I have written an interface for the software my company uses, so that our sales reps neither have to use our Mfg software or learn how to get around in linux.
I am using less to display files to them.
If I execute my script from the user's command line, less acts normally.
If I run it from their .bash_profile, less does not execute each command as you type the keystroke. It gathers them on the less command line.
Does anyone have any idea why?
The only significant difference I can find in environment variables between the two situations is that SHLVL is 1 when it works and 2 when it doesn't.
Thank you, any help is greatly appreciated

I tried a little script involving less on my system and it seemed to run fine from both the command-line and from .bash_profile. Could you post your script (or at least part of it) so I can try it on my system?

--mascdman

Using RedHat 7.3 and have tried TERMs wyse60 wyse50 vt100 linux-c They all seem to do this


# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/u/pic
BASH_ENV=$HOME/.bashrc
USERNAME=""
number=""
curhour=""
export USERNAME BASH_ENV PATH TERM

#kick 'em off if they try to log on during normal hours
#curhour=`date +%H`
if echo "6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17" | grep $curhour > /dev/null 2> /dev/nu
ll; then
echo "Hey! Don't Come Around Here No More...."
echo "At least, not until 6pm CST."
sleep 5
exit
fi

COMMCODE1=123
COMMCODE2=154

export COMMCODE1 COMMCODE2

myname=`echo $LOGNAME | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'`
number=`ps -ef|grep "$LOGNAME"|grep -v grep|grep slsblah.bat|wc -l`
if [ $number = "0" ]; then
cd /u/blah/blah4sales
less test (this less works normally and happily)
./slsblah.bat 2>> /u/blah/blah4sales/errors
elif [ $number = "1" ]; then
cd /u/blah/blah4sales
./slsblah.bat #2>> /u/blah/blah4sales/errors
else
echo "TOO MANY SESSIONS - YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO LOG ON "$numbe
r" TIME"
sleep 5
fi
exit


the script in question runs the less as soon as it's called (the true less call actually happens in a script that This script calls, but for testing purposes I moved it to be the first command run by a script that .bash_profile calls. And it still does it.)

#!/bin/sh (have tried without this, and with bin/bash instead... both do the same thing)

cd /u/blah/blah4sales
less test (This less does the annoying command line stlye handling of keystrokes)
env > /u/blah/blah4sales/env2
###########################################################################
# SCRIPT: slsblah.bat
# PURPOSE: Provide sls reps with ability to run reports.
###########################################################################
cd /u/pic/

CLEAR='tput clear'
ANSWER=""
SLSPATH="/u/blah/blah4sales"
SLSLIBPATH="/u/blah/blah4sales/lib"
menu=true

export SLSPATH SLSLIBPATH CLEAR
while $menu
do

$CLEAR

Just so I understand things, the less command is displaying some text and then you want ./slsblah.bat to handle keystrokes?

--mascdman

no, I want less to handle the keystrokes.

Example1:
less test (this less works normally and happily)
./slsblah.bat 2>> /u/blah/blah4sales/errors

[this less is called from within the .bash_profile for the user. Here it works normally. It displays a textfile for me. When I hit page down, it scrolls down, when I hit 'q', it quits.]

Example 2: (immediately after Ex. 1, I enter the script slsblah.bat)
(and immediately after entering slsblah.bat, I call less, like so)

#!/bin/sh (have tried without this, and with bin/bash instead... both do the same thing)

cd /u/blah/blah4sales
less test (This less does the annoying command line stlye handling of keystrokes)


[this time less is called, when I hit the q key, it places a q down on the command line and sits there. the same with any other key, until I hit enter, then it processes the commands like a queue, FIFO style. So, when I display reports to the screen for my sales reps, they have to type an enter after every keystroke they hit in order for less to respond.]


Just so I understand things, the less command is displaying some text and then you want ./slsblah.bat to handle keystrokes?

--mascdman

Since you bring this up. If there is a way my script can use less to display the text, but have my script get the keys and filter them into the less program. I could grab a keystroke and add the \r to it before I send it to the less script. But as I understand bash scripting, slsblah.bat goes into the background and waits for less to be exited before having any control.

I just can't understand how less could work just fine when called from the .bash_profile, but get so upset about being called from a script that the .bash_profile calls. I mean what's the big difference?

I think I might have found something. I running less from the beginning of another script that I had written: ordbook.bat, and called it in place of slsblah.bat in the .bash_profile
and it was good.
I cannot see what the difference between the scipts could be since they both call less as their first command.
A file on both script files produced the following.
Could this difference in file types be causing my problem?


[]# file slsblah.bat
slsblah.bat: ISO-8859 text
[]# file ordbook.bat
ordbook.bat: ASCII English text, with CR, LF line terminators, with escape sequences

sorry... mystery solved
the key lies in this line:

./slsblah.bat 2>> /u/blah/blah4sales/errors

when I changed it to

./slsblah.bat #2>> /u/blah/blah4sales/errors

the less called from slsblah.bat worked

something about less apparently really dislikes outputting errors to a log file
3 days and it was right there all the time!!! madness!!!

Hmm, that's a good thing to know about less. Glad to hear that your script is working.

--mascdman