I made this simple bash script to take a full-screen screenshot and save it to the pictures folder
#!/usr/bin/bash
xfce4-screenshooter -f -s /home/rgcodes/Pictures/Screenshot_$scrshotcount.png
let "scrshotcount++"
...which runs into a problem. scrshotcount is a global variable I defined in /etc/environment to be incremented every time the script runs. However, the script fails to increment the variable globally, and causes the script to just overwrite the previous screenshot. Searches on Google and Stack Overflow revealed that the problem isn't straightforward at all (something about child shells being unable to change variables for parents), and finding some other method would be better.
Here's my question. How do we append numbers (in ascending order) to the screenshots the script throws out so that they are saved just like those taken on Windows?(Windows auto-suffixes matching filenames, rather than overwriting them, so all Screenshots have the same name 'Screenshot' and the number of times the screenshot command has been used.)
I am using #erikMD's method as a temporary stop-gap for now.
In addition to the excellent advice about using a date instead of a counter, here's a way to use a counter :/
dir=$HOME/Pictures
# find the current maximum value
current_max=$(
find "$dir" -name Screenshot_\*.png -print0 \
| sort -z -V \
| tail -z -n 1
)
if [[ ! $current_max =~ _([0-9]+)\.png ]]; then
echo "can't find the screenshot with the maximum counter value" >&2
exit 1
fi
# increment it
counter=$(( 1 + ${BASH_REMATCH[1]} ))
# and use it
xfce4-screenshooter -f -s "$dir/Screenshot_${counter}.png"
You'll have to manually create the Screenshot_1.png file.
#rgcodes below is a script that will capture screenshots with a numeric count indicator per your original post. (tested it on Ubuntu 20.04)
Script contents:
#!/bin/bash
set -uo pipefail
# add source file and line number to xtrace output
# i.e. when running: bash -x ./your_script_name.sh
export PS4='+(${BASH_SOURCE}:${LINENO}): ${FUNCNAME[0]:+${FUNCNAME[0]}(): }'
capture_screenshot() {
local output_dir="${1:-/tmp/screenshot}"
local img_name="${2:-Screenshot}"
local img_ext="${3:-png}"
# create output directory (if not already existing)
mkdir -p "${output_dir}"
# get the last image in the sorted ls output
local latest_png=$(tail -n 1 \
<(sort -n -t _ -k 2 \
<(ls ${output_dir}/*.${img_ext} 2> /dev/null)))
# use the latest image to determine img_cnt value for next image
local img_cnt=0
if [[ ${latest_png} =~ _([0-9]+)\.png ]]; then
img_cnt=$((1+${BASH_REMATCH[1]}))
elif [[ ${latest_png} =~ ${img_name}.${img_ext} ]] ; then
img_cnt=1
fi
# build path to output image
local img_path="${output_dir}/${img_name}_${img_cnt}.${img_ext}"
# remove count from output image path if count == 0
if [[ "${img_cnt}" -eq "0" ]] ; then
img_path="${output_dir}/${img_name}.${img_ext}"
fi
xfce4-screenshooter -f -s "${img_path}"
}
capture_screenshot "$#"
The uses the following as defaults, but you can change them to meet your requirements.
output directory for screenshots:
/tmp/screenshot
base screenshot image name:
Screenshot
screenshot file extension:
.png
The script will attempt to create the output directory if it does not already exist (subject to user permission for creation). Below is a sample usage.
Prior to initial script execution, the output directory does not exist:
$ ls screenshot
$
Initial execution (directory is created and Screenshot.png created:
$ ./script.sh
$ ls /tmp/screenshot/
Screenshot.png
Subsequent executions:
$ ./script.sh
$ ls /tmp/screenshot/
Screenshot_1.png Screenshot.png
$ ./script.sh
$ ls /tmp/screenshot/
Screenshot_1.png Screenshot_2.png Screenshot.png
Indeed, as suggested by #j_b in the comments, you should definitely give a try to using a timestamp with the command date +"$format".
FTR, the same idea is implemented here in this project of a gnome-screenshot bash wrapper
(disclaimer: I am the author of this repo).
Example command:
date "+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S"
↓
2021-07-29_19-13-30
So the overall script could just be something like:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
xfce4-screenshooter -f -s "$HOME/Pictures/Screenshot_$(date "+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S").png"
(Note that I added missing double-quotes, and modified your shebang, as /usr/bin/env bash is more portable than /bin/bash or /usr/bin/bash.)
You can use bash code, and call bash scripts, in conky.text. Is there any way to use it in conky.config?
The reason I want this is to have window specifications depending on whether I have an external monitor connected or not.
So I want logic similar to this:
if xrandr -q | grep -oP 'HDMI2\sconnected' > /dev/null ; then
x=-900
else
x=0
fi
gap_x=$x
I personally do not encourage the following solution, but if all else fails, this will at least work very well.
Make a copy of your .conkyrc file, let's call it .conkyrc_dual, and make the bash file below:
#!/bin/bash
pkill conky
if xrandr -q | grep -oP 'HDMI2\sconnected' > /dev/null ; then
conky -c ~/.conkyrc_dual
notify-send 'Conky' 'Dual monitors'
else
conky
notify-send 'Conky' 'Single monitor'
fi
Now run this file when you want to start conky.
You could also have a bash script use sed to edit the gap_x variable in your .conkyrc file as needed before starting conky. That way, you'd only need a single config file. Keep a backup of .conkyrc, of course, just in case something goes terribly awry.
I am currently working on a program that needs to boot a program automatically whenever it registers that this program is not open already. It needs superuser rights to boot.
Currently, I have a working Bash script, looking as follows:
#!/bin/bash
while true; do #Continue indefinitely
if [ $(ps aux | grep '/odroid_detection' | grep -v '<defunct>' -c) -le 4 ]; then #if less than 3 odroid_servers are active (booter opens 3 processes)
xterm -iconic -e su -c "xterm -iconic -hold /home/odroid/Documents/SUNRISE-Odroid/_odroid_detection/_odroid_detection/bin/Debug/_odroid_detection"
fi
sleep 60 #check every minute
done
The program that executes, however, is not working exactly as planned because it is executed from the root map instead of the map it is in. I therefore want to cd to the map the executable is in (~/Documents/SUNRISE-Odroid/_odroid_detection/_odroid_detection/bin/Debug) but have the same functionality as mentioned above. This is what I came up with:
#!/bin/bash
while true; do #Continue indefinitely
if [ $(ps aux | grep '/odroid_detection' | grep -v '<defunct>' -c) -le 4 ]; then #if less than 3 odroid_servers are active (booter opens 3 processes)
xterm -iconic -e "cd ../_odroid_detection/_odroid_detection/bin/Debug/ && su -c "xterm -iconic -hold -e _odroid_detection""
fi
sleep 60 #check every minute
done
This does not work, however, and I have tried many alternatives but I cannot seem to get it working.. It gives the following errors in the terminal:
xterm: Can't execvp cd ../_odroid_detection/_odroid_detection/bin/Debug && su -c xterm: No such file or directory
The xterm that gives this error opens in the map ~/Documents/SUNRISE-Odroid/Bash, and executing the cd mentioned above does work when I execute it seperately, so I do not understand why it cannot find the file or directory.
Any suggestions?
The colouring of StackOverflow made me understand one mistake that I made: the starting quote after 'su -c' gets interpreted as an ending quote of the xterm execute line. The working code is as follows:
#!/bin/bash
while true; do #Continue indefinitely
if [ $(ps aux | grep '/odroid_detection' | grep -v '<defunct>' -c) -le 2 ]; then #if less than 3 odroid_servers are active (booter opens 3 processes)
xterm -iconic -e "cd ../_odroid_detection/_odroid_detection/bin/Debug/ && su -c ./_odroid_detection"
fi
sleep 60 #check every minute
done
So I am running into a problem with unix scripts that use curl to make rest calls. I have one script, that runs two other scripts inside of it.
cat example.sh
FILE="file1.txt"
RECIP="wilfred#blamagam.com"
rm -f $FILE
./script1.sh > $FILE
mail -s "subject" $RECIP < $FILE
RECIP="bob#blamagam.com"
rm -f $FILE
./script2.sh > $FILE
mail -s "subject" $RECIP < $FILE
exit 0
Each script makes rest calls to the same service. It is my understanding that script1.sh should completely finish before script2.sh is ran, however that is not the case. In the logs for the rest service I see a rest call from the second script in the middle of the first one still executing. The second script then fails because of this (it does not get any data returned).
I am modifying this process so I am not the one who originally wrote it. I am not seeing any forked processes, or background processes at all and I have been banging my head against the wall.
I do know that script2.sh works. Whenever script1.sh takes under a minute script2.sh works just fine, but more often than not script1.sh takes over a min, causing the second script to fail.
This is ran by a cron, and the contents of the files are mailed out, so I cant just default to running them manually. Any suggestions for what to look into would be much appreciated!
EDIT: Here is a high pseudo code example
script1.sh
ITEMS=`/usr/bin/curl -m 10 -k -u userName:passWord -L https://server/rest-service/rest?where=clause=value;clause2=value2&sel=field 2>/dev/null | sed s/<\/\?Attribute[^>]*>/\n/g | grep -v '^<' | grep -v '^$' | sed 's/ //g'`
echo "\n Subject for these metrics"
echo "$ITEMS"
Both scripts have lots of entries like this. There are 2 or 3 for loops but they are simple and I do not see any background processes being called. Its a large script so I could only provide a snippet. Could the rest call into pipes be causing an issue?
Edit:
Just tested this on my system and it seems to work.
cat example.sh
FILE="file1.txt"
RECIP="wilfred#blamagam.com"
rm -f "$FILE"
(./script1.sh > "$FILE") &
procscript1=$!
wait "$procscript1"
mail -s "subject" "$RECIP" < "$FILE"
RECIP="bob#blamagam.com"
rm -f "$FILE"
(./script2.sh > "$FILE") &
procscript2=$!
wait "$procscript2"
mail -s "subject" "$RECIP" < "$FILE"
exit 0
Put the script executions in the background with the &.
Get the process id's for each script execution.
Use the wait command to block until the execution is done.
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