So, I want to make a bash script, and I'm going to have it run on boot, but I'd like to update the script if I need to and run it without a reboot, so what I want to do is make the script check if there is any other instances of it running when it is loaded, and terninate any instances of the script other than itself. I want it to check instances of bash and get the path of the scripts that are being ran and kill any instances of scripts that have the same path name as it's own. How can I do this?
Example: If I am in directory /foo/bar and I run the script ../tball/script.sh, it will kill any instances of bash that are running the script /foo/tball/script.sh if they exist.
Here's the basis
kill_others() {
local mypid=$$ # capture this run's pid
declare pids=($(pgrep -f ${0##*/} # get all the pids running this script
for pid in ${pids[#]/$mypid/}; do # cycle through all pids except this one
kill $pid # kill the other pids
sleep 1 # give time to complete
done
}
declare -i count=0
while [[ $(pgrep -f ${0##*/}|wc -l) -gt 1 ]]; do
kill_outhers
((++count))
if [[ $count -gt 10 ]]; then
echo "ERROR: can't kill pids" >&2
exit 1
fi
done
The best approach is a file containing the PID of the process in a volatile filesystem like this:
echo $$ > /run/script.pid
You could refine it further by checking if that PID exists with:
if [ ! -d /proc/$(< /run/script.pid) ] ; then
rm /run/script.pid
fi
In your script you should have something like this, to remove the file on exit or if it receives a signal that kills the process:
trap "rm -f /run/script.pid" EXIT INT QUIT TERM
EDIT: Or you could append the PID to a well known pathname and kill all instances of the script with something like this before saving the PID:
kill $(< /run/script.pid) ; sleep 10 ; kill -9 $(< /run/script.pid)
Suppose I have a pool of hosts in a file somewhere
hosts.txt:
hosta#domain
hostb#domain
hostc#domain
I would like to be able to lock a host (something like flock /tmp/lockfile) so that other programs can't use that host. I would like to accomplish this with a bash script which iterates over the list of hosts, ssh'es into that host, tries to flock /tmp/lockfile on that machine, and if successful, returns with the name of the host. If unsuccessful, maybe it could return with some error code.
Currently, I have something like this:
#!/bin/bash
USER=someuser
while read host; do
echo -n "Trying ${host}..."
xterm -e "ssh \"${USER}#${host}\" 'flock -n /tmp/lockfile -c \"echo Locked $host; read\"'" &
FLOCK_PID=$!
sleep 1
kill -0 $FLOCK_PID;
if [ ! $? ]; then
echo -n "${host}"
exit 0
fi
done <hosts.txt
exit 1
This works but there are a few deficiencies. Because of the read command the only way I can think of to not block the shell is to start an xterm. Is there a more elegant way to accomplish what I want?
I am trying to write out a dynamic bash profile for a few machines, and was wondering if there is a variable that allows .bashrc if it is being accessed remotely. I've seen a few examples using X variables, but that is irrelevant to both machines.
if [ "$SSH_CONNECTION" ]; then
echo I am remote
else
echo I am local
fi
When you connect via ssh, your bash process is a child of sshd ($PPID is a variable of bash's parent process - ssh that is, if you connect remotely). You can check for that:
if ps ax | grep ^$PPID'.*sshd' &> /dev/null; then
# do your stuff
fi
Edit: I was bored and used time to get execution times and found out that this version apparently is a couple of milliseconds faster:
if grep ^sshd: /proc/$PPID/cmdline &> /dev/null; then
# do your stuff
fi
I want to write a Bash-Script which loggs into several machines via ssh and first shows their hostname and the executes a command (on every machine the same command). The hostname and the output of the command should be displayed together. I wanted a parallel version, so the ssh-commands should be run in background and in parallel.
I constructed the bashscripted attached below.
The problem is: As the runonip-function is executed in a subshell, it got no access to the DATA-array to store the results. Is it somehow possible to give the subshell access to the Array, perhaps via a "pass by reference" to the function?
Code:
#!/bin/bash
set -u
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Need Arguments: Command to run"
exit 1
fi
DATA=""
PIDS=""
#Function to run in Background for each ip
function runonip {
ip="$1"
no="$2"
cmds="$3"
DATA[$no]=$( {
echo "Connecting to $ip"
ssh $ip cat /etc/hostname
ssh $ip $cmds
} 2>&1 )
}
ips=$(get ips somewhere)
i=0
for ip in $ips; do
#Initialize Variables
i=$(($i+1))
DATA[$i]="n/a"
#For the RunOnIp Function to background
runonip $ip $i $# &
#Save PID for later waiting
PIDS[$i]="$!"
done
#Wait for all SubProcesses
for job in ${PIDS[#]}; do
wait $job
done
#Everybody finished, so output the information from DATA
for x in `seq 1 $i`; do
echo ${DATA[$x]}
done;
No, it's really not. The subshell runs in an entirely separate operating system process, and the only way for two processes to share memory is for their code to set that up explicitly with system calls. Bash doesn't do that.
What you need to do is find some other way for the two processes to communicate. Temporary files named after the PIDs would be one way:
#For the RunOnIp Function to background
runonip $ip $i $# >data-tmp&
mv data-tmp data-$!
And then cat the files:
#Everybody finished, so output the information from the temp files
for x in ${PIDS[#]}; do
cat data-$x
rm data-$x
done;
You might be able to set up a named pipe to do interprocess communication.
Another possibility, in Bash 4, might be to use coprocesses.
Additional references:
Named Pipes
Using File Descriptors with Named Pipes
I have a bash script I want to run every 5 minutes from cron... but there's a chance the previous run of the script isn't done yet... in this case, i want the new run to just exit. I don't want to rely on just a lock file in /tmp.. I want to make sure sure the process is actually running before i honor the lock file (or whatever)...
Here is what I have stolen from the internet so far... how do i smarten it up a bit? or is there a completely different way that's better?
if [ -f /tmp/mylockFile ] ; then
echo 'Script is still running'
else
echo 1 > /tmp/mylockFile
/* Do some stuff */
rm -f /tmp/mylockFile
fi
# Use a lockfile containing the pid of the running process
# If script crashes and leaves lockfile around, it will have a different pid so
# will not prevent script running again.
#
lf=/tmp/pidLockFile
# create empty lock file if none exists
cat /dev/null >> $lf
read lastPID < $lf
# if lastPID is not null and a process with that pid exists , exit
[ ! -z "$lastPID" -a -d /proc/$lastPID ] && exit
echo not running
# save my pid in the lock file
echo $$ > $lf
# sleep just to make testing easier
sleep 5
There is at least one race condition in this script. Don't use it for a life support system, lol. But it should work fine for your example, because your environment doesn't start two scripts simultaneously. There are lots of ways to use more atomic locks, but they generally depend on having a particular thing optionally installed, or work differently on NFS, etc...
You might want to have a look at the man page for the flock command, if you're lucky enough to get it on your distribution.
NAME
flock - Manage locks from shell scripts
SYNOPSIS
flock [-sxon] [-w timeout] lockfile [-c] command...
Never use a lock file always use a lock directory.
In your specific case, it's not so important because the start of the script is scheduled in 5min intervals. But if you ever reuse this code for a webserver cgi-script you are toast.
if mkdir /tmp/my_lock_dir 2>/dev/null
then
echo "running now the script"
sleep 10
rmdir /tmp/my_lock_dir
fi
This has a problem if you have a stale lock, means the lock is there but no associated process. Your cron will never run.
Why use a directory? Because mkdir is an atomic operation. Only one process at a time can create a directory, all other processes get an error. This even works across shared filesystems and probably even between different OS types.
Store your pid in mylockFile. When you need to check, look up ps for the process with the pid you read from file. If it exists, your script is running.
If you want to check the process's existence, just look at the output of
ps aux | grep your_script_name
If it's there, it's not dead...
As pointed out in the comments and other answers, using the PID stored in the lockfile is much safer and is the standard approach most apps take. I just do this because it's convenient and I almost never see the corner cases (e.g. editing the file when the cron executes) in practice.
If you use a lockfile, you should make sure that the lockfile is always removed. You can do this with 'trap':
if ( set -o noclobber; echo "locked" > "$lockfile") 2> /dev/null; then
trap 'rm -f "$lockfile"; exit $?' INT TERM EXIT
echo "Locking succeeded" >&2
rm -f "$lockfile"
else
echo "Lock failed - exit" >&2
exit 1
fi
The noclobber option makes the creation of lockfile atomic, like using a directory.
As a one-liner and if you do not want to use a lockfile (e.g. b/c/ of a read only filesystem, etc)
test "$(pidof -x $(basename $0))" != $$ && exit
It checks that the full list of PID that bear the name of your script is equal to the current PID. The "-x" also checks for the name of shell scripts.
Bash makes it even shorter and faster:
[[ "$(pidof -x $(basename $0))" != $$ ]] && exit
In some cases, you might want to be able to distinguish between who is running the script and allow some concurrency but not all. In that case, you can use per-user, per-tty or cron-specific locks.
You can use environment variables such as $USER or the output of a program such as tty to create the filename. For cron, you can set a variable in the crontab file and test for it in your script.
you can use this one:
pgrep -f "/bin/\w*sh .*scriptname" | grep -vq $$ && exit
I was trying to solve this problem today and I came up with the below:
COMMAND_LINE="$0 $*"
JOBS=$(SUBSHELL_PID=$BASHPID; ps axo pid,command | grep "${COMMAND_LINE}" | grep -v $$ | g rep -v ${SUBSHELL_PID} | grep -v grep)
if [[ -z "${JOBS}" ]]
then
# not already running
else
# already running
fi
This relies on $BASHPID which contains the PID inside a subshell ($$ in the subshell is the parent pid). However, this relies on Bash v4 and I needed to run this on OSX which has Bash v3.2.48. I ultimately came up with another solution and it is cleaner:
JOBS=$(sh -c "ps axo pid,command | grep \"${COMMAND_LINE}\" | grep -v grep | grep -v $$")
You can always just:
if ps -e -o cmd | grep scriptname > /dev/null; then
exit
fi
But I like the lockfile myself, so I wouldn't do this without the lock file as well.
Since a socket solution has not yet been mentioned it is worth pointing out that sockets can be used as effective mutexes. Socket creation is an atomic operation, like mkdir is as Gunstick pointed out, so a socket is suitable to use as a lock or mutex.
Tim Kay's Perl script 'Solo' is a very small and effective script to make sure only one copy of a script can be run at any one time. It was designed specifically for use with cron jobs, although it works perfectly for other tasks as well and I've used it for non-crob jobs very effectively.
Solo has one advantage over the other techniques mentioned so far in that the check is done outside of the script you only want to run one copy of. If the script is already running then a second instance of that script will never even be started. This is as opposed to isolating a block of code inside the script which is protected by a lock. EDIT: If flock is used in a cron job, rather than from inside a script, then you can also use that to prevent a second instance of the script from starting - see example below.
Here's an example of how you might use it with cron:
*/5 * * * * solo -port=3801 /path/to/script.sh args args args
# "/path/to/script.sh args args args" is only called if no other instance of
# "/path/to/script.sh" is running, or more accurately if the socket on port 3801
# is not open. Distinct port numbers can be used for different programs so that
# if script_1.sh is running it does not prevent script_2.sh from starting, I've
# used the port range 3801 to 3810 without conflicts. For Linux non-root users
# the valid port range is 1024 to 65535 (0 to 1023 are reserved for root).
* * * * * solo -port=3802 /path/to/script_1.sh
* * * * * solo -port=3803 /path/to/script_2.sh
# Flock can also be used in cron jobs with a distinct lock path for different
# programs, in the example below script_3.sh will only be started if the one
# started a minute earlier has already finished.
* * * * * flock -n /tmp/path.to.lock -c /path/to/script_3.sh
Links:
Solo web page: http://timkay.com/solo/
Solo script: http://timkay.com/solo/solo
Hope this helps.
You can use this.
I'll just shamelessly copy-paste the solution here, as it is an answer for both questions (I would argue that it's actually a better fit for this question).
Usage
include sh_lock_functions.sh
init using sh_lock_init
lock using sh_acquire_lock
check lock using sh_check_lock
unlock using sh_remove_lock
Script File
sh_lock_functions.sh
#!/bin/bash
function sh_lock_init {
sh_lock_scriptName=$(basename $0)
sh_lock_dir="/tmp/${sh_lock_scriptName}.lock" #lock directory
sh_lock_file="${sh_lock_dir}/lockPid.txt" #lock file
}
function sh_acquire_lock {
if mkdir $sh_lock_dir 2>/dev/null; then #check for lock
echo "$sh_lock_scriptName lock acquired successfully.">&2
touch $sh_lock_file
echo $$ > $sh_lock_file # set current pid in lockFile
return 0
else
touch $sh_lock_file
read sh_lock_lastPID < $sh_lock_file
if [ ! -z "$sh_lock_lastPID" -a -d /proc/$sh_lock_lastPID ]; then # if lastPID is not null and a process with that pid exists
echo "$sh_lock_scriptName is already running.">&2
return 1
else
echo "$sh_lock_scriptName stopped during execution, reacquiring lock.">&2
echo $$ > $sh_lock_file # set current pid in lockFile
return 2
fi
fi
return 0
}
function sh_check_lock {
[[ ! -f $sh_lock_file ]] && echo "$sh_lock_scriptName lock file removed.">&2 && return 1
read sh_lock_lastPID < $sh_lock_file
[[ $sh_lock_lastPID -ne $$ ]] && echo "$sh_lock_scriptName lock file pid has changed.">&2 && return 2
echo "$sh_lock_scriptName lock still in place.">&2
return 0
}
function sh_remove_lock {
rm -r $sh_lock_dir
}
Usage example
sh_lock_usage_example.sh
#!/bin/bash
. /path/to/sh_lock_functions.sh # load sh lock functions
sh_lock_init || exit $?
sh_acquire_lock
lockStatus=$?
[[ $lockStatus -eq 1 ]] && exit $lockStatus
[[ $lockStatus -eq 2 ]] && echo "lock is set, do some resume from crash procedures";
#monitoring example
cnt=0
while sh_check_lock # loop while lock is in place
do
echo "$sh_scriptName running (pid $$)"
sleep 1
let cnt++
[[ $cnt -gt 5 ]] && break
done
#remove lock when process finished
sh_remove_lock || exit $?
exit 0
Features
Uses a combination of file, directory and process id to lock to make sure that the process is not already running
You can detect if the script stopped before lock removal (eg. process kill, shutdown, error etc.)
You can check the lock file, and use it to trigger a process shutdown when the lock is missing
Verbose, outputs error messages for easier debug