When should I pause between shell commands in Linux? - linux

I'm running a script of multiple commands using Linux and I want to know if I should use the sleep/pause script or not?
What's the disadvantage of not using sleep/pause? And will it affect my script?
My script for example will be looking like this :
#!/bin/bash
rm -rf /var/www/testdir/*
echo "Example1 deleted."
cp -r /var/www/testdirOrig/* /var/www/testdir/
echo "Example1 copied original files."
Thanks in advance.

The commands should be sequenced one after another.
Pausing/sleeping is not something you should normally do, except perhaps when busy-waiting for some file to appear (though there are better ways for that too)

Related

Creating multi-threading in Linux

I have a Linux computer and want to do the following (two independent actions/processes if possible):
Run a series of CLI commands every x minutes towards a remote computer to see if a file exists there. If it does, I want to start downloading this file to one of my directories. The files could be big and there might be many remote computers, so ideally I should treat each connection as an own process.
Check to see if a new file has arrived in my file system. If it has, I want to go through this file, analyze the content with some algoritms and then store the result in a database that I have installed. Then delete the file that was analyzed.
Any recommendations on how to do this the "best" and most reliable way? Scripting? Java/C/etc? Multi threading or just a single process that is looping through the content? The result should be something that should run for months without stopping.
Any suggestions and/or sample code very welcome!
Thanks!
Z
For #1, you can use crantab(http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?crontab+5) to run your script.
I think you can use Shell, Python, Ruby to complete your tasks
for downloading you can use a mix of something like that script (not tested and incomplete):
function download_and_analyze(link){
Z=mktemp
cd $Z
wget -c -t0 -q -C $link
# analyze algorithm here
cd /tmp
rm -rf $Z
}
for A in $REMOTEFILE; do
download_and_analyze($A) &
done
this is just a scratch to you implement it as a shell script. Realiability is guaranteed by wget.
you also can use rsync if it's on another computer acessible by ssh.
cheers

How to modify a file name within a shell script?

I am writing a shell script to sync to a github repo, kick off the build, then take the output file, rename it, and move it to a location where it can be seen by Apache.
It's the renaming of the file that I've got not the faintest how to do within a shell script (I have virtually no experience with shell scripts - my understanding
Compiler will create /var/espbuild/firstpart_1vXX_secondpart.bin
I need to move this file to:
/var/www/html/builds/espbuild/firstpart_1vXX_DATE_secondpart_postfix.bin
1vXX is the version number
DATE is the output of date +%m-%d
postfix is just a string.
I'm not really certain where to start for something like this - I'm sure there's a graceful way, since this is the kind of thing shell scripts are made for, but I know just about nothing about shell scripts.
Thanks in advance
You can get the result of a command into a variable by using $():
DATE=$(date +%m-%d)
Then just use it in the new filename:
INPUT=/var/espbuild/firstpart_1vXX_secondpart.bin
OUTPUT=/var/www/html/builds/espbuild/firstpart_1vXX_${DATE}_secondpart_postfix.bin
mv ${INPUT} ${OUTPUT}
Edit: To get out the version part, here's a quick example:
VERSION=$(grep -o 1v.. <<< ${INPUT})
Then OUTPUT should be set like:
OUTPUT=/var/www/html/builds/espbuild/firstpart_${VERSION}_${DATE}_secondpart_postfix.bin
You can use this in BASH:
f='/var/espbuild/firstpart_1vXX_secondpart.bin'
s="${f##*/}"
s2=${s##*_}
dest="/var/www/html/builds/espbuild/${s%_*}_$(date '+%m-%d')_${s2%.*}_postfix.bin"
echo "$dest"
/var/www/html/builds/espbuild/firstpart_1vXX_07-14_secondpart_postfix.bin
cp "$f" "$dest"

running a program in linux from perl

I want to run a program from perl by using system command(or any other ways ).
system("samtools");
I think it should pass this to shell but it complains ,Can't exec "samtools" file or directory does not exist , when I run it.I have tried many other different program for example
system("velveth");
and it works properly but not this one (samtools). Is any of you facing this problem before?
I am really puzzled.
You can give the full path to that file location.
example:
system( "/usr/bin/perl -de 1");
Try putting Linux command inside `` characters. Will work as well.
Did you modify $path for samtools in the current shell manually?
Since system starts a new sub-shell to run your command, you have to append search path for samtools yourself if doesn't exist in your .bashrc. Check it by:
perl -e 'system("echo \$PATH")'
and
echo $PATH
to see if there's any difference.

cp command won't run if executed from shell script

i have very simple shell script
#!/bin/bash
cp -rf /var/www/ksite/app2/* /var/www/ksite/app
echo "----"
echo "done"
but seems cp command fails
if i execute
cp -rf /var/www/ksite/app2/* /var/www/ksite/app
from terminal everything work ok. Can someone tell me how to include cp in shell script?
Thanks
We seem to have doubt as to how this script fails. If there is no error message then this is a strange one. I suggest:
On the command line (which works), do a which cp
Whatever the reply, then copy that and use it as the cp in the script (e.g. /bin/cp)
Check the widcard expansion, run your script with bash -x script-name and see if you get what you expect.
echo $? after the copy in the script - if it is zero then it (thinks it) worked.
Do a ls -ld /var/www/ksite/app from your script, maybe someone set a symbolic link?
If it still fails, source the script from the command-line and see if that works . script-name
Double check that the copy did actually fail! (maybe that should be step 1.)
Make sure you really have bash at /bin/bash. I think a batter hash bang is:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
This uses the env command to locate the bash binary and set the environment.
I had similar problem. What helped me:
I used windows and putty to write script, so I had \r\n at the end of lines. Be sure, you have only \n symbol.
I copied files and the only way it worked for me at script was cp <source_dir>/fileName <dest_dir>/fileName whereas at command line cp <source_dir>/fileName <dest_dir> worked well too.
Just covering all the bases .. do the permissions vary between the excutions .. i.e. do you execute one with sudo/root privileges, the other as user (unlikely, but thought I'd ask since we don't know what the exact error is)
Similar issue to Vladmir where the script was created in Windows. I created a new file "my_bash_script.sh" in the linux environment using VIM, then read the contents of my script into the file:
:r file_made_in_windows.sh
Then I saved, closed, then set the file as executable:
chmod 744 my_bash_script.sh
From there, I ran the script:
./my_bash_script.sh
...and it worked. What a weird issue. I was confounded for a moment.

Edit shell script while it's running

Can you edit a shell script while it's running and have the changes affect the running script?
I'm curious about the specific case of a csh script I have that batch runs a bunch of different build flavors and runs all night. If something occurs to me mid operation, I'd like to go in and add additional commands, or comment out un-executed ones.
If not possible, is there any shell or batch-mechanism that would allow me to do this?
Of course I've tried it, but it will be hours before I see if it worked or not, and I'm curious about what's happening or not happening behind the scenes.
It does affect, at least bash in my environment, but in very unpleasant way. See these codes. First a.sh:
#!/bin/sh
echo "First echo"
read y
echo "$y"
echo "That's all."
b.sh:
#!/bin/sh
echo "First echo"
read y
echo "Inserted"
echo "$y"
# echo "That's all."
Do
$ cp a.sh run.sh
$ ./run.sh
$ # open another terminal
$ cp b.sh run.sh # while 'read' is in effect
$ # Then type "hello."
In my case, the output is always:
hello
hello
That's all.
That's all.
(Of course it's far better to automate it, but the above example is readable.)
[edit] This is unpredictable, thus dangerous. The best workaround is , as described here put all in a brace, and before the closing brace, put "exit". Read the linked answer well to avoid pitfalls.
[added] The exact behavior depends on one extra newline, and perhaps also on your Unix flavor, filesystem, etc. If you simply want to see some influences, simply add "echo foo/bar" to b.sh before and/or after the "read" line.
Try this... create a file called bash-is-odd.sh:
#!/bin/bash
echo "echo yes i do odd things" >> bash-is-odd.sh
That demonstrates that bash is, indeed, interpreting the script "as you go". Indeed, editing a long-running script has unpredictable results, inserting random characters etc. Why? Because bash reads from the last byte position, so editing shifts the location of the current character being read.
Bash is, in a word, very, very unsafe because of this "feature". svn and rsync when used with bash scripts are particularly troubling, because by default they "merge" the results... editing in place. rsync has a mode that fixes this. svn and git do not.
I present a solution. Create a file called /bin/bashx:
#!/bin/bash
source "$1"
Now use #!/bin/bashx on your scripts and always run them with bashx instead of bash. This fixes the issue - you can safely rsync your scripts.
Alternative (in-line) solution proposed/tested by #AF7:
{
# your script
exit $?
}
Curly braces protect against edits, and exit protects against appends. Of course, we'd all be much better off if bash came with an option, like -w (whole file), or something that did this.
Break your script into functions, and each time a function is called you source it from a separate file. Then you could edit the files at any time and your running script will pick up the changes next time it gets sourced.
foo() {
source foo.sh
}
foo
Good question!
Hope this simple script helps
#!/bin/sh
echo "Waiting..."
echo "echo \"Success! Edits to a .sh while it executes do affect the executing script! I added this line to myself during execution\" " >> ${0}
sleep 5
echo "When I was run, this was the last line"
It does seem under linux that changes made to an executing .sh are enacted by the executing script, if you can type fast enough!
An interesting side note - if you are running a Python script it does not change. (This is probably blatantly obvious to anyone who understands how shell runs Python scripts, but thought it might be a useful reminder for someone looking for this functionality.)
I created:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import time
print('Starts')
time.sleep(10)
print('Finishes unchanged')
Then in another shell, while this is sleeping, edit the last line. When this completes it displays the unaltered line, presumably because it is running a .pyc? Same happens on Ubuntu and macOS.
I don't have csh installed, but
#!/bin/sh
echo Waiting...
sleep 60
echo Change didn't happen
Run that, quickly edit the last line to read
echo Change happened
Output is
Waiting...
/home/dave/tmp/change.sh: 4: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string
Hrmph.
I guess edits to the shell scripts don't take effect until they're rerun.
If this is all in a single script, then no it will not work. However, if you set it up as a driver script calling sub-scripts, then you might be able to change a sub-script before it's called, or before it's called again if you're looping, and in that case I believe those changes would be reflected in the execution.
I'm hearing no... but what about with some indirection:
BatchRunner.sh
Command1.sh
Command2.sh
Command1.sh
runSomething
Command2.sh
runSomethingElse
Then you should be able to edit the contents of each command file before BatchRunner gets to it right?
OR
A cleaner version would have BatchRunner look to a single file where it would consecutively run one line at a time. Then you should be able to edit this second file while the first is running right?
Use Zsh instead for your scripting.
AFAICT, Zsh does not exhibit this frustrating behavior.
usually, it uncommon to edit your script while its running. All you have to do is to put in control check for your operations. Use if/else statements to check for conditions. If something fail, then do this, else do that. That's the way to go.
Scripts don't work that way; the executing copy is independent from the source file that you are editing. Next time the script is run, it will be based on the most recently saved version of the source file.
It might be wise to break out this script into multiple files, and run them individually. This will reduce the execution time to failure. (ie, split the batch into one build flavor scripts, running each one individually to see which one is causing the trouble).

Resources