TITLE}${HUH}${PROMPT}${COLOR_DEFAULT}"
Without breaking into variables, it would look like this:
PS1="\[\033[1;33m\]\[\e]0;\u#\h:\w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\w\n$ \[\033[0m\]"
I have tested three method, all is OK, use any one for your pleasure.
export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]2;$(history 1 | sed "s/^[ ]*[0-9]*[ ]*//g")\007"'
trap 'echo -ne "\033]2;$(history 1 | sed "s/^[ ]*[0-9]*[ ]*//g")\007"' DEBUG
trap 'echo -ne "\e]0;"; echo -n $BASH_COMMAND; echo -ne "\a"' DEBUG
please note if use $BASH_COMMAND, it don't recognize bash alias, and use PROMPT_COMMAND show finished command, but use trap show running command.
Based on the the need to auto position putty windows I have modified my /etc/bash.bashrc file on a Debian/Ubuntu system. I have posted the full contents for completeness but the relevant bit to starts on the # Display command ... comment line.
# System-wide .bashrc file for interactive bash(1) shells.
# To enable the settings / commands in this file for login shells as well,
# this file has to be sourced in /etc/profile.
# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return
# check the window size after each command and, if necessary,
# update the values of LINES and COLUMNS.
shopt -s checkwinsize
# set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
if [ -z "${debian_chroot:-}" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then
debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot)
fi
# set a fancy prompt (non-color, overwrite the one in /etc/profile)
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u#\h:\w\$ '
# Display command run in title which allows us to distinguish Kitty/Putty
# windows and re-position easily using AutoSizer window utility. Based on a
# post here: http://mg.pov.lt/blog/bash-prompt.html
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
# Show the currently running command in the terminal title:
# http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/xterm-titles-with-bash.html
show_command_in_title_bar()
{
case "$BASH_COMMAND" in
*\033]0*)
# The command is trying to set the title bar as well;
# this is most likely the execution of $PROMPT_COMMAND.
# In any case nested escapes confuse the terminal, so don't
# output them.
;;
*)
echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}#${HOSTNAME}: ${BASH_COMMAND}\007"
;;
esac
}
trap show_command_in_title_bar DEBUG
;;
*)
;;
esac
# Commented out, don't overwrite xterm -T "title" -n "icontitle" by default.
# If this is an xterm set the title to user#host:dir
#case "$TERM" in
#xterm*|rxvt*)
# PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}#${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD}\007"'
# ;;
#*)
# ;;
#esac
# enable bash completion in interactive shells
if ! shopt -oq posix; then
if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]; then
. /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
. /etc/bash_completion
fi
fi
# if the command-not-found package is installed, use it
if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found -o -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then
function command_not_found_handle {
# check because c-n-f could've been removed in the meantime
if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found ]; then
/usr/bin/python /usr/lib/command-not-found -- "$1"
return $?
elif [ -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then
/usr/bin/python /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found -- "$1"
return $?
else
printf "%s: command not found\n" "$1" >&2
return 127
fi
}
fi
You can set up bash such that it sends a certain escape sequence to the terminal every time it starts an external program. If you use the escape sequence that terminals use to update their titles, your problem should be solved.
I have used that before, so I know it is possible. but I cannot remember it off the top of my head and do not have time to research the details right now, though.
Some of the old methods were removed from gnome-terminal 3.14 due to these two bugs (724110 and 740188).
In Ubuntu 20.04
PS1=$PS1"\[\e]0;New_Terminal_Name\a\]"
\[ begin a sequence of non-printing characters
\e]0; is the char sequence for setting the terminal title. Bash identifies this sequence and set the tile with the following characters. Number 0 turns out to be the value to reference the title property.
New_Terminal_Name is the tile we gave
\a is the ASCII bell character, also in this case, it marks the end of the tile to read from Bash.
\] end a sequence of non-printing characters
We can create a function for future use
function set_title(){
if [ -z "$PS1_BACK" ]; # set backup if it is empty
then
PS1_BACK="$PS1"
fi
TITLE="\[\e]0;$*\a\]"
PS1="${PS1_BACK}${TITLE}"
}
Open the ~/.bashrc file in your home directory with a text editor and append the above function at the end of it. Save and close.
To use it immediately source it to the current terminal.
source ~/.bashrc
We can use it then like this
set_title <New terminal tab title>
My terminal window titler script
This dynamic backgrounded script show all running command with pid number and elapsed time in seconds, like if I run du -h | less, this will build title looking like:
204640 6 du -h | 204641 6 less
Then when no command (other than himself) are running, don't change the terminal title, so standard behaviours works normaly.
First run start backgroud task. Second run in same terminal ask for kill previous backgrounded task.
Save this into a file, set execute flag then run it without argument:
cat <<"EOF" >titleWin.sh
#!/bin/bash
## Ask for kill process if already started
mapfile -t pids < <(ps -C ${0##*/} ho pid)
for pid in ${pids[#]} ;do
if [[ $pid != $$ ]] && [ -d /proc/$pid ]; then
echo -n "STARTED: [$pid]: ${0##*/}. Kill them (Y/n)? "
read -rsn 1 act
case $act in
n|N ) echo No;;
* ) echo Yes;kill $pid ;;
esac
exit
fi
done
## Title win for xterm or screen (or tmux).
case $TERM in
xterm*|rxvt* ) titleFmt='\e];%s\a';;
screen* ) titleFmt='\ek%s\e\\';;
* ) echo "Unable to title window.";exit 1;;
esac
tty=$(tty)
## Date to epochseconds converter
exec {dateout}<> <(:)
exec {datein}> >(exec stdbuf -o0 date -f - +%s >&$dateout)
DPID=$!
trap "echo TRAP;kill $DPID" 1 2 3 6 9 15
# Main loop
while :;do
string=""
while read -r pid wday mon day time year cmd; do
if [[ $pid != $$ ]] && [[ $pid != $PPID ]] && [[ $pid != $BASHPID ]] &&
[[ $pid != $DPID ]] && [ "${cmd#*pid,lstart,cmd}" ] &&
[ -d /proc/$pid ] ;then
echo >&${datein} $wday $mon $day $time $year
read -ru $dateout date
string+="$pid $((EPOCHSECONDS-date)) $cmd | "
fi
done < <(exec ps --tty ${tty#*/dev/} ho pid,lstart,cmd)
[[ "$string" ]] && printf "$titleFmt" "${string% | }"
sleep .333
done &
EOF
chmod +x titleWin.sh
./titleWin.sh