shell script execution sequence - debugging

I'm debugging a shell script
so I add set -x at the beginning
a code snippet are as below
tcpdump -i $interface host $ip_addr and 'port 80' -w flash/flash.pcap &
sudo -u esolve firefox /tor_capture/flash.html &
sleep $capture_time
but I noticed that the execution sequence is as below
++ sleep 5
++ sudo -u esolve firefox /tor_capture/flash.html
++ tcpdump -i eth0 host 138.96.192.56 and 'port 80' -w flash/flash.pcap
tcpdump: listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
so the execution sequence is reversed compared to the command sequence in the script
what is wrong with this and how to deal with it?
thanks!

Since those lines are being backgrounded, I think the output from set -x comes from the subshell that is spawned to run the program, and the main shell gets to the sleep command before the subshells have proceeded to the point that they generate the output. That would explain why the sleep command shows up first. With regards to the other two, I would think you might occasionally get them in the other order, as well, since there's no synchronization between the two - depending on how many CPUs you have, how busy the system is, etc., the timing between the subshells is pseudo-non-deterministic...

Do you need the first 2 lines to run as background processes?
If not, remove the & at the end and try again.

Related

Running processes simultaneously, Bash

I would like to run n processes (in my case simulations) simultaneously, using bash.
Right now this is what I'm running:
for file in $ini/SAN*.ini;
do
echo "Running $file...";
temp=$(basename $file .ini)
mosrun -G opp_run -r 0 -u Cmdenv -n ..:../../src -l ../../src/inet SAN.ini > $outputs/$temp.out;
done
Problem is, the loop only progresses to the next iteration after the simulation is done. Any suggestions? Thanks!
You should be able to run your command in the background by adding a & after it.
Should make them run in parallell, although in the background.
(Small side note: the processes will continue to run even if you abort the script, so you might want to add a trap to kill the processes if you hit for eg. ctrl-c when script is running. Look at bash manual.)

Buffered pipe in bash

I'm running a Bukkit (Minecraft) server on a Linux machine and I want to have the server gracefully shut down using the server's stop command and the computer suspend at a certain time using pm-suspend from the command line. Here's what I've got:
me#comp~/dir$ perl -e 'sleep [time]; print "stop\\n";' | ./server && sudo pm-suspend
(I've edited by /etc/sudoers so I don't have to enter my password when I suspend.)
The thing is, while the perl -e is sleeping, the server is expecting a constant stream of bytes, (That's my guess. I could be misunderstanding something.) so it prints out all of the nothings it receives, taking up precious resources:
me#comp~/dir$ ...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...
Is there any such thing as a buffered pipe? If not, are there any ways to send delayed input to a script?
You may want to have a look at Bukkit's wiki, which recommends an init script for permanently running servers.
This init script uses rather unconventional approach to communicate with running server. The server is started in screen session, then all commands are send to the server console via screen, e.g.
screen -p 0 -S $SCREEN -X eval 'stuff \"stop\"\015'
See https://github.com/Ahtenus/minecraft-init/blob/master/minecraft
This approach suggest that bukkit may be expecting standard input to be attached to a terminal, thus requiring screen wrapper (which is itself terminal emulator) for unattended runs.

how do i start commands in new terminals in BASH script

my bash script reads in a few variables and then runs airodump on my home network. I would like to keep the window with airodump running and open some new terminals to run other commands for network discovery while the airodump screen is open (so i can see the results).
right now what i have looks like this (edited for brevity):
#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter the channel: $channel"
airomon-ng start wlan0 $channel,$channel
airodump-ng -c $channel,$channel mon0 &&
terminator -e netstat -ax &&
terminator -e nmap 192.168.1.1
the first command that uses the whole terminal (airodump) starts up fine and i can see the network, but then it just stays on that screen. If i ctrl+c then it goes back to prompt but i can see the error : Usage: terminator [options] error no such option
i want the netstat and nmap commands to appear and stay in their own terminal windows, how can i do this?
The terminal window is generated by a separate program from the command running inside. Try one of these variations:
xterm -e airomon-start wlan0 "$channel","$channel" &
gnome-terminal -x airomon-start wlan0 "$channel","$channel" &
konsole -e airomon-start wlan0 "$channel","$channel" &
Pick the command that invokes the terminal program you like. You'll have to do this for every command that you want run in its own window. Also, you need to use a single & at the end of each such command line -- not a double && -- those do totally different things. And the last line of your script should be just
wait
that makes it not exit out from under all the terminals, possibly causing them all to die.
Obligatory tangential shell-scripting nitpick: ALWAYS put shell variable uses inside double quotes, unless you know for a fact that you need word-splitting to happen on a particular use.
If the script is running in the foreground in the terminal, then it will pause while an interactive command is using the terminal. You could change the script to run airodump in a new terminal as well, or you could run the background commands before you start airodump (maybe after sleeping, if you're concerned they won't work right if run first?)

Spawn subshell for SSH and continue with program flow

I'm trying to write a shell script that automates certain startup tasks based on my location (home/campusA/campusB). I go to University and take classes in two different campuses (hence campusA/campusB). My location is determined by which wireless network I'm connected to. For the purposes of this script, we can assume that I will be connected to one of these networks when the script is called and my script knows which one I'm connected to based on a call to iwconfig.
This is what I want it to do:
cat file1 > file2 # always do this, regardless of where I am
if Im at home:
start tweetdeck, thunderbird, skype
else if Im at campusA:
activate the login script # I need to login on a webform before I get internet access.
# I have written a script to automate this.
# Wait for this script to finish before doing anything else
myProg2 & # I want myProg2 running in the background until I shutdown my computer.
else if Im at campusB:
ssh username#domain # this is the problematic line
myProg2 & # I want myProg2 running in the background until I shutdown my computer.
start tweetdeck, thunderbird
close the terminal with the "exit" command
The problem is that campusB's wireless network is behind a firewall, which grants me internet access ONLY after I successfully ssh by username#domain. After a successful ssh, I need to keep the terminal window active in order to hold keep the internet access. If I close the terminal window, I lose internet access (this is bad).
When I try doing just ssh username#domain, the script stops because I don't exit the ssh command. I can't ^C out of it, which means that the rest of the script is never executed. I also have the same problem if I just close the terminal window in an attempt to kill the ssh session.
Some googling brought me to subshell, which I'm either using wrong or can't use to solve my problem. So how should I go about solving this problem? I'd appreciate any help - I've been at this for a while now and am unable to find anything helpful. If it makes a difference, I'd rather not store my ssh password in the script
Further, ampersanding the ssh call (ssh username#domain &) doesn't seem to do any good (can anyone explain why?)
Thank you in advance
EDIT
I must clarify, that the ssh connection has to be active in order for me to have internet access. Thus, when I close the terminal window, I need the ssh connection to still be active.
I had a script that looped on 6 servers, calling via ssh in the background. In 1 part of the script, there was a mis-behaving vendor application; the application didn't 'let go' of the connection properly. (other parts of the script using ssh in background worked fine).
I found that using ssh -t -t cured the problem. Maybe this can help you too.
(a teammate found this on the web, and we had spent so much time, I never went back to read the article that suggested this. The man page on our system gave no hint that such a thing was possible)
Hope this helps.
You may want to try to double background myProg2 to detach it from the tty:
# cf. "Wizard Boot Camp, Part Six: Daemons & Subshells",
# http://www.linux-mag.com/id/5981
(myProg2 &) &
Another option may be to use the daemon tool from the libslack package:
http://ingvar.blog.linpro.no/2009/05/18/todays-sysadmin-tip-using-libslack-daemon-to-daemonize-a-script/
Having a ssh with pseudy tty on background shell
In addition to #shellter's answer, I would like make some precision:
where #shelter said:
The man page on our system gave no hint that such a thing was possible
On my system (Debian 7 GNU/Linux), if I hit:
man -Pcol\ -b ssh| grep -A3 '^ *-t '
I could read:
-t Force pseudo-tty allocation. This can be used to execute arbi‐
trary screen-based programs on a remote machine, which can be
very useful, e.g. when implementing menu services. Multiple -t
options force tty allocation, even if ssh has no local tty.
Yes: Multiple -t options force tty allocation, even if ssh has no local tty.
This mean: If you remotely run a tool that require access to pseudo terminal ( pty like /dev/pts/0), you could run them by using -t switch.
But this would work only if ssh is run from a shell console (aka having his own pty). If you plan to run them is shell session without console, like background scripts, you may use Multiple -t to enforce pseudo tty allocation from ssh.
Multiple ssh shell on one ssh connection
In addition to answers from #tommy and #geekosaur, I would make some precision:
#tommy point to a very intersting feature of ssh. Not sure this have a lot to do with answer, but speaking around long time connection, this feature has to be clearly understood.
Once a connection is established, ssh could (and know how to) use them to drive a lot of thing in this one connection:
-L let you drive remote TCP connections to local machines/network. (full syntax is: -L localip:localport:distip:distport) where localip could be specified to permit other hosts from same local domain to access same tcp bind, and distip could by any host from distant network ( not only localhost ) sample: -L192.168.1.31:8443:google.com:443 permit any host from local domain to reach google through your host: http://192.168.1.31:8443
-R Same remarks in reverse way!
-M Tell ssh to open a local unix socket for bindind next ssh consoles. Simply open two terminal window. First in both window, hit: ssh somewhere than hit netstat -tan | grep :22 or netstat -tan | grep 192.168.1.31:22 (assuming 192.168.1.31 is your onw host's ip)
Than compare close all your ssh session and in first terminal, hit: ssh -M somewhere and in second, simply ssh somewhere. you may see in second terminal:
$ ssh somewhere
+ ssh somewhere
Last login: Mon Feb 3 08:58:01 2014 from elsewhere
If now you hit netstat -tan | grep 192.168.1.31:22 (on any of two oppened ssh session;) you must see that there is only one tcp connection.
This kind of features could be used in combination with -L and maybe some sleep 86399...
To work around a tcp killer router that close every inactive TCP connection from more than 120 seconds, I run:
ssh -M somewhere 'while :;do uptime;sleep 60;done'
This ensure connection stay up even if I dont hit a key for more than two minutes.
Here's a few thoughts that might help.
Sub-shells
Sub-shells fork new processes, but don't return control to the calling shell. If you want to fork a sub-shell to do the work for you, then you'll need to append a & to the line.
(ssh username#domain) &
But this doesn't look like a compelling reason to use a sub-shell. If you had a number commands you wanted to execute in order from each other, yet in parallel from the calling shell, then maybe it would be worth it. For example...
(dothis.sh; thenthis.sh; andthislastthingtoo.sh) &
Forking
I'm not sure why & isn't working for you, but it may be worth looking into nohup as well. This makes the command "immune" to hang up signals.
nohup ssh username#domain (try with and without the & at the end)
Passwords
Not storing passwords in the script is essential for any ssh automation. You can accomplish that using public key cryptography which is an inherent feature of ssh. I wont go into the details here because there are a number of great resources all across the interwebs on setting this up. I strongly suggest investigating this further.
HOWTO: set up ssh keys - Paul Keck, 2001
SSH Keys - archlinux.org
SSH with authentication key instead of password - Debian Administration
Secure Shell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If you do go this route, I also suggest running ssh in "batch mode" which will disable password querying and will automatically disconnect from the server if it becomes unresponsive after 5 minutes.
ssh -o 'BatchMode=yes' username#domain
Persistence
Then if you want to persist the connection, run some silly loop in bash! :)
ssh -o 'BatchMode=yes' username#domain "while (( 1 == 1 )); do sleep 60; done"
The problem with & is that ssh loses access to its standard input (the terminal), so when it goes to read something to send to the other side it either gets an error and exits, or is killed by the system with SIGTTIN which will implicitly suspend it. The -n and -f options are used to deal with this: -n tells it not to use standard input, -f tells it to set up any necessary tunnels etc., then close the terminal stream.
So the best way to do this is probably to do
ssh -L 9999:localhost:9999 -f host & # for some random unused port
and then manually kill the ssh before logout. Alternately,
ssh -L 9999:localhost:9999 -n host 'while :; do sleep 86400; done' </dev/null &
(The redirection is to make sure the SIGTTIN doesn't happen anyway.)
While you're at it, you may want to save the process ID and shut it down from your .logout/.bash_logout:
ssh -L 9999:localhost:9999 -n host 'while :; do sleep 86400; done' < /dev/null & echo $! >~.ssh_pid; chmod 0600 ~/.ssh_pid
and in .bash_logout:
if test -f ~/.ssh_pid; then
set -- $(sed -n 's/^\([0-9][0-9]*\)$/\1/p' ~/.ssh_pid)
if [ $# = 1 ]; then
kill $1 >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
rm ~/.ssh_pid
fi
The extra code there attempts to avoid someone sabotaging your ~/.ssh_pid, because I'm a professional paranoid.
(Code untested and may have typoes)
It's been a while since I've used ssh, and I can't test it right now, but have you tried the -f switch?
ssh -f username#domain
The man page says it backgrounds ssh. Not sure why & wouldn't work, but I guess it's interpreting it as a command to be run on the remote machine.
Maybe screen + ssh would fit the bill as well?
Something like:
screen -d -m -S sessionName cmd
screen -d -m -S sessionName cmd &
# reconnect with
screen -r sessionName

grep 5 seconds of input from the serial port inside a shell-script

I've got a device that I'm operating next to my PC and as it runs it's spitting log lines out it's serial port. I have this wired to my PC and I can see the log lines fine if I'm using either minicom or something like:
ttylog -b 115200 -d /dev/ttyS0
I want to write 5 seconds of the device serial output to a temp file (or assign it to a variable) and then later grep that file for keywords that will let me know how the device is operating. I've already tried redirecting the output to a file while running the command in the background, and then sleeping 5 seconds and killing the process, but the log lines never get written to my temp file. Example:
touch tempFile
ttylog -b 115200 -d /dev/ttyS0 >> tempFile &
serialPID=$!
sleep 5
#kill ${serialPID} #does not work, gets wrong PID
killall ttylog
cat tempFile
The file gets created but never filled with any data. I can also replace the ttylog line with:
ttylog -b 115200 -d /dev/ttyS0 |tee -a tempFile &
In neither case do I ever see any log lines logged to stdout or the log file unless I have multiple versions of ttylog running by mistake (see commented out line, D'oh).
I have no idea what's going on here. It seems to be a failure of redirection within my script.
Am I on the right track? Is there a better way to sample 5 seconds of the serial port?
It sounds like maybe ttylog is buffering its output. Have you tried running it with -f or --flush?
You might try the unbuffer script that comes with expect.
ttylog has a --timeout option, where you can simply specify for how many seconds it should run.
So, in your case, you could do
ttylog --baud 115200 --device /dev/ttyS0 --timeout 5
and it would just run for 5 seconds and then stop.
Indeed it also has the -f option as mentioned which flushes, but if you'd use --timeout you would not be needing that.

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