Running a bash script at startup

linker3000 · 05-17-2007, 06:07 PM

Hi,

I have a bash script that reads an image from a security camera every second using wget. At the moment I start the script manually as below. Is it safe to put this startup line in rc.local so that it starts automatically when the server boots? I'd try it now but the server is a long drive away if it goes wrong!

Thanks

Script started with: nohup /root/knapcap.sh &

Script:

# Capture camera image every second
while [ true ]; do
sleep 1
mkdir -p /home/knapcam/$(date +\%Y\%m\%d)/$(date +\%H)
wget --quiet --output-document=/home/knapcam/$(date +\%Y\%m\%d)/$(date +\%H)/knap1_$(date +\%Y\%m\%d\%H\%M\%S).jpg [address of camera]/still.jpg
done

fukawi2 · 05-17-2007, 09:55 PM

Whoops... Correct post comes next....

fukawi2 · 05-17-2007, 10:00 PM

Code:

#!/bin/bash

while [ true ]; do
   # Sleep my pretty...
   sleep 1

   # Set our variables for directories and files
   fDir1=`date +\%Y\%m\%d`
   fDir2=`date +\%H`
   fName=`date +\%Y\%m\%d\%H\%M\%S`
   
   # Make the Directory + Download image to it
   mkdir -p /home/knapcam/$fDir1/$fDir2
   wget --quiet --output-document=/home/knapcam/$fDir1/$fDir2/knap1_$fName.jpg [address of camera]/still.jpg
done

exit 0

That should be fine to put in to /etc/rc.local using the nohup and background you posted

I changed it to set the variables of the dates you want and use them when creating directories etc in the extremely unlikely case that the minute ticked over between the mkdir and wget command

And alternative would be to add it to crontab as an @reboot task.