Bash – How to set a timeout within a BASH script for a process that sometimes becomes inactive

bashscripting

I have a bash script that runs a lot of commands/tools like convert or pdftk via CRON.

It happens quite often that e.g. pdftk becomes "stale" or "hangs" and the calling script stops proceeding.

Is there a simple way from within the bash script (via trap?) to set a time limit for execution or detect inactivity (by whatever definition) for a specific call?

Best Answer

BASH FAQ entry #68: "How do I run a command, and have it abort (timeout) after N seconds?"

Related Solutions

BASH Script – How to Test for IP Address

Something fairly simple that you can modify to suit your needs:

ip addr show dev eth0 | fgrep -q 'inet 192.168.1.1'
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
   echo 'IP found'
else
   echo 'IP not found'
fi

EDIT: forgot the fgrep :)

Run Local Bash Script on Remote Machines via SSH – Step-by-Step Guide

You can pass a script and have it execute ephemerally by piping it in and executing a shell.

e.g.

echo "ls -l; echo 'Hello World'" | ssh me@myserver /bin/bash

Naturally, the "ls -l; echo 'Hello World'" part could be replaced with a bash script stored in a file on the local machine.

e.g.

cat script.sh | ssh me@myserver /bin/bash

Cheers!

Best Answer

Related Solutions

BASH Script – How to Test for IP Address

Run Local Bash Script on Remote Machines via SSH – Step-by-Step Guide

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