How to prefill command line input - linux

I'm running a bash script and I'd like to prefill a command line with some command after executing the script. The only condition is that the script mustn't be running at that time.
What I need is to ...
run the script
have prefilled text in my command line AFTER the script has been stopped
Is it even possible? All what I tried is to simulate a bash script using
read -e -i "$comm" -p "[$USER#$HOSTNAME $PWD]$ " input
command $input
But I'm looking for something more straightforward.

You need to use the TIOCSTI ioctl. Here's an example C program that shows how it works:
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
main()
{
char buf[] = "date";
int i;
for (i = 0; i < sizeof buf - 1; i++)
ioctl(0, TIOCSTI, &buf[i]);
return 0;
}
Compile this and run it and "date" will be buffered as input on stdin, which your shell will read after the program exits. You can roll this up into a command that lets you stuff anything into the input stream and use that command in your bash script.

Related

How to read stdout from a sub process in bash in real time

I have a simple C++ program that counts from 0 to 10 with an increment every 1 second. When the value is incremented, it is written to stdout. This program intentionally uses printf rather than std::cout.
I want to call this program from a bash script, and perform some function (eg echo) on the value when it is written to stdout.
However, my script waits for the program to terminate, and then process all the values at the same time.
C++ prog:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int ctr = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
{
printf("%i\n", ctr++);
sleep(1);
}
return 0;
}
Bash script:
#!/bin/bash
for c in $(./script-test)
do
echo $c
done
Is there another way to read the output of my program, that will access it in real time, rather than wait for for the process to terminate.
Note: the C++ program is a demo sample - the actual program I am using also uses printf, but I am not able to make changes to this code, hence the solution needs to be in the bash script.
Many thanks,
Stuart
As you correctly observed, $(command) waits for the entire output of command, splits that output, and only after that, the for loop starts.
To read output as soon as is available, use while read:
./script-test | while IFS= read -r line; do
echo "do stuff with $line"
done
or, if you need to access variables from inside the loop afterwards, and your system supports <()
while IFS= read -r line; do
echo "do stuff with $line"
done < <(./script-test)
# do more stuff, that depends on variables set inside the loop
You might be more lucky using a pipe:
#!/bin/bash
./script-test | while IFS= read -r c; do
echo "$c"
done

C program stuck on terminal when redirecting its output to another file from bash script

I am trying to run a C program from a bash file in Linux and then write its output to another file (which is in another directory). The command I am using is:
gcc myfile.c -o test
./test > /home/"$user"/Documents/"$name"/"$file"
Whenever I try to run this command, the program doesn't run, rather it is stuck on loading. Even if I write a single file name (from the same directory where the program is), the program does not run until I remove the whole redirection command and just write the simple ./test command. I don't know why this is occurring.
This is the C Program:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int array[100], n, c, d, swap;
printf("Enter number of elements\n");
scanf("%d", &n);
printf("Enter %d integers\n", n);
for (c = 0; c < n; c++)
scanf("%d", &array[c]);
for (c = 0 ; c < n - 1; c++)
{
for (d = 0 ; d < n - c - 1; d++)
{
if (array[d] > array[d+1])
{
swap = array[d];
array[d] = array[d+1];
array[d+1] = swap;
}
}
}
printf("Sorted list in ascending order:\n");
for (c = 0; c < n; c++)
printf("%d\n", array[c]);
return 0;
}
Even if I'm writing it like this:
./test | tee text.txt
It is not printing anything.
you can use command tee to collect printw info. like ./test | tee file
or you try to add 2>&1 in it.
My problem was solved by using the script command in Linux. This command stores and writes both the input and the output that was provided during run-time of the C program into the desired text file. The cat and tee command doesn't work when there is scanf in the C program.

how to redirect this perl script's output to file?

I don't have much experience with perl, and would appreciate any/all feedback....
[Before I start: I do not have access/authority to change the existing perl scripts.]
I run a couple perl scripts several times a day, but I would like to begin capturing their output in a file.
The first perl script does not take any arguments, and I'm able to "tee" its output without issue:
/asdf/loc1/rebuild-stuff.pl 2>&1 | tee $mytmpfile1
The second perl script hangs with this command:
/asdf/loc1/create-site.pl --record=${newsite} 2>&1 | tee $mytmpfile2
FYI, the following command does NOT hang:
/asdf/loc1/create-site.pl --record=${newsite} 2>&1
I'm wondering if /asdf/loc1/create-site.pl is trying to process the | tee $mytmpfile2 as additional command-line arguments? I'm not permitted to share the entire script, but here's the beginning of its main routine:
...
my $fullpath = $0;
$0 =~ s%.*/%%;
# Parse command-line options.
...
Getopt::Long::config ('no_ignore_case','bundling');
GetOptions ('h|help' => \$help,
'n|dry-run|just-print' => \$preview,
'q|quiet|no-mail' => \$quiet,
'r|record=s' => \$record,
'V|noverify' => \$skipverify,
'v|version' => \$version) or exit 1;
...
Does the above code provide any clues? Other than modifying the script, do you have any tips for allowing me to capture its output in a file?
It's not hanging. You are "suffering from buffering". Like most programs, Perl's STDOUT is buffered by default. Like most programs, Perl's STDOUT is flushed by a newline when connected to a terminal, and block buffered otherwise. When STDOUT isn't connected to a terminal, you won't get any output until 4 KiB or 8 KiB of output is accumulated (depending on your version of Perl) or the program exits.
You could add $| = 1; to the script to disable buffering for STDOUT. If your program ends with a true value or exits using exit, you can do that without changing the .pl file. Simply use the following wrapper:
perl -e'
$| = 1;
$0 = shift;
do($0);
my $e = $# || $! || "$0 didn\x27t return a true value\n";
die($e) if $e;
' -- prog args | ...
Or you could fool the program into thinking it's connected to a terminal using unbuffer.
unbuffer prog args | ...

Get the content on the command line with an external promgram

I would like to write a small program which will analyize my current input on the command line and generate some suggesstions like those search engines do.
The problems is how can an external program get the content on command line? For example
# an external program started and got passed in the PID of the shell below.
# the user typed something in the shell like this...
<PROMPT> $ echo "grab this command"
# the external program now get 'echo "grab this command"'
# and ideally the this could be done in realtime.
More over, can I just modify the content of current command line?
EDIT
bash uses libreadline to manage the command line, but still I can not imagine how to make use of this.
You could write your own shell wrapper using c. Open bash in a process using popen and use fgetc and fputc to write the data to the process and the output file.
A quick dirty hack could look like this (bash isn't started in interactive mode, but otherwise should work fine. --> no prompt):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
pid_t pid;
void kill_ch(int sig) {
kill(pid, SIGKILL);
}
/**
*
*/
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
int b;
FILE *cmd = NULL;
FILE *log = NULL;
signal(SIGALRM, (void (*)(int))kill_ch);
cmd = popen("/bin/bash -s", "r+");
if (cmd == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error: Failed to open process");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
setvbuf(cmd, NULL, _IOLBF, 0);
log = fopen("out.txt", "a");
if (log == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error: Failed to open logfile");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
setvbuf(log, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
pid = fork();
if (pid != 0)
goto EXEC_WRITE;
else
goto EXEC_READ;
EXEC_READ:
while (1) {
b = fgetc(stdin);
if (b != EOF) {
fputc((char) b, cmd);
fputc((char) b, log);
}
}
EXEC_WRITE:
while (1) {
b = fgetc(cmd);
if (b == EOF) {
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
fputc(b, stdout);
fputc(b, log);
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
I might not fully understand your question but I think you'd basically have two options.
The first option would be to explicitly call your "magic" program by prefixing your call with it like so
<PROMPT> $ magic echo "grab this command"
(magic analyzes $* and says...)
Your input would print "grab this command" to stdout
<PROMPT> $
In this case the arguments to "magic" would be handled as positional parameters ($*, $1 ...)
The second option would be to wrap an interpreter-like something around your typing. E.g. the Python interpreter does so if called without arguments. You start the interpreter, which will basically read anything you type (stdin) in an endless loop, interpret it, and produce some output (typically on stdout).
<PROMPT> $ magic
<MAGIC_PROMPT> $ echo "grab this command"
(your magic interpreter processes the input and says...)
Your input would print "grab this command" to stdout
<MAGIC_PROMPT> $

Continuously monitor linux console logs using C/C++ application

I have one third party library application which runs continuously and generates console print when some event occurs.
I want to take some action when some specific event occurs so I need to monitor console prints continuously to trigget my action.
Is it possible to write application which can continuously monitor string dumper on console(stdout) and do processing when one line is detected.
I have tried to use 'popen' function but it keeps waiting until library application stops execution.
Here is my sample code using open
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
FILE *fd = NULL;
char buf[512] = {0};
fd = popen ("./monitor","r");
while (fgets (buf, 512, fd) != NULL)
{
printf ("__FILE__ : message : %s\n",buf);
}
printf ("EOF detected!\n");
return 0;
}
Can anyone please let me know proper way of monitoring console logs and take action.
Thanks in advance.
Pratik
Here is an example piece o code I 've written recently that reads from stdin and prints to stdout .
void echo(int bufferSize) {
// Disable output buffering.
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
char buffer[bufferSize];
while (fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), stdin)) {
printf("%s", buffer);
}
}
As I understand you have a similar issue as I had initially getting delayed output because I didn't use:
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
You can also read from stdin(that's what my example code does ) just pipe your command to your c code or if you just want to filter output pipe it to grep. If it's a standardized syslog log you could also use tail on the log file:
tail -f <logfile>| <your c prgoramme>
or
for just filering
tail -f <logfile>|grep "<your string here>"
or if without log file pipe stdout logs this way:
<your app>|<your c prgoramme>
or
<your app>| grep "<your string here>"
3rd party program simulated by a shell script that writes to stdout
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
echo "something"
sleep 2
done
You want to write something like this to capture the output from the 3rd party program and then act on the information:
#!/bin/bash
while read line; do
if [[ $line == "something" ]]; then
echo "do action here"
fi
done
Then combine them with a pipe operator:
./dosomething.sh | act.sh

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