Script

[Igaduma]

Hi all,

How could I set up a script that would execute a command, but only for a given period of time.

Say I want to do a ls -R in a deep directory, but only during 20 seconds, and then bail out & stop the script.

Thanks for any help.

Iga-Duma

 

[jamisar]

no way to do this by SCRIPT
you need at least PERL, i would do it in C, somethink like:

a) start a timer
b) fork the ls cmd
c) if after ?time? children still alive, kill process
d) exit

 

[dchoulette]

I do not try it, but this should work in ksh:

ls -lR > output &
sleep 20
kill %+

In ksh, %+ is the last background job.
But what if the script is done in less than 20 seconds:
the previous background job (if any) is killed.
So, this should be used in a script that launch only one background job.

I think you could also use:

kill %ls

In this case %ls refers to the last background job whose command starts with 'ls'.
So, this should be used in a script that launch only one background job whose command starts with 'ls'.

 

[KenCunningham]

Perhaps something like:

count=1
while [ count -le 20 ]
do
ls -R
sleep 1
count=`expr $count + 1`
done

OK this won't be exactly 20 seconds, but I assume we're not talking a life or death need for such exactitude are we? HTH.

 

[KenCunningham]

Ah no, that's rubbish from me isn't it? The ls -R would start again each time! Go with dchoulette's suggestions.

 

[SonGoku]

Hi!
This one works for ksh

(while [ true ];do ls -R <Directory Name>;done) &
sleep 20
kill -9 $!


The kill command kills the batch and all its childs (in this case just one)

Cheers!
Marcos.