Bash/xdotool: Commands work, but not in a script

Question

I am making a bash script for Linux which closes the terminal window if the window loses focus.

On the command line, I was able to do this:

termwin=$(xdotool getactivewindow)

while : 
do 
  if [[ $(xdotool getactivewindow) != $termwin ]]
  then 
    exit 
  fi 
done

It works typed manually into a terminal, but, if I put it into a script, instead of closing the window when focus is lost, the script simply stops. No error or anything, just back to a prompt.

I feel like I'm missing something basic.

EDIT

After reading this...: See here

I tried running this as ". test.sh" rather than "./test.sh" and it worked. The link describes the difference in these methods as running the script as a subprocess or as part of the main process, respectively. Can anyone just explain this, and/or modify the script to run successfully with "./" instead of ". ", in the latter creates issues?

shell script debug is my fun, hold on, I shall try to reproduce. I know xdotool its an automate tool. — Rony, May 16 '12 at 16:08
My idea is a bit off-topic: do you know about "exotic" window managers? E.g. awesome (http://awesome.naquadah.org/) - you can do this or similar functions easily. — uzsolt, May 16 '12 at 16:35
@uzsolt, you are to? if me, I am mainly on awesome wm quite some years and now and all. — Rony, May 16 '12 at 16:40
@uzsolt dear, awesome wm has lua, homebrew widgets are candies :), bashlets is another playground :) — Rony, May 16 '12 at 16:57
Does `./test.sh && exit` work for you? Just `exit` or `exit 0` when the condition is met in the script, and `exit` will be run in the terminal afterwards. — Daniel Andersson, May 17 '12 at 12:00
Oh bloody hell, that's exactly what I had to do. I was too absorbed in the script itself to consider running it like that. — Fruckubus Crunt, May 17 '12 at 14:16
scripting is somehow like building pieces as according to nix philosophy. xdotool is so useful. btw, hug@uzolt — Rony, May 17 '12 at 17:35
@Rony if you calculate the parts of `while` it will about five lines. In awesome: you call a signal function to unfocus, call `c:kill()`, type `end` and that's all. It's three lines. And you shouldn't run a plus bash script which eats your CPU :) So awesome is the winner ;) — uzsolt, May 17 '12 at 17:45

Daniel Andersson · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-17T12:10:46.563

1

When you source the file with ., the commands will run just as if you had entered them in the command line. Thus exit will exit your currently running shell.

To exit the shell from which the script was executed when forking, you need to get the process id of the parent process. You can try running

kill ${PPID}

in the script instead of exit to kill the parent shell (tip: try just echoing the pid first and check which process it corresponds to so you don't kill your WM or something).

If ${PPID} doesn't do it for you, you can also try sending the pid as a parameter to the script, but it depends on how and where it's called.

You said you used urxtvd/urxvtc. With that combination, this script kills the terminal from which it was started:

#!/bin/sh
echo kill in 3
sleep 3
kill -1 ${PPID}

so you should be able to use kill -1 in this way to kill a single urxvtc instance.

Note that if you run this by sourcing, then the urxvtd instance will be $PPID for the currently running terminal, and all terminals will die. You don't want that.

edited May 17 '12 at 12:10

answered May 16 '12 at 18:13

Daniel Andersson

23,895
5
57
61

Dan, the kill PPID method looks good, but fails with my particular terminal. Im using urxvt in a client/daemon setup (urxvtd and urxvtc). It seems that each terminal in this case has the same ppid, and s =o this method doesn't work. What is different is the pty, as found with the tty command. You can directly tell a pty to do something, right? Something like (not working) "exit >>/dev/pts/0" – Fruckubus Crunt May 16 '12 at 19:34
@FruckubusCrunt: Each _terminal_ has the same `PPID` (_parent_ pid), but when you launch a _script_ from a terminal, inside the script the launching _terminal_'s pid will be `PPID`, so it sends the signal to the correct pid. However, `-1` seems to be needed with `urxvtc`. I'll update my answer. – Daniel Andersson May 17 '12 at 12:06
This is great Dan, thank you. A good learning experience for me. And I certainly could not accept a situation where more terminals would die, as that would defeat the purpose of what I'm doing. So thanks for the solid explanation. – Fruckubus Crunt May 17 '12 at 14:21

Rony · Answer 2 · 2012-05-17T11:45:25.940

0

Hope the script will work as needed:

#!/bin/sh

termwin=$(xdotool getactivewindow)
while : ; do
    [ $(xdotool getwindowfocus) = $termwin ] || kill -9 $PPID
done

edited May 17 '12 at 11:45

answered May 16 '12 at 16:19

Rony

180
4

This yields the sme results for me, it works if typed in manually, and fails – Fruckubus Crunt May 16 '12 at 17:32
I am now wondering if "exit" is the problem. Typed into a terminal, 'exit' closes the terminal, but is it possible that "exit" has a different meaning in a script, that stops the script rather than closing the terminal? Or is this even possible? – Fruckubus Crunt May 16 '12 at 17:48
Please see edit. – Fruckubus Crunt May 16 '12 at 18:02
[Refrain from using `kill -9`](http://partmaps.org/era/unix/award.html#uuk9letter). A single `kill` is enough, and much nicer. `kill -9` does nothing nice. – Daniel Andersson May 17 '12 at 11:58
@DanielAndersson thank you very much for your refreshment and very useful link. I use the -9 because my kill does not kill. I shall look into the matter. – Rony May 17 '12 at 12:51

Bash/xdotool: Commands work, but not in a script

2 Answers2