Edit shell script while it's running

Question

Can you edit a shell script while it's running and have the changes affect the running script?

I'm curious about the specific case of a csh script I have that batch runs a bunch of different build flavors and runs all night. If something occurs to me mid operation, I'd like to go in and add additional commands, or comment out un-executed ones.

If not possible, is there any shell or batch-mechanism that would allow me to do this?

Of course I've tried it, but it will be hours before I see if it worked or not, and I'm curious about what's happening or not happening behind the scenes.

Answer 1

Scripts don't work that way; the executing copy is independent from the source file that you are editing. Next time the script is run, it will be based on the most recently saved version of the source file.

It might be wise to break out this script into multiple files, and run them individually. This will reduce the execution time to failure. (ie, split the batch into one build flavor scripts, running each one individually to see which one is causing the trouble).

Answer 2

I don't have csh installed, but

#!/bin/sh
echo Waiting...
sleep 60
echo Change didn't happen

Run that, quickly edit the last line to read

echo Change happened

Output is

Waiting...
/home/dave/tmp/change.sh: 4: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

Hrmph.

I guess edits to the shell scripts don't take effect until they're rerun.

Answer 3

usually, it uncommon to edit your script while its running. All you have to do is to put in control check for your operations. Use if/else statements to check for conditions. If something fail, then do this, else do that. That's the way to go.

Answer 4

I'm hearing no... but what about with some indirection:

BatchRunner.sh

Command1.sh
Command2.sh

Command1.sh

runSomething

Command2.sh

runSomethingElse

Then you should be able to edit the contents of each command file before BatchRunner gets to it right?

OR

A cleaner version would have BatchRunner look to a single file where it would consecutively run one line at a time. Then you should be able to edit this second file while the first is running right?

Answer 5

If this is all in a single script, then no it will not work. However, if you set it up as a driver script calling sub-scripts, then you might be able to change a sub-script before it's called, or before it's called again if you're looping, and in that case I believe those changes would be reflected in the execution.

Answer 6

Break your script into functions, and each time a function is called you source it from a separate file. Then you could edit the files at any time and your running script will pick up the changes next time it gets sourced.

foo() {
  source foo.sh
}
foo