[SOLVED] bash functon to run command and output to log file

funkytwig · 03-26-2019, 02:24 PM

I am trying to write a function in bash that takes a Linux command and runs it sending output to a log file. For each line the command outputs I want to add date/time in front of it in the log file. I almost got it working but some Linux commands don't work.

Code:

function log {
  timestamp=`date +%D_%R`
  log_text="${timestamp} $1"
  printf "${log_text}\n" >> $LOG
}

function log_file {
  while read line
  do
    log "${line}"
  done < "$1"
}

function run_cmd {
  tmp_log=/tmp/$$_cmd.log
  log "$1"
  $1 > ${tmp_log} 2>&1
  ret=$?

  if [ -f ${tmp_log} ]; then
    log_file ${tmp_log}
  fi

  if [ ${ret} -ne 0 ]; then
    log "${ret} : $1"
  fi

  return ${ret}
}

This works most of the time, for example if I do

run_cmd "ls -l /tmp"

The log file has each line of the output from ls on a separate line of the logfile with date/time before it.

However, if I do

du -hc --time --max-depth=1 /home/back/tvpp/ | sort -k2

I get the following (error)

03/26/19_19:03 du -hc --time --max-depth=1 /home/back/tvpp/ | sort -k2
03/26/19_19:03 du: invalid option -- '2'
03/26/19_19:03 Try 'du --help' for more information.
03/26/19_19:03 1 : du -hc --time --max-depth=1 /home/back/tvpp/ | sort -k2

Its something to do with using pipes but can quite figure it out.