trying to test zero length output from command in shell script - shell

I'm sort of a newbie when it comes to shell scripting. What am I doing wrong?
I'm trying to grep a running log file and take action if the grep returns data.
# grep for "success" in the log which will tell us if we were successful
tail -f file.log | grep success > named_pipe &
# send signal to my server to do something
/bin/kill -10 $PID
timeout=0;
while : ; do
OUTPUT=$(cat < named_pipe)
if test [-n] $OUTPUT
then
echo "output is '" $OUTPUT "'"
echo_success
break;
else
timeout=$((timeout+1))
sleep 1
if [ $timeout -ge $SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT ]; then
echo_failure
break
fi
fi
done
I'm finding that even when "success" is not in the log, test [-n] $OUTPUT returns true. This is because apparently OUTPUT is equal to " ". Why is OUTPUT a single space rather than empty?
How can I fix this?

Here's a smaller test case for your problem:
output=""
if test [-n] $output
then
echo "Why does this happen?"
fi
This happens because when $output is empty or whitespace, it expands to nothing, and you just run test [-n].
test foo is true when foo is non-empty. It doesn't matter that your foo is a flag wrapped in square brackets.
The correct way to do this is without the brackets, and with quotes:
if test -n "$output"
then
...
fi
As for why $OUTPUT is a single space, that's simple: it isn't. echo just writes out its arguments separated as spaces, and you specified multiple arguments. The correct code is echo "output is '$OUTPUT'"

Related

How to detect a non-rolling log file and pattern match in a shell script which is using tail, while, read, and?

I am monitoring a log file and if PATTERN didn't appear in it within THRESHOLD seconds, the script should print "error", otherwise, it should print "clear". The script is working fine, but only if the log is rolling.
I've tried reading 'timeout' but didn't work.
log_file=/tmp/app.log
threshold=120
tail -Fn0 ${log_file} | \
while read line ; do
echo "${line}" | awk '/PATTERN/ { system("touch pattern.tmp") }'
code to calculate how long ago pattern.tmp touched and same is assigned to DIFF
if [ ${diff} -gt ${threshold} ]; then
echo "Error"
else
echo "Clear"
done
It is working as expected only when there is 'any' line printed in the app.log.
If the application got hung for any reason and the log stopped rolling, there won't be any output by the script.
Is there a way to detect the 'no output' of tail and do some command at that time?
It looks like the problem you're having is that the timing calculations inside your while loop never get a chance to run when read is blocking on input. In that case, you can pipe the tail output into a while true loop, inside of which you can do if read -t $timeout:
log_file=/tmp/app.log
threshold=120
timeout=10
tail -Fn0 "$log_file" | while true; do
if read -t $timeout line; then
echo "${line}" | awk '/PATTERN/ { system("touch pattern.tmp") }'
fi
# code to calculate how long ago pattern.tmp touched and same is assigned to diff
if [ ${diff} -gt ${threshold} ]; then
echo "Error"
else
echo "Clear"
fi
done
As Ed Morton pointed out, all caps variable names are not a good idea in bash scripts, so I used lowercase variable names.
How about something simple like:
sleep "$threshold"
grep -q 'PATTERN' "$log_file" && { echo "Clear"; exit; }
echo "Error"
If that's not all you need then edit your question to clarify your requirements. Don't use all upper case for non exported shell variable names btw - google it.
To build further on your idea, it might be beneficial to run the awk part in the background and a continuous loop to do the checking.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
log_file="log.txt"
# threshold in seconds
threshold=10
# run the following process in the background
stdbuf -oL tail -f0n "$log_file" \
| awk '/PATTERN/{system("touch "pattern.tmp") }' &
while true; do
match=$(find . -type f -iname "pattern.tmp" -newermt "-${threshold} seconds")
if [[ -z "${match}" ]]; then
echo "Error"
else
echo "Clear"
fi
done
This looks to me like a watchdog timer. I've implemented something like this by forcing a background process to update my log, so I don't have to worry about read -t. Here's a working example:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
threshold=10
grain=2
errorstate=0
while sleep "$grain"; do
date '+[%F %T] watchdog timer' >> log
done &
trap "kill -HUP $!" 0 HUP INT QUIT TRAP ABRT TERM
printf -v lastseen '%(%s)T'
tail -F log | while read line; do
printf -v now '%(%s)T'
if (( now - lastseen > threshold )); then
echo "ERROR"
errorstate=1
else
if (( errorstate )); then
echo "Recovered, yay"
errorstate=0
fi
fi
if [[ $line =~ .*PATTERN.* ]]; then
lastseen=$now
fi
done
Run this in one window, wait $threshold seconds for it to trigger, then in another window echo PATTERN >> log to see the recovery.
While this can be made as granular as you like (I've set it to 2 seconds in the example), it does pollute your log file.
Oh, and note that printf '%(%s)T' format requires bash version 4 or above.

Variable scope in Bash [duplicate]

Please explain to me why the very last echo statement is blank? I expect that XCODE is incremented in the while loop to a value of 1:
#!/bin/bash
OUTPUT="name1 ip ip status" # normally output of another command with multi line output
if [ -z "$OUTPUT" ]
then
echo "Status WARN: No messages from SMcli"
exit $STATE_WARNING
else
echo "$OUTPUT"|while read NAME IP1 IP2 STATUS
do
if [ "$STATUS" != "Optimal" ]
then
echo "CRIT: $NAME - $STATUS"
echo $((++XCODE))
else
echo "OK: $NAME - $STATUS"
fi
done
fi
echo $XCODE
I've tried using the following statement instead of the ++XCODE method
XCODE=`expr $XCODE + 1`
and it too won't print outside of the while statement. I think I'm missing something about variable scope here, but the ol' man page isn't showing it to me.
Because you're piping into the while loop, a sub-shell is created to run the while loop.
Now this child process has its own copy of the environment and can't pass any
variables back to its parent (as in any unix process).
Therefore you'll need to restructure so that you're not piping into the loop.
Alternatively you could run in a function, for example, and echo the value you
want returned from the sub-process.
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/subshells.html#SUBSHELL
The problem is that processes put together with a pipe are executed in subshells (and therefore have their own environment). Whatever happens within the while does not affect anything outside of the pipe.
Your specific example can be solved by rewriting the pipe to
while ... do ... done <<< "$OUTPUT"
or perhaps
while ... do ... done < <(echo "$OUTPUT")
This should work as well (because echo and while are in same subshell):
#!/bin/bash
cat /tmp/randomFile | (while read line
do
LINE="$LINE $line"
done && echo $LINE )
One more option:
#!/bin/bash
cat /some/file | while read line
do
var="abc"
echo $var | xsel -i -p # redirect stdin to the X primary selection
done
var=$(xsel -o -p) # redirect back to stdout
echo $var
EDIT:
Here, xsel is a requirement (install it).
Alternatively, you can use xclip:
xclip -i -selection clipboard
instead of
xsel -i -p
I got around this when I was making my own little du:
ls -l | sed '/total/d ; s/ */\t/g' | cut -f 5 |
( SUM=0; while read SIZE; do SUM=$(($SUM+$SIZE)); done; echo "$(($SUM/1024/1024/1024))GB" )
The point is that I make a subshell with ( ) containing my SUM variable and the while, but I pipe into the whole ( ) instead of into the while itself, which avoids the gotcha.
#!/bin/bash
OUTPUT="name1 ip ip status"
+export XCODE=0;
if [ -z "$OUTPUT" ]
----
echo "CRIT: $NAME - $STATUS"
- echo $((++XCODE))
+ export XCODE=$(( $XCODE + 1 ))
else
echo $XCODE
see if those changes help
Another option is to output the results into a file from the subshell and then read it in the parent shell. something like
#!/bin/bash
EXPORTFILE=/tmp/exportfile${RANDOM}
cat /tmp/randomFile | while read line
do
LINE="$LINE $line"
echo $LINE > $EXPORTFILE
done
LINE=$(cat $EXPORTFILE)

Bash Script - Will not completely execute

I am writing a script that will take in 3 outputs and then search all files within a predefined path. However, my grep command seems to be breaking the script with error code 123. I have been staring at it for a while and cannot really seem the error so I was hoping someone could point out my error. Here is the code:
#! /bin/bash -e
#Check if path exists
if [ -z $ARCHIVE ]; then
echo "ARCHIVE NOT SET, PLEASE SET TO PROCEED."
echo "EXITING...."
exit 1
elif [ $# -ne 3 ]; then
echo "Illegal number of arguments"
echo "Please enter the date in yyyy mm dd"
echo "EXITING..."
exit 1
fi
filename=output.txt
#Simple signal handler
signal_handler()
{
echo ""
echo "Process killed or interrupted"
echo "Cleaning up files..."
rm -f out
echo "Finsihed"
exit 1
}
trap 'signal_handler' KILL
trap 'signal_handler' TERM
trap 'signal_handler' INT
echo "line 32"
echo $1 $2 $3
#Search for the TimeStamp field and replace the / and : characters
find $ARCHIVE | xargs grep -l "TimeStamp: $2/$3/$1"
echo "line 35"
fileSize=`wc -c out.txt | cut -f 1 -d ' '`
echo $fileSize
if [ $fileSize -ge 1 ]; then
echo "no"
xargs -n1 basename < $filename
else
echo "NO FILES EXIST"
fi
I added the echo's to know where it was breaking. My program prints out line 32 and the args but never line 35. When I check the exit code I get 123.
Thanks!
Notes:
ARCHIVE is set to a test directory, i.e. /home/'uname'/testDir
$1 $2 $3 == yyyy mm dd (ie a date)
In testDir there are N number of directories. Inside these directories there are data files that have contain data as well as a time tag. The time tag is of the following format: TimeStamp: 02/02/2004 at 20:38:01
The scripts goal is to find all files that have the date tag you are searching for.
Here's a simpler test case that demonstrates your problem:
#!/bin/bash -e
echo "This prints"
true | xargs false
echo "This does not"
The snippet exits with code 123.
The problem is that xargs exits with code 123 if any command fails. When xargs exits with non-zero status, -e causes the script to exit.
The quickest fix is to use || true to effectively ignore xargs' status:
#!/bin/bash -e
echo "This prints"
true | xargs false || true
echo "This now prints too"
The better fix is to not rely on -e, since this option is misleading and unpredictable.
xargs makes the error code 123 when grep returns a nonzero code even just once. Since you're using -e (#!/bin/bash -e), bash would exit the script when one of its commands return a nonzero exit code. Not using -e would allow your code to continue. Just disabling it on that part can be a solution too:
set +e ## Disable
find "$ARCHIVE" | xargs grep -l "TimeStamp: $2/$1/$3" ## If one of the files doesn't match the pattern, `grep` would return a nonzero code.
set -e ## Enable again.
Consider placing your variables around quotes to prevent word splitting as well like "$ARCHIVE".
-d '\n' may also be required if one of your files' filename contain spaces.
find "$ARCHIVE" | xargs -d '\n' grep -l "TimeStamp: $2/$1/$3"

How to exit from a method in shell script

I am new to shell scripting and stuck with a problem. In my shell method if I saw any validation issue then rest of the programm will not execute and will show user a message. Till validation it's done but when I used exit 0 then only it comes out of the validation loop not from full method.
config_wuigm_parameters () {
echo "Starting to config parameters for WUIGM....." | tee -a $log
prepare_wuigm_conf_file
echo "Configing WUIGM parameters....." | tee -a $log
local parafile=`dirname $0`/wuigm.conf
local pname=""
local pvalue=""
create_preference_template
cat ${parafile} |while read -r line;do
pname=`echo $line | egrep -e "^([^#]*)=(.*)" | cut -d '=' -f 1`
if [ -n "$pname" ] ; then
lsearch=`echo $line | grep "[<|>|\"]" `
if [ -n "$lsearch" ] ; then
echo validtion=$lsearch
echo "< or > character present , Replace < with < and > with >"
exit 1;
else
pvalue=`echo $line | egrep -e "^([^#]*)=(.*)" | cut -d '=' -f 2- `
echo "<entry key=\"$pname\" value=\"$pvalue\"/>" >> $prefs
echo "Configured : ${pname} = ${pvalue} " | tee -a $log
fi
fi
done
echo $validtion
echo "</map>" >> $prefs
# Copy the file to the original location
cp -f $prefs /root/.java/.userPrefs/com/ericsson/pgm/xwx
# removing the local temp file
rm -f $prefs
reboot_server
}
Any help would be great
It is because the construction
cat file | while read ...
starts a new (sub)shell.
In the next you can see the difference:
echoline() {
cat "$1" | while read -r line
do
echo ==$line==
exit 1
done
echo "Still here after the exit"
}
echoline $#
and compare with this
echoline() {
while read -r line
do
echo ==$line==
exit 1
done < "$1"
echo "This is not printed after the exit"
}
echoline $#
Using the return doesn't helps too, (because of subshell). The
echoline() {
cat "$1" | while read -r line
do
echo ==$line==
return 1
done
echo "Still here"
}
echoline $#
will still prints the "Still here".
So, if you want exit the script, use the
while read ...
do
...
done < input #this not starts a new subshell
if want exit just the method (return from it) must check the exit startus of the previous command, like:
echoline() {
cat "$1" | while read -r line
do
echo ==$line==
exit 1
done || return 1
echo "In case of exit (or return), this is not printed"
}
echoline $#
echo "After the function call"
Instead of || or you can use the
[ $? != 0 ] && return 1
just after the while.
You use the return instruction to exit a function with a value.
return [n]
Causes a function to exit with the return value specified by n. If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last command executed in the function body. If used outside a function, but during execution of a script by the . (source) command, it causes the shell to stop executing that script and return either n or the exit status of the last command executed within the script as the exit status of the script. If used out‐side a function and not during execution of a script by ., the return status is false. Any command associated with the RETURN trap is executed before execution resumes after the function or script.
If you want to exit a loop, use the break instruction instead:
break [n]
Exit from within a for, while, until, or select loop. If n is specified, break n levels. n must be ≥ 1. If n is greater than the number of enclosing loops, all enclosing loops are exited. The return value is 0 unless n is not greater than or equal to 1.
The exit instruction exits the current shell instead, so the current program as a whole. If you use sub-shells, code written between parenthesis, then only that sub-shell exits.

Bash variable scope

Please explain to me why the very last echo statement is blank? I expect that XCODE is incremented in the while loop to a value of 1:
#!/bin/bash
OUTPUT="name1 ip ip status" # normally output of another command with multi line output
if [ -z "$OUTPUT" ]
then
echo "Status WARN: No messages from SMcli"
exit $STATE_WARNING
else
echo "$OUTPUT"|while read NAME IP1 IP2 STATUS
do
if [ "$STATUS" != "Optimal" ]
then
echo "CRIT: $NAME - $STATUS"
echo $((++XCODE))
else
echo "OK: $NAME - $STATUS"
fi
done
fi
echo $XCODE
I've tried using the following statement instead of the ++XCODE method
XCODE=`expr $XCODE + 1`
and it too won't print outside of the while statement. I think I'm missing something about variable scope here, but the ol' man page isn't showing it to me.
Because you're piping into the while loop, a sub-shell is created to run the while loop.
Now this child process has its own copy of the environment and can't pass any
variables back to its parent (as in any unix process).
Therefore you'll need to restructure so that you're not piping into the loop.
Alternatively you could run in a function, for example, and echo the value you
want returned from the sub-process.
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/subshells.html#SUBSHELL
The problem is that processes put together with a pipe are executed in subshells (and therefore have their own environment). Whatever happens within the while does not affect anything outside of the pipe.
Your specific example can be solved by rewriting the pipe to
while ... do ... done <<< "$OUTPUT"
or perhaps
while ... do ... done < <(echo "$OUTPUT")
This should work as well (because echo and while are in same subshell):
#!/bin/bash
cat /tmp/randomFile | (while read line
do
LINE="$LINE $line"
done && echo $LINE )
One more option:
#!/bin/bash
cat /some/file | while read line
do
var="abc"
echo $var | xsel -i -p # redirect stdin to the X primary selection
done
var=$(xsel -o -p) # redirect back to stdout
echo $var
EDIT:
Here, xsel is a requirement (install it).
Alternatively, you can use xclip:
xclip -i -selection clipboard
instead of
xsel -i -p
I got around this when I was making my own little du:
ls -l | sed '/total/d ; s/ */\t/g' | cut -f 5 |
( SUM=0; while read SIZE; do SUM=$(($SUM+$SIZE)); done; echo "$(($SUM/1024/1024/1024))GB" )
The point is that I make a subshell with ( ) containing my SUM variable and the while, but I pipe into the whole ( ) instead of into the while itself, which avoids the gotcha.
#!/bin/bash
OUTPUT="name1 ip ip status"
+export XCODE=0;
if [ -z "$OUTPUT" ]
----
echo "CRIT: $NAME - $STATUS"
- echo $((++XCODE))
+ export XCODE=$(( $XCODE + 1 ))
else
echo $XCODE
see if those changes help
Another option is to output the results into a file from the subshell and then read it in the parent shell. something like
#!/bin/bash
EXPORTFILE=/tmp/exportfile${RANDOM}
cat /tmp/randomFile | while read line
do
LINE="$LINE $line"
echo $LINE > $EXPORTFILE
done
LINE=$(cat $EXPORTFILE)

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