Hi all,

I am trying to include a percentage bar with the cp command...
basically i am copying a few files onto ram during the boot process itself...
these files come upto 550mb and it evidently takes up some time for the cp to happen....
I have written a script that calculates the % of completion but the problem is that am unable to see the numericals when the cp is underway..
All i can see is the % mark that keeps moving...

But here is the surprising thing...If i use the same script to cp files once the system is up and running, i can see the numericals as well...
I am not sure why this is happening and need your help in figuring it out!!

Here is the code
#!/bin/sh

copy()
{
if [ $# = 2 ];then
source=`/usr/bin/stat -c %s $1`
dest=0
while [ $source -gt $dest ];do
dest=`/usr/bin/stat -c %s $2`
/usr/bin/cp -f $1 $2 &
#echo "# \c"
pct=`/usr/bin/expr $dest*100`
pct1=`/usr/bin/expr $pct/$source | /usr/bin/bc`
echo "$pct1% \c"
dest=`expr $dest+1`
sleep 1
done
else
echo "error"
fi
}

echo "now starting"
copy <file1> <file2>

The doubt i had was where the bc was capable of running at boot time?
So i included the binaries of bc into the ramdisk....but even then thre is no change??
Could you pls help me out with this?

NOTE:remember that this function is included in the one of the scripts that is required to mount FS onto respective place.....its not used after the system is up and running!!!!

Thanks

Not directly answering to you question but there is a flaw in your script. If cp hasn't complete in less than one second, you start a new cp from the beginning while the older one is still running. The cp command should be placed outside the while loop.

oh!!!! ok,
guess my logic was wrong...
I will place the cp outside the loop and rm sleep, lets see what happens...
Will reply back!!

Thanks

Ouch. Don't remove the sleep unless you want to hog your box ...

well well well!!!!!
guess i found it out for myself....

Thanks anyway, but i have a even bigger problem now, infact a major one...
Pls read my next post and help me out ...

Thanks

Hi there is a big flaw in the script as i found out.....
all the while i had been testing with some big files by transferring it from one point to another within the HD, so i it was pretty fast and the %shown was within a single line...
To test from the cd itself, i ran this script and passed arg,to cp frm the cd to HD and have a look at what i got...

now starting
0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 1% 2% 2% 3% 4% 4% 5% 6% 6% 7% 8% 8% 9% 10% 10% 11% 12% 13% 13% 14% 15% 16% 16% 17% 18% 19% 19% 20% 21% 22% 23% 23% 24% 25% 26% 27% 27% 28% 29% 30% 31% 31% 32% 33% 34% 35% 36% 36% 37% 38% 39% 40% 41% 42% 43% 43% 44% 45% 46% 47% 48% 49% 50% 51% 52% 53% 54% 54% 55% 56% 57% 58% 59% 60% 61% 62% 63% 64% 65% 66% 67% 68% 69% 70% 71% 72% 73% 74% 75% 76% 77% 78% 79% 80% 81% 83% 84% 85% 86% 87% 88% 89% 90% 91% 92% 93% 94% 96% 97% 98% 99% 100% bash-3.2#

This is neither professional nor is it good looking
may i know how i can have it at a single point ,like the way it generally happens with other cp.....
do i need to have a for loop?

Thanks

Please explain better what differs when the script doesn't display the wanted output and post your current script code too.

I meant,
the code that i have already posted, gave me the %status like the one ive shown...
this means,in the boot screen this many lines are displayed,which is aesthetically not right!!!
I wanted to know how i can display from 1-100% on a single spot,thats all...
I mean instead of those lines, how do i get 1% then 2% instead of 1 (as the cp progresses)so on upto 100...which would look nice!!

Thanks

I wasn't asking that much about what differs in the output which is obvious but really what differs in the way you launch the script. You do not tell how and where you run it.

Anyway, you can try replacing the non portable

by