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I have a Bash script of a thousand lines each containing an ffmpeg command. I start this with source script and it runs just fine.

However, when I try to take control of this script in various ways, things go completely awry:

  • If I do Ctrl + Z to pause the whole thing, only the current ffmpeg command is paused, and the next one is started! Not what I wanted!
  • If I do Ctrl + C to stop everything, the script jumps to the next ffmpeg command, and I have to press once for every line in the script to finally stop everything. Sheer hell.
  • I tried using ps -ef from another shell to locate the source command to pause/kill it from there, but it does not exist in the list.

So how can I pause/stop the parent script the way I wish? Or possibly, how can I execute the script in a different way to begin with that gives me the proper control over it?

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2
  • By the way, we Unix & Linux people don't use the phrase "batch file". Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 13:51
  • Nitpicking adhered. Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 13:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Try running the script as a script instead of sourcing it:

$ bash <scriptname>
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  • So simple! Now everything behaves exactly as desired. So when should one use source and bash respectively? Commented Aug 31, 2015 at 9:47
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Issue is that ffmpeg catches the SIGINT – signal sent by Ctrl+C – but it is ignored in bash as it does not know if the signal is intended for it as well.

One remedy for this is to add a trap for the signal in the script and handle it locally.

For example add a trap to start of file with commands. Then make it executable and run it, or by
$ bash script_file - not source:

trap 'exit' INT

A more fancy line which abort with message and exit status 130:

trap 'printf "Received SIGINT: Terminating.\n";exit 130' INT

Then:

$ ./file_with_commands

Or a sourcing killer script:

#!/bin/bash

trap 'printf "Received SIGINT: Terminating.\n";exit 130' INT

source "$1"

Then:

$ ./sourcetrap file_with_commands

A simple example script could be:

#!/bin/bash

if [[ $1 = trap ]]; then
    trap 'printf "Received SIGINT: Terminating.\n";exit 130' INT
fi

ping localhost
ping localhost
ping localhost
  • Run without trap: ./script_name
  • With trap: ./script_name trap

Then Ctrl+C to witness the difference.

And again; do not source these scripts from terminal prompt.

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  • OK, I know that -- insulates you against the possibility that the next word might begin with -, but is there any reason to use it when you know what the next word is, and it does not begin with -? Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 19:12
  • Also, you should warn the user to disable the SIGINT → exit trap immediately upon termination of the script; otherwise, the next time he types (Ctrl)+(C) at a shell prompt (i.e., when he doesn't have a command running in the foreground), the shell will exit. Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 19:22
  • @Scott: Comment 1: -- no reason. Comment 2: This would, AFAIK, only be an issue if he uses source, which I told not to do. Commented Aug 30, 2015 at 20:15
  • Very interesting! I will experiment with this signal handling! Commented Aug 31, 2015 at 9:50

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