[ILUG] bash: nohup can't see a function

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 12:03:51 +0200
  | From: "bryan ( admin at revoltingdigits.com)" <revoltingdigits at gmail.com>
  | 
  | [ ... ] the email contains the following .,.....
  | 
  |   /usr/bin/nohup: line 79: exec: restartoraclegui: not found

 nohup(1) exec(3)s things.
 you cannot exec a function embedded in a script.
 (you _could_ exec a function separated into its
 own file, but such exec'ing is pointless.)

  | Perhaps I am trying a completely wrong approach here,

 probably.

  | i also considered using this line
  | 
  |   then ( restartoraclegui | mail admin\@revoltingdigits.com -s "oracle gui restart" 2>&1 )

 accomplishes nothing but adding confusion.

 change the line to (I assume you have the args to
 mail(1) in the correct order, albeit it does not
 look quite right me?):

    restartoraclegui  2>&1 |  mail admin\@... -s "..."

 (i.e., move the `2>&1' to a useful place and get
 rid of the now-pointless backgrounding (`&')),
 and then do the `nohup' and backgrounding when
 you invoke the script:

    nohup SCRIPT &

 as a reminder, add a comment to that effect at
 the top of the script.  (you _could_ also detect
 by a proxy test that this may not have been done
 and issue an message; see test(1) `-t' operator.)

 the above has the additional advantage the `mail' is
 also `nohup'ed, so if it does happen to be SIGHUPed
 you should still get e-mail.  in the original,
 whilst the Oracle stuff might complete even if
 there is a SIGHUP (this is not clear, see below),
 there would be no e-mail --- the `mail' would have
 been killed.

 because the `mail' would have been killed, it is
 possible the Oracle stuff would not complete:
 _if_ that stuff did any output to stdout (or stderr,
 after you fix the redirection) after the SIGHUP and
 death of `mail', they would get a "Broken pipe"
 (SIGPIPE/EPIPE) and _also_ die.

cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
Experienced (20+ yrs) kernel/software Eng: | Brian Foster   Montpellier,
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