I'm running a script inside of a terminal screen in a remote machine I ssh'ed in, so I can exit and enter terminal any time. I had thought that to pause the script, I'd just have to either send a ^Z command to the screen, or go into the screen and hit ^Z (or ^A^Z). But neither of them worked. All it did was that it paused the screen -r command I used to enter the screen.
I'm running on a device incapable of installing any dependencies such as reptyr, gcc, or apt-get. That's why I'm resorting to using screens to run/pause my script.
Related
Hello I am trying to write a bash script to launch QEMU in the background and wait for the user to press a key to continue with the script.
This is what I have currently:
setup_for_greengrass # these are functions
run_qemu & # fork function and try to run in the background
echo "Press anything to continue once VM is finished booting...\n"
read fullname # wait for user to press a key
install_greengrass
However, what I get in the terminal is the QEMU console and I am unable to keep moving forward with the script. If I fork the process and don't have the read command there, it works as expected and the QEMU console does not show up and the script keeps moving forward.
Any suggestions on how I could fork the QEMU process differently or wait for user input?
I figured it out... In bash version 4 or greater and zsh have support for this command called coproc.
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/coproc-command-in-linux-with-examples/
https://stackoverflow.com/a/68407430/4397021
https://www.zsh.org/mla/users/2011/msg00095.html
So write the script as follows and it should launch the qemu in the background and let the script keep going forward.
#!/bin/zsh # Make sure to use zsh or upgrade your version of bash
setup_for_greengrass
coproc run_qemu # launch qemu in the background
echo "Press anything to continue once VM is finished booting...\n"
read fullname # wait for user to press a key
install_greengrass
I have a application that launches xterm and dumps uart logs. I am able to see it launch and dump the logs in the GUI. However, Using a remote session I want the xterm output to be running as a background process somewhere so that I can switch back and forth within a single terminal.
Using GUI
Using remote terminal (SSH)
$ xterm
xterm: Xt error: Can't open display: :0
I tried to do something like, but failed to work -
alias xterm="/bin/bash -c"
I don't want to have X forwarding and launch a window on my local machine as well.
If you just need the logs, you most likely don't need an X server or xterm.
You can simply run the target command itself. From your screenshot it looks like the command might be telnet 127.0.0.1 <port_number>. You can find it from the script that your application launches, or with ps -ef when it's running. If it's an UART, then you can also use minicom or socat to connect directly to serial port without any extra programs. This way, you don't even need telnet.
You can combine this command with either screen or tmux so that it's running in the background and you can switch to it from any terminal or console. Just run screen with no arguments, then run the command on virtual screen. Detach with CTRL-a d, and your command will continue to run in the background ready for you to reconnect to it at any time with screen -r.
Moreover, screen can also connect to serial port directly so you get two for the price of one.
The thing with xterm is that it will not write the logs anywhere except in the graphics buffer, and even there it will be only as flashing pixels which is not suitable for any processing. If you insist on going that way, you have several options:
Change the script that application runs (might not be possible depending on your situation)
Replace /usr/bin/xterm with your dummy script that just runs bash instead of xterm, and redirects the output to a file (ugly, but you could probably avoid breaking other applications by changing PATH and putting it somewhere else). In your script, you can use bash's redirection features such as >, or pipe output to tee.
Start a VNC server in the background and set the DISPLAY environment variable when you run your application to the number of virtual screen. In this case, any windows from application will open on VNC virtual screen and you can connect to it as you please.
Use xvfb as a dummy X server and combine it with xterm logging, etc.
Solution 1: Fake xterm on X11-less systems
You can also create a wrapper script that replaces xterm with another function. Test this out on a laptop with X11:
$ function xterm {
echo "hello $#"
}
$ xterm world 1
hello world 1
$ export -f xterm
$ /bin/xterm # opens a new xterm session
$ xterm world 2 # commands executed in second terminal
hello world 2
This means that you've replaced the command xterm for a function in all of the child processes.
Now, if you already know that your script will work in a terminal without xterm, you could create a function that accepts all of the parameters and executes it. No need for complicated screen stuff or replacing /usr/bin/xterm.
Solution 2: Dump UART data for the winz
If you want to save all of the uart data into a file, this is easily fixed by creating a screen session and a log file. Below the command will create a session named myscreensessionname that listens on the serial connection /dev/ttyUSB0 and writes its data to /home/$USER/myscreensessionname.log.
$ screen -dmS myscreensessionname -L -Logfile /home/$USER \
/myscreensessionname.log /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
Note that if you're going to use multiple screen sessions, you might want to use serial ids instead of /dev/ttyUSB0. You can identify the connections with udevadmin as follows.
$ udevadm info --name=/dev/ttyUSB0 | grep 'by-id'
S: serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTBDBIQ7-if00-port0
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTBDBIQ7-if00-port0 /dev/serial/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:4.4.4.1:1.0-port0
Here, instead of /dev/ttyUSB0, I would make use of /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTBDBIQ7-if00-port0.
EDIT:
You can attach the screen session with the following command. Once in the screen session, press crtl+a, and press d to detach.
$ screen -Dr myscreensessionname
To view all of your screen sessions:
$ screen -list
There is a screen on:
2382.myscreensessionname (04/02/2021 10:32:07 PM) (Attached)
1 Socket in /run/screen/S-user.
I am trying to execute a remote command for one of my scripts. I have to run this script across many servers. so i will put it in a script. What I am trying to do is
ssh root#10.158.42.12 nohup perl /script/myscript.pl 06/04/2014 60 &
The script runs just fine but there is an info message which is displayed whenever you try to login . The one many of you would be familiar with ..
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| This system is for the use of authorized users only. |
| Individuals using this computer system without authority, or in |
Due to this the script execution is haulted unless an enter is pressed. I want to put the script in a cronjob for automatic execution, so i dont need to see this info message.
Here's my theory:
Your command doesn't run the program in the background on the server. It runs runs the program in the foreground on the server, and then you background ssh.
Since ssh runs in the background, you are immediately returned to your prompt.
Milliseconds later, ssh overwrites your prompt with this message and runs the command.
You are now looking at the ssh message and no prompt.
You hit press enter, which causes the prompt to be redrawn on the next line.
This leads you to believe ssh was actually waiting for you to press enter. In reality, the command was already run, and bash was ready for new commands, just obscured by ssh noise.
How to test:
If I'm right, pressing Ctrl+L instead of Enter will clear the screen and show the bash prompt. (assuming you don't use bash's vi mode).
If I'm not, Ctrl+L will instead either do nothing, print the ssh message again or just write ^L to the screen.
How to fix if I'm right:
ssh -f root#10.158.42.12 'nohup perl /script/myscript.pl 06/04/2014 60 &' 2> /dev/null
I'm opening an ssh-session to a remote server and execute a larger (around 1000 lines) bash-script on the remote machine. It involves several very CPU-intensive calls which run for up to three minutes each. To track the scripts progress it echoes messages placed at several points in the script.
In general the script runs smoothly. From time to time the script runs trough (the resulting file on the remote machine is correct) but the output to the terminal stops. Ctrl-C doesn't help, no prompt, just a frozen session. top in a separate session shows normal execution of the script.
My question: How keep the session alive?
local machine:
$ sw_vers
ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.9
BuildVersion: 13A603
remote machine:
$ lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Personally, I would recommend using screen or tmux on the remote terminal for exactly this reason.
Those apps will allow the remote process to continue even if your local SSH session times out.
http://www.bangmoney.org/presentations/screen.html
http://tmux.sourceforge.net/
Start a screen on the remote machine and run your command from it:
screen -S largeScript
And then
./yourLargeScript.sh
Whenever your ssh session gets frozen, you can kill it with ~.
If you ssh again, you can grab back your screen by:
screen -dr largeScript
Make it log to a file instead (perhaps via syslog), and tail that file from wherever is convenient for you. This also helps detach the script so you can run it headless, from a cron job, etc. Also, if the log file has read access for others, they too can monitor it.
This hopefully should be an easy question to answer. I am attempting to have mumble-ruby run automatically I have everything up and running except after running this simple script it runs but ends. In short:
Running this from terminal I get "Press enter to terminate script" and it works.
Running this via a cronjob runs the script but ends it and runs cli.disconnect (I assume).
I want the below script to run automatically via a cronjob at a specified time and not end until the server shuts down.
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'mumble-ruby'
cli = Mumble::Client.new('IP Address', Port, 'MusicBot', 'Password')
cli.connect
sleep(1)
cli.join_channel(5)
stream = cli.stream_raw_audio('/tmp/mumble.fifo')
stream.volume = 2.7
print 'Press enter to terminate script';
gets
cli.disconnect
Assuming you are on a Unix/Linux system, you can run it in a screen session. (This is a Unix command, not a scripting function.)
If you don't know what screen is, it's basically a "detachable" terminal session. You can open a screen session, run this script, and then detach from that screen session. That detached session will stay alive even after you log off, leaving your script running. (You can re-attach to that screen session later if you want to shut it down manually.)
screen is pretty neat, and every developer on Unix/Linux should be aware of it.
How to do this without reading any docs:
open a terminal session on the server that will run the script
run screen - you will now be in a new shell prompt in a new screen session
run your script
type ctrl-a then d (without ctrl; the "d" is for "detach") to detach from the screen (but still leave it running)
Now you're back in your first shell. Your script is still alive in your screen session. You can disconnect and the screen session will keep on trucking.
Do you want to get back into that screen and shut the app down manually? Easy! Run screen -r (for "reattach"). To kill the screen session, just reattach and exit the shell.
You can have multiple screen sessions running concurrently, too. (If there is more than one screen running, you'll need to provide an argument to screen -r.)
Check out some screen docs!
Here's a screen howto. Search "gnu screen howto" for many more.
Lots of ways to skin this cat... :)
My thought was to take your script (call it foo) and remove the last 3 lines. In your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file (NOTE: this applies to Ubuntu and Fedora, not sure what you're running - but it has something similar) you'd add nohup /path_to_foo/foo 2>&1 > /dev/null& to the end of the file so that it runs in the background. You can also run that command right at a terminal if you just want to run it and have it running. You have to make sure that foo is made executable with chmod +x /path_to_foo/foo.
Use an infinite loop. Try:
while running do
sleep(3600)
end
You can use exit to terminate when you need to. This will run the loop once an hour so it doesnt eat up processing time. An infinite loop before your disconnect method will prevent it from being called until the server shuts down.