Bash scripting alternating

xvalentinex · 12-05-2005, 04:49 AM

This should be a simple one for all you programming gurus

Kind of hard for me to explain and I'm sure there's a guide out there that tells how to do it, I just don't know what to search for (believe me I tried).

What I am looking to do is create that alternating dash mark that shows the script is working.

It sort of looks like this while working, except all the same line, with the last character appearing to be spinning.

Moving /dir1/file to /dir2/file... /
Moving /dir1/file to /dir2/file... -
Moving /dir1/file to /dir2/file... \
Moving /dir1/file to /dir2/file... /
Moving /dir1/file to /dir2/file... -
Moving /dir1/file to /dir2/file... \

Does this make any sense?

Thanks for any help,
-xvalentinex

cs-cam · 12-05-2005, 05:11 AM

Is this ultimately similar to what you're trying to achieve? I know it doesn't answer your question but if somebody has done the work already no need to start again if you don't have to

xvalentinex · 12-05-2005, 02:34 PM

Yeah sort of like that, but on a much simpler scale.

I took a look at the source hoping to grab some tidbits, but It looks like c and a very long source at that. I just need something really simple that shows the script is working.

schneidz · 12-05-2005, 02:38 PM

i think this is what you want:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hlight=spinner
hth

cs-cam · 12-06-2005, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schneidz

i think this is what you want:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hlight=spinner
hth

I didn't mean to copy the code, your example script was moving a file. I figured if you just wanted to pretty up mv a little then that's been done already

xvalentinex · 12-06-2005, 07:39 PM

The spinner is perfect, and cs-cam that definately helps and simplifies while looking better too. To be more clear what I am trying to do is unrar some files and move them to a network server. The spinner is great since I am sending the rar output to /dev/null and the progress bar works for the move portion.

I'm still quite a newb at linux and especially scripting. Perhaps someone could shed some light on what I need to do to have the spinner going while the file is unraring.

Here is a snippet of what I have but it doesn't work.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Author: 
# Created 12.05.2005

# Spinner function
spinner() {
sleep 1
echo -ne "\b\\"
sleep 1
echo -ne "\b|"
sleep 1
echo -ne "\b/"
sleep 1
echo -ne "\b-"
}

# Getting files extracted to ./

for CDNUM1 in {CD,cd}1
do
    if [ -d $CDNUM1 ]
    then
        echo Now working on $CDNUM1
        CD1AVI=`rar vb ./$CDNUM1/*.rar`
        echo The file for CD1 is $CD1AVI
        echo -ne "-"
        while [ `rar e ./$CDNUM1/*.rar ./ > /dev/null` ]
        do
            spinner
        done
        echo Done extracting $CD1AVI
    fi
done

bigearsbilly · 12-07-2005, 06:12 AM

do the spinner as a function.
set it background save pid.
do processing and kill the spinner.
something like

Code:

spinner &
spinner_pid=$!
do_process
kill $spinner_pid

bigearsbilly · 12-07-2005, 06:20 AM

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

# Spinner function
spinner() {
  while : ;do

    printf "\b\\"
    printf "\b|"
    printf "\b/"
    printf "\b-"
  done
}

echo hello
spinner &
sleep 5
kill $!

though of course if your process outputs it will
foul up the spinner.

bigearsbilly · 12-07-2005, 06:28 AM

also you may need an EXIT trap in case you end up with a spinner
lying around after a break.

xvalentinex · 12-07-2005, 12:56 PM

Works great, thanks guys