How to use pipe viewer

[skarthikbe2006]

Hi Guys,

I am trying to use the pv command. I wanted to do something like this

(cp install/common/pcre* /home/karthik;cd /home/karthik;tar -zxvf pcre-*.tar.gz;rm -rf pcre-*.tar.gz;cd pcre*;./configure)

How do I use the pv for the above command set and show it in a dialog gauge ?

Can someone help me out on this.

[atreyu]

Hi,

I don't think you can use pv that way. If you want to show progress, you could use the GUI zenity program, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
myfunc(){
  command1
  command2
  etc.
}
myfunc|zenity --progress --pulsate

however, it does not show command output in the terminal, which I find annoying.

you could write your own simple activity widget in Bash, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
myfunc(){
  command1
  command2
}
myfunc > /tmp/myfunc.log 2>&1 &
while ps -p $! >/dev/null 2>&1; do
  printf '*'
  sleep 1
done
echo

[skarthikbe2006]

Thank you.

Since I am using a minimal installed centos 6.2, zenity does not work for me, Is it possible to use the same kind of notation with dialog ?

[drl]

Hi.

I use pv to show progress of a tar and gzip. Perhaps this snippet will help you fit pv into your scheme:

  tar cvf - -C $directory . 2>>$LOG |
  pv -cN tar -s "$size" |
  gzip |
  pv -cN gzip > ${destination}

The man page for pv shows it being piped into dialog, but I don't use that. This writes directly to STDOUT, so I can watch it in an ssh session.

If you want to show the progress of the cp, then pv might not be able to be used, because pv needs to be in the pipeline.

The script bar at Theiling Online: ASCII bar demonstrates how to use bar in some situations as a replacement for cp, showing the progress.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl

[atreyu]

Is it possible to use the same kind of notation with dialog ?

Sure, here is a good tutorial on using dialog to do that:

A progress bar (gauge box) - Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial - A Beginner's handbook

I've used the bar that drl mentions, as well, very handy.