How does one make an intentional loop?

midlifecrisis · 06-09-2008, 08:25 PM

Hello everyone,

I'm very new to BASH programming and can't find an example of how to make a loop that runs forever on purpose -I'm finding examples of people trying to stop their perpetual loop -only.

What I want to write is a script that copies files to a directory, then deletes those files -over and over again, until I hit Ctrl + C

I'm working in Linux Red Hat 7.2.
Thanks.

stress_junkie · 06-09-2008, 08:32 PM

There are several guides to scripting in bash on the Internet. Here is one.

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

jailbait · 06-09-2008, 08:32 PM

You can create an infinite loop by using a while statement where the test is never false. For example:

Code:

set i 0
while {$i<1}  {
  cp some files to a directory
  rm some files in a directory
  }

-------------------
Steve Stites

adamben · 06-09-2008, 08:35 PM

while : ; do cp /directory1/* /directory2/; rm /directory2/*; done

or, to include directories and add a little force:
while : ; do cp -R /directory1/* /directory2/; rm -rf /directory2/*; done

while true: ; do cp /directory1/* /directory2/; rm /directory2/*; done

midlifecrisis · 06-10-2008, 03:03 AM

Thank you guys; I didn't realize that it was such a simple thing to accomplish.