Is it possible for a bash script to test it it's not running in a
terminal and if that's the case, pop open an x-window of some sort (in
linux) and redirect the output of the remaining commands in that script
to the x-window?

The test is easy enough: [ "$TERM" == "dumb" ]

....but I can't figure out how to redirect the output of the remaining
script commands to an x-window.

--
Dave Farrance

On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:11:51 GMT, Dave Farrance
<DaveFarrance@OMiTTHiSyahooANDTHiS.co.uk> wrote:
> Is it possible for a bash script to test it it's not running in a
> terminal and if that's the case, pop open an x-window of some sort (in
> linux) and redirect the output of the remaining commands in that script
> to the x-window?
>
> The test is easy enough: [ "$TERM" == "dumb" ]
>
> ...but I can't figure out how to redirect the output of the remaining
> script commands to an x-window.
>
To test whether the program is running under X, [ -n "$DISPLAY" ]
Otherwise, you can redirect output to a file or pipe it to mail.

{ do_this; do_that; etc; } | xterm -hold -e cat
If there is a lot of output, you can use less instead of cat, or use the
-sl and -sb options to xterm.

--
How do I type "for i in *.dvi do xdvi $i done" in a GUI?
-- Discussion in comp.os.linux.misc on the intuitiveness of interfaces

Bill Marcum <bmarcum@iglou.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:11:51 GMT, Dave Farrance wrote:
>> Is it possible for a bash script to test it it's not running in a
>> terminal and if that's the case, pop open an x-window of some sort (in
>> linux) and redirect the output of the remaining commands in that script
>> to the x-window?
>>
>To test whether the program is running under X, [ -n "$DISPLAY" ]
>Otherwise, you can redirect output to a file or pipe it to mail.
>
>{ do_this; do_that; etc; } | xterm -hold -e cat
>If there is a lot of output, you can use less instead of cat, or use the
>-sl and -sb options to xterm.

Looks good in principle, but doesn't work here for some reason. I tried:

{ echo 1; echo 2; } | xterm -hold -e cat

.... in both Mandriva 2006 and Ubuntu 6.06 and although the xterm window
opened, it remained completely blank.

--
Dave Farrance

Dave Farrance wrote:
> Bill Marcum <bmarcum@iglou.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:11:51 GMT, Dave Farrance wrote:
>>> Is it possible for a bash script to test it it's not running in a
>>> terminal and if that's the case, pop open an x-window of some sort (in
>>> linux) and redirect the output of the remaining commands in that script
>>> to the x-window?
>>>
>> To test whether the program is running under X, [ -n "$DISPLAY" ]
>> Otherwise, you can redirect output to a file or pipe it to mail.
>>
>> { do_this; do_that; etc; } | xterm -hold -e cat
>> If there is a lot of output, you can use less instead of cat, or use the
>> -sl and -sb options to xterm.
>
> Looks good in principle, but doesn't work here for some reason. I tried:
>
> { echo 1; echo 2; } | xterm -hold -e cat
>
> ... in both Mandriva 2006 and Ubuntu 6.06 and although the xterm window
> opened, it remained completely blank.
>

mkfifo FIFO
xterm -hold -e 'cat FIFO' &
{commands generating data} > FIFO

Jon LaBadie <jxlabadie@axcxmx.org> wrote:

>Dave Farrance wrote:
>> Looks good in principle, but doesn't work here for some reason. I tried:
>>
>> { echo 1; echo 2; } | xterm -hold -e cat
>>
>> ... in both Mandriva 2006 and Ubuntu 6.06 and although the xterm window
>> opened, it remained completely blank.
>
>mkfifo FIFO
>xterm -hold -e 'cat FIFO' &
>{commands generating data} > FIFO

Thanks. That's an improvement in that it works in Ubuntu 6.06, but not
in Mandriva 2006. Maybe I should update the latter to the Mandriva 2007
beta anyway.

--
Dave Farrance

On 2006-08-24, Dave Farrance wrote:
> Is it possible for a bash script to test it it's not running in a
> terminal and if that's the case, pop open an x-window of some sort (in
> linux) and redirect the output of the remaining commands in that script
> to the x-window?
>
> The test is easy enough: [ "$TERM" == "dumb" ]
>
> ...but I can't figure out how to redirect the output of the remaining
> script commands to an x-window.

[ -t 0 ] || { xterm -e "$0" "$@"; exit; }
printf "%s " "${*:-Enter name: }"
read name


--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

"Chris F.A. Johnson" <cfajohnson@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 2006-08-24, Dave Farrance wrote:
>> Is it possible for a bash script to test it it's not running in a
>> terminal and if that's the case, pop open an x-window of some sort (in
>> linux) and redirect the output of the remaining commands in that script
>> to the x-window?
>>
>> The test is easy enough: [ "$TERM" == "dumb" ]
>>
>> ...but I can't figure out how to redirect the output of the remaining
>> script commands to an x-window.
>
>[ -t 0 ] || { xterm -e "$0" "$@"; exit; }
>printf "%s " "${*:-Enter name: }"
>read name

Thanks. That works fine.

--
Dave Farrance