how to know if the shell is interactive or not?

anupamsr · 01-20-2007, 05:28 AM

Hi!

I want to know when the shell is launched interactively and when it is not. I mean, is there some check which I can incorporate in a /etc/profile? Something like this:

Code:

if (interactive shell); then
  echo "it is"
else
  echo "it is not"
fi

unSpawn · 01-20-2007, 06:37 AM

A bit of RT(Fine)M wouldn't hurt IMNHO.

man bash:

Quote:

An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments and
without the -c option whose standard input and output are both con-
nected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one started with
the -i option. PS1 is set and $- includes i if bash is interactive,
allowing a shell script or a startup file to test this state.

man ksh:

Quote:

A shell is interactive if the -i option is used or if both standard
input and standard error are attached to a tty. An interactive shell
has job control enabled (if available), ignores the INT, QUIT and TERM
signals, and prints prompts before reading input (see PS1 and PS2
parameters). For non-interactive shells, the trackall option is on by
default (see set command below).

anupamsr · 01-20-2007, 07:31 AM

Thanks!

I should have looked into man before googling... and google won't accept $ term :P